Setting up online appointment booking

By following the quick and easy instructions below, a user with the Maintain online booking config user privilege will be able to set up online booking capability for the first time, tuned to the clinic's exact preferences.

Enabling online booking for the first time

At Setup > Scheduling > Online booking, check the Online booking enabled checkbox at the upper-left corner of the panel to launch the Online booking setup wizard.

Online booking setup wizard

Note that all the configuration choices made in the setup wizard can be changed later by running the wizard again, or by accessing the appropriate module in the Blueprint OMS setup menu, such as Locations, Event types, and Users.

Step 1: Set the sending email address for booking confirmations

When a patient attempts book an appointment online, they will receive a confirmation email. The sending email address will be the address from which the confirmations are sent.

This can later be edited at a location-by-location basis at Setup > Locations.

Step 2: Choose the locations that will have online booking enabled

You can also change the way a location's name will appear to someone booking online, and the sending email address used to confirm bookings at that location. These details can be edited later at Setup > Locations.

Step 3: Choose the providers that will be available for online bookings

You can also change the way their names will appear to someone booking an appointment online. You might want to include their professional qualifications. These details can be edited later at Setup > User administration > Users.

Step 4: Choose how appointment times will be available to patients for online bookings

This step will be skipped if all locations enabled for online booking already have availability calendars.

There are two options:

1. Availability scheduling: Blocks on a separate availability calendar are available for online booking. For more information, see: Scheduling availability.
2. Block scheduling: Appointment blocks on the main schedule will be available for online booking if they are not linked to a patient. For more information, see: Block scheduling.

These details can be edited later at Setup > Locations.

Step 5: Select which appointment types can be booked online

Different appointment types can be made available, depending on whether the patient is a new patient or an existing patient. This is controlled by the New patients can book and Existing patients can book settings.

The Online display name setting controls how the event type is displayed on the online booking web form.

After completing the wizard

Once the wizard is completed, your clinic's online booking web form is live. You can use the Copy URL button to copy its URL and paste it into the URL bar of your browser to visit the form yourself. At Setup > Locations, each location will have its own web form URL too, which you can similarly copy and visit. You can direct your patients to this URL to book an appointment. If you edit any configuration details for your online booking web form, your URL will not change, so you won't have to worry about retrieving an updated version.

As an alternative to giving your patients the URL to the web form, you can embed the web form into a page in your website, and give patients the URL to that page. To embed the form, you will need to use the Copy iFrame HTML button to copy the web form's iFrame HTML and send it to your web master. Similarly, location-specific iFrame HTMLs can be found at Setup > Locations, and if you edit any configuration details for your online booking web form, the iFrame HTML will not change, so you won't have to worry about retrieving an updated version.

Booking timeslot interval

The Booking timeslot interval determines the interval between available appointment starting times on the online booking web portal.

When Event type duration is selected, the interval between appointment starting times will be the default duration of the selected appointment type.

This is illustrated in the example below, where the "Hearing test" appointment type has a default duration of 60 minutes.

Availability blocks available for online booking by default

The Availability blocks available for online booking by default setting determines whether newly created availability blocks will be available for online booking by default.

Confirmation sending email address 

When an appointment is booked online, the patient will receive a confirmation email from the address specified in the Sending email address for booking confirmations field. Setting location-specific sending addresses can be done at Setup > Locations.

Minimum advanced booking time (in minutes)

You can use this setting to prevent patients from making appointments that start too soon after their submission of the booking request. For example, if you set a minimum notice of 120 minutes (2 hours), anyone looking at your availability at 9:00 am will not see any availability times before 11:00 am. 

Branding theme color

The theme color determines the color of highlighted items on the online booking web portal.

The available color options are:

• Blue

• Purple

• Green

• Orange

• Red

The font family determines the font type of all displayed text on the online booking web portal.

The available font options are:

• Roboto

• Helvetica

• Times

• Courier

The font size determines the size of all displayed text on the online booking web portal.

The available sizes are:

• Normal

• +1

• +2

• +3

• +4

• +5

At a minimum, the online booking web portal requires the following patient information: 

• First name

• Last name

• Phone number and type (mobile, home, work)

• Email address

The optional contact fields allow for the following additional fields to be added to the Patient information section:

• Title

• Date of birth

• Gender

• Address

• Message to clinic

If terms and conditions are entered, they will show directly above the Book appointment button on the online booking web portal.

Below is what the patient will see on your website: