Booking & rescheduling

Book, move, or hand off a visit from one screen

Booking and rescheduling now happen on a single screen. There is no separate Create Appointment window any more: you pick the patient’s provider and visit type on the left, the day and time in the middle, and check the details and press Book on the right. The same screen moves an existing visit, and it can send the patient a link to pick a time themselves.

The title reads Schedule <patient> when booking and Reschedule <patient> when moving a visit. Two tabs sit beside it: Book (it reads Reschedule while you are moving a visit) and Patient Appointments, which lists the patient’s visits and waitlist entries with edit, reschedule, and cancel buttons. On a phone or narrow window the three areas stack into one scrolling column and the Book button rides along in a bar at the bottom.

Patient, provider, and visit type

1. Check the patient card. It shows the patient’s age, date of birth, MRN, phone, and email, and an On waitlist badge if they are waiting for an opening. Upcoming lists their next visits, each with a reschedule button and a cancel button; +N more upcoming shows the rest, and All visits opens the Patient Appointments tab.
2. Choose the provider. The provider box opens a searchable list. If you are a provider, your own name is pinned at the top with a You tag, and the provider the patient has seen most is pinned next with a Usual provider tag. Opened for a patient without a provider already chosen (from the Schedule button, the chart, or a patient card), the scheduler starts on that usual provider; while the patient’s visits load, the box reads Loading providers…. Opened from a calendar slot, it keeps that slot’s provider. When you switch providers, a note reads “Now booking with Dr. … Pick a time on their schedule.” and the openings reload for that provider.
3. Click a visit type. Visit types are one click each, with their color and length. The type this patient last booked with this provider is marked Last booked and floats to the top, followed by other types they have booked before (Booked before) and your practice defaults. A camera icon marks a virtual (telehealth) type and a building icon an outside-facility type. Once the list is longer than seven, a Filter visit types box appears; the arrow keys also move through the list.

Until you choose a visit type, the openings are sized for a default length (the middle column says “Showing 20-minute openings — choose a visit type to fit its length.”). Choosing a type re-sizes every opening to that type’s length.

Find the right day and start time

The visit type can suggest a date and control the spacing of start-time choices. A date suggestion applies when you choose the type, before you have picked your own date or time; a scheduler opened for a particular date or an existing reschedule keeps that context. Staff allowed to edit visit types configure these under Admin → Scheduling → Visit Config; see Visit types.

1. Take a soonest opening. Soonest openings shows the earliest start time on each of the next three days with openings (looking up to six weeks ahead), each with how far away it is (in 2 days) and its location. A small person icon means the patient already has a visit that day. One click picks it.
2. Or jump to a follow-up interval. See back in chips — Tomorrow, 1 wk, 2 wk, 1 mo, 3 mo, 6 mo, 1 yr — jump to the first day with openings on or after that date. A line under the chips says where it landed, for example “Dec 26 → first opening Mon, Dec 28”. A chip whose date is past the visit type’s booking limit has a dashed outline; it still lands on the first real opening, and the line adds, for example, “past the 60-day limit (needs an override)” (see Booking limits). Soonest openings always stay inside the limit.
3. Or browse the week. The week strip shows seven days with how many start times each has (12 open), a bar for how full it is, and a colored dot for each location open that day. Other days read Off, Full, or Past. Days past the visit type’s booking limit still show their real openings, in amber with a dashed outline. Use the arrows for the previous or next week, Today to come back, and Month for a month calendar.
4. Pick a start time. Start times are grouped Morning, Afternoon, and Evening, each with the color of the location it is at. When a day has more than one location, pills above the times (All locations, then each location) narrow the list. The thin timeline above the times shows the day at a glance — open time, booked visits, breaks, and blocked time — and clicking it picks that time.
5. Or type any time. Custom time takes 930, 9:30a, 2p, or 14:15; the up and down arrow keys nudge it by five minutes. Right under the box, Hero says whether it fits — “Open at the clinic” — or what it runs into, such as “Double-books the patient 9:00 – 10:00 AM — needs override” or “Outside open hours — needs override”. Use it for times between the listed slots and for deliberate overrides.

If the day you are looking at has no openings, the scheduler says why (No hours on Saturday, Fully booked for this visit length, This day is in the past) and offers a way forward: Next opening: <day · time>, Type a time, or Ask <patient> to book.

Check the details and book

The right-hand column, Review & Book, shows the day and time in large type with how far away it is, then the details of the visit.

1. Confirm the details. The visit type and length, the provider, and the location. The location reads “Set by the time you pick” until you choose a time; if that time is open at more than one location, a dropdown lets you choose. A visit type with a flexible length adds a Length (min) box with quick choices. A telehealth type notes “Telehealth — a Zoom meeting is created automatically.” An outside-facility type asks for the facility instead of a location and can be booked at any time — type the start time.
2. Add a visit note if you like. Visit notes (optional) is the reason for the visit, for example “3-month blood pressure follow-up”.
3. Offer an earlier time. When your practice uses the waitlist, Also add to waitlist books this time and also offers the patient an earlier opening if one frees up.
4. Read the advisories. Medication coverage appears when some of the patient’s medications may run out before the visit date. Payment details shows the price, whether a card is on file, and the portal payment link. Click either to expand it.
5. Press Book. The button tells you what is still missing — Choose a provider, Choose a visit type, Pick a time — and once everything is set it reads Book <day · time>. ⌘/Ctrl + Enter does the same.

When the booking is saved, the scheduler closes; opened from the toolbar or the calendar, the calendar then shows the booked day. Opened from the inbox, it stays open with a Booked <day · time> confirmation and a Book another button.

Payment and balance checks before you book

If your practice collects payment when a visit is booked, or stops new bookings when a balance is too high (set up under Billing), the scheduler tells you before you press Book. A yellow box appears just above the button.

• Who sees it: staff who can see billing amounts, for new bookings. Moving an existing visit does not ask for payment again.
• Who can tick Book unpaid: staff who can also manage billing (billing charges or billing settings). Others see why they cannot book, and the button says so: Ask a billing admin to book when payment is due at booking, or Collect payment to book when the balance is over the limit.
• When an override cannot help: the box reads “An override can’t clear this — resolve it in billing first.” and the button Resolve billing first.
• If a booking attempt finds a new limit the box did not show, it asks “Also override the balance limit?”; press Book again with the tick on to accept.

A booking made with the tick confirms “Appointment created unpaid — your billing override was recorded.”

How far ahead a visit can be booked

Every visit type has a Booking limit (days ahead) setting in Visit types (90 days for a new visit type unless you change it). Selecting No limit removes the maximum; the other booking rules still apply. When a limit is set, patients booking in the portal or on your website can never book past it. Staff can, with a confirmed scheduling override that is recorded like any other override.

How the scheduler shows it:

• Week and month: days past the limit show their real openings, in amber with a dashed outline. The month legend reads “Past the limit (override) — books through <date>”.
• Start times: on a day wholly past the limit the time chips are tinted amber, and a notice above them reads, for example, “Past the 60-day booking limit (through Wed, Nov 25). You can book Mon, Dec 28 — you’ll confirm an override when you book.” On the limit’s last day, where some start times are inside the limit and some past it, only the ones past it carry the word override.
• Review column: “Past the 60-day booking limit (through Wed, Nov 25) — you’ll be asked to confirm an override”.
• Suggestions: Soonest openings stay inside the limit. A See back in chip past the limit (dashed outline) still lands on the first real opening.

1. Pick the time and press Book (or Move to when rescheduling) as usual.
2. Confirm the override. Confirm Scheduling Override opens with “Past this visit type’s 60-day booking limit (last bookable date Nov 25).” under Override warnings, along with any other conflict. Add an optional Reason and press Confirm Override to book it, or Go Back.

The same notice offers other ways forward as links: Ask <patient> to book on or after <date> (a text or email; see When it goes out), Add <patient> to the waitlist (for that visit type from that date, at any location), and Book the latest date within the limit.

Move a visit to a new time

Start a reschedule from the reschedule button on a visit in the patient card’s Upcoming list, from the Patient Appointments tab, by right-clicking a visit on the calendar and choosing Reschedule Appointment, or from Reschedule on the patient’s Appointments tab. The screen switches to Reschedule <patient> and the visit being moved is marked Rescheduling now in the Upcoming list.

1. Pick the new time the same way you would book one. The visit keeps its visit type and length. Its own current time counts as open, so you can move it a little earlier or later; that time’s chip has a dashed outline and the word current.
2. Check From → To. A Move badge and the old time, struck through, sit above the new time. A change of location (New location: …) or of visit type or length (New visit type: … (was …)) is spelled out. Picking the visit’s current time again says “That’s the current time — pick a different one to move it.”
3. Press Move to <day · time>. Don’t reschedule leaves the visit where it was and takes you back to booking (or closes the scheduler, if you opened it only to move this visit).

Let the patient pick a new time

When you cannot choose a time for the patient, Let <patient> pick a new time (under the Move to button) hands it to them. The panel says exactly what will happen: it cancels the visit now and sends a link to book a new one of the same visit type with the same provider, good for 30 days. The old time opens for other patients straight away.

• Choose how to send the link — Text, Email, and Portal — and read the message preview, then press Cancel visit & send link. Back — I’ll pick the new time returns to the scheduler.
• The option is greyed out, with the reason underneath, when the patient could not re-book online: online self-scheduling is off for the practice, the provider is not offered online, the visit type cannot be booked online, the patient has no portal access (or their portal account cannot schedule), or automated messages are off for them. It is also greyed out if you changed the visit type or length for this move — the patient would re-book the visit as it was.
• This is the same reschedule request that Shuffle mode sends for a whole day.

Edit a visit without moving it

To change a booked visit’s type, length, location, facility, or notes, open the Patient Appointments tab and click the pencil (Edit appointment) on the visit. The Edit appointment window shows the date and time at the top — read-only here — with a Change time button beside it.

1. Make your changes — Visit type, Length (min) for a flexible-length type, Location (when the provider has more than one), Facility for an outside-facility visit, and Visit notes.
2. Watch for a length warning. If a longer type or length would run into the next visit or a break, a warning names what it overlaps and suggests Change time; you can still save here with an override.
3. Save, or change the time. Save changes keeps the same time. Change time opens the scheduler to move the visit: a new visit type, length, or location goes along with the move and is saved with the new time (the window notes “Changing the time takes your changes along — they’re saved with the new time.”). If you only changed the notes or facility, the button reads Save & change time and saves them first.

Cancel appointment in the same window opens the usual cancellation dialog.

Send the patient a link to pick their own time

When the patient would rather choose, or you are not sure which time suits them, Ask <patient> to book texts and/or emails them a link to your patient portal with the provider and visit type already chosen. Nothing is booked until they pick a time. Open it from any of these:

• Ask <patient> to book under the Book button;
• Ask <patient> to book on a day with no openings;
• Ask <patient> to book on or after <date> in the notice on a day past the booking limit.

It uses the provider and visit type chosen on the left. Click a See back in chip first (for example 3 mo) and the request carries that date as On or after <date>; the × on the chip removes it. While the panel is open, visit types patients can book online are marked Online in the list.

1. Read the top line. It says what the message will do: “<patient> gets a link to pick a time in the patient portal.”; “… gets a portal sign-up invite, then picks a time.” for a patient without a portal account; or “The message asks <patient> to call the office to book.” with the reason.
2. Choose how to send it. Text and Email show where each goes (partly hidden, like •••-0104). Every channel that can reach the patient starts selected; click one to leave it out. A channel that cannot be used says why — No mobile number on the chart, No email address on the chart, The patient replied STOP to texts from the practice, The patient opted out of text messages, or The patient turned off scheduling emails. For a minor, messages go to the parent or guardian and the panel says so.
3. Check when it goes out. A blue note appears when the message will not go out right away — for example “We’ll text and email David on Tue, Oct 27, when Dec 26 opens for online booking. If David books sooner, the message is skipped.” — or when the same request is already waiting (“An invite for this visit is already scheduled for <date> by text.”). A “please call us” message with a date always sends now: “Sends now — <patient> is asked to call, and the office can book <date> over the phone.”
4. Read the preview and add a note. Preview shows the text message exactly as it will read and the email subject. Note (optional), up to 500 characters, is added to the text right after the greeting and to the email as “A note from our office: …”.
5. Send. The button says what will happen: Send link to <patient>, Ask <patient> to call, Send to <patient> on <date>, or Already scheduled (nothing new to send). Tick Also add to waitlist to offer them earlier openings as well. Cancel — pick a time instead goes back to booking.

What the patient receives, and when it goes out

The text is short and names only your practice, the visit type, the provider, the date, and your note. For example:

• The email comes in your practice’s branded template with the subject “Time to book your next visit” and a Pick a time button (Set up my portal for a patient who still needs a portal account).
• The link opens the portal’s booking page — after the patient signs in — with the provider and visit type already chosen. If you gave a date, the calendar opens on it with the note “Your care team asked you to book on or after <date>.” The patient books like any other portal booking.
• A patient without a portal account gets a portal sign-up link in the same message, then the booking link.
• A “please call us” message goes instead when online booking cannot work: online self-scheduling is off for your practice, the provider is not offered online, the visit type cannot be booked online, or the patient has no portal account and no email on file for an invite.

When it goes out

After you send, the panel reads Request sent — or Request scheduled with “It goes out on <date>; if <patient> books sooner, it’s skipped.” — and a confirmation sums it up, for example “Asked David to book Sick Visit - Established Patient with Nicholas Romero, MD by text and email, with a link to book online. It will go out on Tue, Oct 27, when Sat, Dec 26 can be booked online.”

Seeing requests that are waiting

• In the scheduler: open Ask <patient> to book for the same provider, visit type, and date; a waiting request is shown with its send date.
• In the chart: Patient Information → Outbound Comms lists a held request under Upcoming scheduled as Scheduling Invite with its send time, and sent ones under Sent history. (Outbound Comms is for administrators and staff allowed to view it.)

Common questions