Appointment display options

This guide covers the options available to change what is shown in the Zedmed Appointment Book and what the different booking icons mean.

Booking icon explanations

The following icons are used to indicate the patient's status.

Icon Description Explanation
Green tick (left)
Patient has been attended to the Waiting Room.
Red cross (right)
The patient's IHI is unavailable.
Green tick (right)
The patient's IHI  is available.
Cloud icon
The patient made the appointment via Online Appointments.
Cloud icon with + 
A patient's first Online Appointment - needs reconciling.
Credit card
 Online Appointment booking with credit card information taken.
File folder File pulled & patient not attended. Replaced by a green tick when attended.
Phone icon
The patient replied YES (tick on icon) or No (cross) to a reminder SMS.

Viewing options

The Appointments Display Options screen is used to change how appointments are displayed.

To change the display options:

  1. Go to Zedmed's Reception tab.
  2. Select Appointments.
    The Appointments Display Grid screen will open.
  3. Select View > Options.
    The Appointments Display Options screen will open.

General tab 

  • Number of Columns to Display
    This controls how many doctors' and resource columns will be shown in the Branch View. More doctors can be working on one day than the number of columns set, but the extra doctors will need to be seen using the scroll bar at the bottom of the display window. Up to 20 doctors' columns can be shown in the Branch view.
  • Show Minutes
    This turns on/off the "minutes" that show between each doctors column. If all your doctors work on the same time slot (say 10 minutes), then you can have more space for each column by turning off the display.
  • Show AM / PM
    Change the time view on the left-hand column from 24-hour time to 12-hour time, e.g. 2:00 pm instead of 14:00.
  • Show Unscheduled Doctors and Resources
    If a doctor is not working on a particular day it is debatable whether to show a column for them. In a manual diary, a column would appear with a line through it. If you have, say, 7-8 doctors that work at the practice, but only 4-5 on any one day, suppressing the blank columns (non-working days) will improve the appearance of the Branch Display and the width of each doctor's column.
  • Show Icons for attended and file pulled
    When a patient has been marked as attended, either the colour of their time slot can be changed (often to a green colour), or else a "tick" icon can be placed against the slot. Similarly, a "file pulled" icon can be shown.
  • Show Multiple Bookings on Separate Lines
    Multiple bookings on a one-time slot can either be shown concatenated on one line across the page or starting on separate lines.
  • Show Patient File Numbers
    Practices that use numeric filing systems generally like to be able to see file numbers on the screen to help with pulling files, whereas those that file alphabetically do not.
  • Show Clinic View when Opened
    The normal view for a multi-doctor practice may be the Branch Surgery view with several columns, one for each doctor. However, in their consulting rooms, doctors may just want to see their own bookings for a day or a week at a time. De-activating this option re-displays the Appointments screen, on opening it, how it was last seen – in other words, it memorises the settings that applied before. This means that a doctor will only get their own patients, but a receptionist will be returned to the Branch, multi-doctor view, if that was what they were in last time they left the appointment screen.
  • Use Next Available Appointment Function
    Once this option is flagged, also set the default search period underneath. Now, you are ready to search for the next available appointment slot by clicking on Search, Next Available time, selecting the appropriate criteria, e.g., doctor, morning or afternoon, appointment type, etc. Search.
  • Show Preferred Name instead of given nameShow Pronouns after name.
    These options are available in Zedmed v37 and later.

Doctors tab

  • Doctor Groups
    It is sometimes convenient to see a subset of the working doctors on a day, e.g., just lady doctors or those with O&G qualifications. You can create and name a doctor group and then add doctors to it. One doctor can belong to several different doctor groups.

  • Doctor and Resource Display Sequences
    Controls in what order doctors appear in the Branch View. It is usually best to have the senior or full-time doctors on the left side (top of the list) and the part-timers and locums towards the right side of the screen (bottom of the list). Doctors will always be displayed before Resources (from left to right on the screen).

Custom colours

You can set the colours for unavailable slots and unscheduled times in the Appointment Book.

To change a default colour:

  1. In the Appointment Book, select  View > Legend.
  2. Select the colour to change next to the Legend.
  3. Select a new colour from the Set Colours dialog then select OK.