Zedmed Online Appointments lets patients book their own appointments, which appear in the Appointments Grid.
How Online Appointments are booked
Patients use an OLA portal that is linked to the practice website. They can choose the clinic, doctor, and time, and can also book for family members. To learn more, see the Patient's guide to OLA.
OLA Appointment Notifications
By default, the Send Confirmation SMS option is ticked on the Appointment Details screen for OLA bookings, so SMS notifications are sent whenever a patient books an online appointment. The confirmation SMS and the scheduled reminder SMS both show the time zone selected by the patient, e.g. AEDT. Reminders sent from the Appointment Report only show the practice time.
Reconciling new OLA patients
The first time a patient books online, they are asked for additional information and office staff will use that information to match the patient with their patient record (if they're an existing patient) or create a new patient record. This only needs to be done once. To learn more, see the OLA reconciliation guide.
Payment Gateway
If the practice has set up Payment Gateway, patients will be prompted to provide a payment card when making the booking. The requirement can be enabled per practitioner and can exclude children, seniors and DVA and pension card holders. The credit card provided is charged after the patient's appointment. To learn more, see the OLA with Payment Gateway guide.
Administering Online Appointments
Treat an online appointment the same way as an appointment booked by the practice. OLA bookings appear in the Appointment Grid with a cloud icon. If it is the patient's first online booking, the cloud icon will have a + symbol on it to indicate a one-time reconciliation with the patient's record is required.
Time Zone support
Requires Zedmed v37.8 and later
If a patient is booking an appointment with a clinic in a different time zone (e.g. for telehealth), the time zone shown will be the patient's. You can change this to the practice time zone using the button shown below. This selector only appears when the patient is in a different time zone.
The OLA appointment confirmation SMS and the scheduled reminder SMS will show the time zone selected by the patient, e.g. AEDT. Reminders sent from the Appointment Report only show the practice time.
The Appointment Details > Notes field will indicate whether the patient booked from a different time zone, what that time zone is, and whether the patient chose to use the practice time zone. This can help resolve time zone conversations with the patient.
