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At times, the practice calendar is booked to the point where finding a free time slot on-the-go might become a challenge.
Remedly's feature for finding free time slots helps streamline the process of scheduling appointments.
It allows for quick and easy identification of the nearest available booking times for a particular service, department, or practitioner, which ensures efficient time management for a practice, minimizing gaps and maximizing booking opportunities.
How to find a free time slot in the Calendar
To find an available booking time for a service rendered by the practice, click Free Time Slot button at the top right of the Calendar tab.
Follow the steps below to narrow the search, select an appropriate time slot, and book an appointment.
Search for a free time slot based on the services
In Step 1, you'll be asked to pick the desired service(s).
Browse through the list of all services rendered by the practice, or start typing the service name / service code to narrow the search:
- Search for services in any mode (default), or select the specific mode you need,
- Hover over the service and click the + button to select it.
Selected service(s) will appear in the right-side panel that summarizes your search settings with each step.
- Add multiple services to the search if needed,
- Remove any of the selected services by hovering over each and clicking the trash bin icon.
- Optionally, set custom duration for the selected service/set of services,
Note: the duration you set here won't be reflected in the appointment Bill or in the associated Claim you might create later. It only impacts the search setup and helps to find a suitable opening across the schedules. The appointment created in the Calendar will also take up as much time within the schedule as you allocate for it in this Custom Duration field.
Once you've picked the desired service(s), click Select Department.
Search for a free time slot in a preferred department
In Step 2, you'll be able to select a preferred department to narrow your search.
See the list of all departments in which the selected services are being rendered.
- By default, the search will run across all applicable departments,
- To select a specific department instead, hover over it and click the + button to select it.
Selected department(s) will appear in the right-side panel along with the selected services.
- Add multiple departments to the search if needed,
- Remove any of the selected departments by hovering over each and clicking the trash bin icon:
Once you've picked the preferred department(s), click Select Practitioners.
Search for a free time slot of a specific practitioner
In Step 3, you can select a specific practitioner / role to customize the search.
See the list of all practitioners who render the selected services in the selected departments. Alternatively, search by practitioner name or role.
- By default, the search will run across all relevant practitioners,
- To select a specific one instead, hover over the practitioner and click the + button, and the practitioner will appear in the right-side panel under Services and Departments,
- Add multiple practitioners to the search if you like,
- Remove any of the selected practitioners by hovering over each and clicking the trash bin icon:
Review the details in the right-side panel to double-check the selected services, preferred departments and practitioners, then click Show Available Time Slots:
In Step 4, you'll be asked to choose a suitable free time slot.
- By default, you'll land on the current week. You can navigate between the weeks using the arrow buttons on both sides of it.
- If no available time slots show up anywhere near, you can use the Find Next Available Slot option. You'll automatically get to the nearest week with any booking options available.
Note: alternatively, you can always go Back to adjust some of the settings and broaden the search. For instance, default it to all departments and all practitioners in case urgency is the main criteria.
- Once you find a suitable time slot, click on it, and it will show up on the right-side panel.
- Click on another available time slot to change the selection.
Once you're happy with the selected time slot, click Create Appointment.
Create an appointment for the found time slot
If your search was set to all departments or all practitioners, it might happen that there are multiple options available for the same time slot.
In this case, before creating an appointment, the system will ask you to choose the final option from the list of available practitioners with their departments specified.
- Tick the preferred option and click Create Appointment:
And if there's only one option available, you'll need to confirm the selection to move forward to creating the appointment:
The system will create an appointment for the selected date and time:
- You'll need to specify the patient by either searching for the patient in the system, or adding a new patient on the go,
- The details specified during the search (services, department, practitioner) will be prefilled automatically.
Note: these details are still editable, but if you modify any of the pre-selected appointment settings after choosing the time slot, it might impact its availability.
Once you specify the patient, a Notification panel will appear on the right side, displaying important patient-related details, reminders, and alerts.
After clicking Create Appointment, you'll be directed to the relevant week on the Calendar, where the newly booked appointment will be visible in the practitioner's schedule:
To learn more about overall appointment workflow and managing appointments, please view the articles below: