The ‘Scheduling’ section of Admin is responsible for ensuring your practice’s schedule runs as efficiently. ‘Scheduling’ is broken down into 5 sections:
Appointment Types
Providers
Boarding Resources
Edit SMS Settings
Edit Email Settings
We’ll take a look at each one and see how to get things set up so your practice runs as smoothly as possible.
To get there, select ‘Admin’ and then ‘Scheduling.
Appointment Types
The ‘Appointment Types’ section is where you land when you open ‘Scheduling.’
Think of an appointment type as a template for common appointments. When you land on ‘Appointment Types,’ you’ll be able to do a few things with appointment types, including:
Sort
Edit
Archive
Add
Note: Appointment types populate within scheduling as ‘Services Offered,’ which can be found within provider’s profiles (more on that in a second).
Sorting Appointment Types
To sort an appointment type, select the arrows to the right of ‘Appointment Types’ or ‘Duration.’ You can sort appointments alphabetically or by duration.
Editing Appointment Types
To edit an appointment type select the 'edit' icon (looks like a pencil). When you edit an appointment type, you’re able to update the:
Name
Duration
Color
Archiving Appointment Types
To archive an appointment type, select the 'archive' icon (looks like a box) on the right side of the screen under ‘Actions.’
Making a New Appointment Type
To create a new appointment type, select the ‘Add New’ button on the right side of the screen.
The fields you’ll need to fill out to make an appointment type are:
Name
Duration
Color (appears on the schedule)
Tip: keeping each appointment type its own color is a really helpful way to break up and quickly see what’s on the schedule.
Bonus Tip: group similar types of appointments (i.e vaccination appointments or different exams) in the same color family.
Providers
A provider is any person (or in some cases a group of people) who can administer a specific treatment or perform a specific service to your patients. Each provider also has their own unique hours, so you won’t have to worry about scheduling a treatment when it’s unavailable for a patient.
It’s usually best to have each doctor in your clinic as their own provider. More general staffing positions like techs can have a generic ‘Technician’ provider.
Tip: depending on how your practice is set up, you can create multiple generic providers if you know there will be a certain number of them at the clinic at a time. For example you could create “Technician 1” and ‘Technician 2” if you have two techs working at all times.
When you get to the ‘Providers’ section, you’ll be able to:
Create a new provider
View provider information
Edit provider information
Archive a provider
Create a New Provider
To create a new provider from the 'Providers' tab in the 'Scheduling' section of Admin, select the 'Add New' button in the upper right corner of the screen. This will take you to the 'Add Provider' screen.
To add a new provider, you'll need to fill out the provider's:
Name
Services offered
Doctor (if applicable)
Routine availability
Additional availability
Additional out of office
Note: You'll also need to give the provider a color. This makes things much easier to differentiate when you're looking at your practice's schedule.
Tip: It's best to make all provider's colors as different as possible. Or, if you have a larger practice, give providers with similar responsibilities colors in the same color family (i.e. reds, blues, greens, etc.).
Viewing Provider Availability
The main ‘Providers’ page offers a quick glance of a provider’s availability. However, if you want a more detailed look, select the ‘view’ icon (looks like an eye) under ‘Actions’ on the right side of the screen.
When you’re viewing the provider, you’re able to see:
Name
Additional availability
Additional out of office
Services offered
Routine availability
You can also edit their settings and add new additional availability and out of office settings.
Editing Provider Availability
To edit a provider’s availability select the ‘edit’ icon (looks like a pencil). This will allow you to update the provider’s:
Name
Initials
Services offered (these are Appointment Types)
Color
Doctor (if the user isn’t a doctor and usually has someone overseeing them)
You can also set their:
Routine availability
Additional availability*
Additional out of office*
*Additional availability and Additional out of office can be used to accommodate a "rotating" doctor schedule.
For example, if a doctor works Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday one week, and Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday the following week on a rotating schedule, the Routine Availability can be used for one week, and the Additional availability can be used for the second week.
Alternatively, all working days can be added as Routine Availability, while using the Additional out of office option to mark the rotating days off.
Updating the Hours Fields
To update the hours fields within the providers different availabilities, select the hours field and type in the time (be sure to double-check AM and PM).
If you need to add a break, select the ‘+ Break’ button and add in when their break is.
Boarding Resources
Here you can add in Resources to appear on the Boarding Calendar. You can think of "Resources" as individual runs/kennels you have in the clinic.
Edit SMS Settings
You can now create custom text message notifications. These settings are found under Admin > Scheduling.
There will be a default message that reads: "[Clinic Name]: A friendly reminder that [Patient/s] (has/have) an appointment today, [Date], at [Time]. You can add optional text to this message, or you can create your own message by selecting the "Advanced" toggle.
Edit Email Settings
You can now create custom email notifications. These settings are found under Admin > Scheduling.
You can add optional text to the default message, or you can create your own template by selecting the "Advanced" toggle.