Put a patient who wants an earlier appointment, or an acute substitute, on the waiting list. When an appointment is freed, it is offered to them automatically by e-mail or SMS with a link; the first to confirm gets it. The reception, owner and admin manage the waiting list, a therapist sees only patients who want to see them, the accountant does not see it.
Add to the waiting list
Reception, the owner and admins add patients to the waiting list – therapists do not have the Add to waiting list button (they only see patients who want them).
- In the Waiting list menu (or on the patient card in the Waiting list tab) choose Add to waiting list.
- Pick the patient and the service. Optionally therapists (only those who provide the service), location, time windows (days and time from–to) and the period they are waiting.
- Give acute substitutes the Acute priority – they are offered first.
A patient without an e-mail or phone cannot receive offers; add a contact on the card. The note is for the reception only, do not write a diagnosis there.
Automatic offer of a cancelled appointment
Turn it on in Settings → Automations (Waitlist fill). Within a minute of a cancellation the system picks suitable waiting patients: the same service, the therapist of the cancelled appointment (if the patient prefers them or has no preference), location, time windows and period. The order is priority, then who has waited longer. The time is checked by the same rules as the calendar (working hours, qualification, rooms).
- One at a time (default) or several at once (up to 5) – set in the automation.
- An offer is valid for the set time (30 minutes by default). When it expires or the patient declines, the next waiting patient is offered.
- An appointment starting sooner than the set notice (2 hours by default) is no longer offered.
- During the clinic's quiet hours offers go by e-mail only; a patient who opted out of a channel does not get offers through it.
Confirmation by the patient
On the offer page the patient sees only the time, service, location and validity – no name or health data. I want this appointment books it; it appears in the calendar as a regular appointment and the patient is marked Booked on the waiting list. Whoever confirms later sees “The appointment is already taken” and stays on the list. The database never allows a double booking.
Manual offer
Choose Offer appointment at a waiting patient: you see free appointments within their windows, pick one and the offer validity. The reception can also offer a time outside the windows (acute substitute). A live offer can be cancelled; the offer history shows the state of each one.
Earlier appointment
A patient who already has an appointment may want an earlier one if it becomes available. The request is made:
- by the patient on the booking page (a checkbox when booking) or in the booking management link – the waiting list entry is created once the booking is matched with the patient record,
- by the patient in the patient account for an upcoming appointment,
- by the reception in the appointment detail in the calendar (The patient wants an earlier appointment if one becomes available, optionally also with another therapist).
On the waiting list such an entry is marked Earlier appointment with the patient's current appointment. Only time of the same service and location is offered, with the same therapist (or anyone, if the patient agrees), starting earlier than their appointment and within the clinic's reschedule rules. Accepting moves the appointment (no second appointment is created) and the freed later time is offered to the next waiting patients right away. If the patient does not accept or the offer expires, their appointment stays unchanged.
- A patient is never offered their own original time or a time later than their appointment.
- A chain of moves from one freed time has at most 5 steps.
- A cancelled or past appointment, or one with recorded attendance, ends the waiting.
When time is offered
Besides a cancellation, time freed by moving an appointment and new time in a therapist's schedule (extra hours, removed time off, deleted block) within the next 14 days is offered too.