Creating and modifying appointment types

🎞️ View video tutorial: Overview of appointment types and presenting issues for eBooking

The TELUS Collaborative Health Record (CHR) comes out-of-the box with the following appointment types:

Phone Visit
Consultation
Follow Up Appointment

During implementation, some of your requested appointment types may also be added. However, you can add to or modify these appointment types as needed.

💡 Tip: If you no longer use an appointment type, you can archive it. See Archiving appointment types for more information.

Steps

1. From the main menu, click Settings.

2. Click Scheduling and then, under Schedule Settings, click Appointment Type. A list of your clinic's active appointment types displays.

3. To modify an appointment type, click it. Or, to create a new appointment type, click Add.

💡 Tip: To copy an existing appointment type. click the copy icon beside the appointment type you wish to copy. The copied appointment type appears at the bottom of the list with the word copy at the end of its name, and all the data is duplicated to the new appointment type.

The Edit Appointment Type or New Appointment Type window opens.

4. Using the following table, in the General tab, set the appointment type properties.

Field	Description
Icon	Select an icon to represent the appointment type. This icon displays beside the appointment type in appointments and in the patient self-booking site. See Customizing appointment type icons.
Name	Enter the appointment type name. 💡 Tip: If this appointment type is available for eBooking, make sure the name is understandable for patients.
Length	Select the default appointment length (in minutes). 📌 Note: When booking or approving these appointments, you can change the appointment length if necessary.
Color On Schedule View	Select the colour these appointments have on the schedule. 💡 Tip: For easy viewing, use different colours for different appointment types or categories.
Minimum Booking Notice	If this appointment type is available for eBooking, select the minimum amount of notice your clinic requires for patients to book the appointment(s) online. See Setting how far in advance patients can book certain types of appointments through eBooking.
Maximum Booking Notice	If this appointment type is available for eBooking, select from the list how far in advance patients can book the appointment(s) online. See Setting how far in advance patients can book certain types of appointments through eBooking.
Internal Default Status	Select the default appointment status when these appointments are booked internally by your clinic staff. The most common selections are Confirmed or Booked.
Default Status From Patient	Select the default appointment status that appear in the CHR schedule when patients book this type of appointment online. If this appointment type is available for eBooking and you want to review online appointments before they're officially booked, choose Requested. See Setting appointment types to require approval when booked through eBooking.
Show Location On Appointment Letter	Determines if patients see the clinic location's address and map on any notifications they receive regarding this appointment type (for example, on appointment confirmations.) Select one of the following options: Default: Defaults to your clinic-wide setting Enable: Displays the clinic location's address information Disable: Does not display the clinic location's address information (for example, for virtual visits) See Setting appointment types to display clinic address information on eBooking notifications.
Types Of Patients Allowed To Book	If this appointment type is available for eBooking, select if New Patients (unregistered) and/or Existing Patients can book these types of appointments. For example, only existing patients can book a follow up appointment. 📌 Note: If you don't want to allow unregistered patients to register online as new patients, always clear the New Patients checkbox. 💡 Tip: If you don't want this appointment type to be available for online booking, clear both the New Patients and Existing Patients checkboxes. See Allowing new and current patients to self-book an appointment type.
The Appointment Can Be Booked With	If this appointment type is available for for eBooking, you can set which providers patients can book with. You can allow patients to book only with their primary provider, or allow patients to book with any available provider offering this appointment type. Select if the patient can book this appointment type with: Any practitioner offering the appointment: The patient can request an appointment with any practitioner that has this appointment type configured in their schedule. The patient's practitioner of choice: Prompts the patient to select a provider before they select an appointment time. The patient can then choose an available appointment time with the selected provider. 💡 Tip: If you select this option, the providers' biographies and spoken languages are visible to patients in eBooking. The patient's primary practitioner: The patient can choose an available appointment time only with their primary practitioner. Click no alternate practitioner selected if you want the patients to select from alternative practitioners for the appointment type. See Setting which provider(s) patients can book certain appointment types with when self-booking appointments.
Practitioner Search At Patient Registration Step	If this appointment type is available for eBooking, when prompted to review or add their demographic information, you can choose if patients can search and select their primary practitioner. Select one of the following options: Disable: Hides this field Visible: Displays this field To make this field a required field for the patient to fill-in, select the Required to select a practitioner checkbox. 💡 Tip: To choose what providers display in the primary practitioner search window, beside Visible, click All practitioners selected and then, in the Select a user window, select the providers. See Allowing patients to confirm their primary provider when self-booking appointments.
Auto Assigning Appointment Time	Enable this option to have the self-booking site auto-assign the next available appointment date and time (that's available for this appointment type) to patients when they self-book this appointment type. This is handy if you want to see these patients as soon as possible, as earlier appointment slots must be filled before patients can book later appointment slots. See Auto-assigning appointment times when patients self-book appointments. Select Disable if you want patients to select an available appointment date and time from a calendar. 📌 Note: This is different from stacking appointments, which is a setting in scheduling hours that allows patients to select a date and the system assigns the next available appointment time.
Auto Assigning Workflow Phase	If you are using Pathways (see Pathways), you can automatically move the patient into a specific workflow phase for this type of appointment. For example: 15 minutes before the appointment time, the patient can move to pathways and into the Pre Visit phase. Select Enable and then select the appropriate transition from the list to move a patient into that workflow phase. Then select when the patient should be moved into the Pathway - immediately (as soon as the appointment is booked), or a specific time before the appointment. 📌 Notes: If you do not enable Auto Assigning Workflow Phase for a virtual appointment type, the patient will be assigned your default phase when they sign into their visit (see Configuring transitions for your Pathways). If your clinic is having data migrated from another system, do not configure auto assigning workflow phases until after the data migration is complete.

5. To provide an appointment type description that's visible when patients are prompted to select an appointment type during online booking, click the Description tab, and then type a short and/or long description. See Adding appointment type descriptions for eBooking.

6. To attach pre-visit Qnaires to the appointment type, click the Pre-Visit Qnaires tab, and then click +Add Qnaire. See Attaching pre-visit Qnaires to appointment types.

7. To customize when appointment reminders are sent for this appointment type and to add additional comments to the reminder message(s), click the Reminder Templates tab, and then add or modify the reminders. See Customizing appointment reminders for an appointment type.

8. To apply conditions so a patient cannot book this type of appointment unless they meet certain criteria, click the Conditions tab and add condition rules. See Applying conditions to appointment types.

📌 Note: For each appointment type, you can customize the message text for all email and SMS messages related to these appointments. This includes messages for appointment reminders, confirmations, changes and rejections. See Customizing patient appointment notifications.

9. When you're finished, click Submit.

Updated March 27, 2023