Create a schedule

Create a schedule to help manage what a doctor's time is used for.  The schedule will be assigned an Activity Type, which determines the types of appointments that can be booked in that schedule's time slots.

Overview

A practitioner's Schedule in the Appointment Book is allocated an Activity Type with a colour, for example, blue for Consultation time and purple for Theatre time. This tells staff what Appointment Types they should book in the doctor's schedule. Appointment types have a colour that replaces the colour of the Activity Type in the Appointment Book.

Example: A practice has a green Activity Type—Theatre used for the Appointment Type > Surgery and a blue Activity Type -Consultation used for the Appointment Types: Long Consultation (30 min), Std Consultation (15 min), and New Patient (30 min). Reception wants to book a Std Consultation and see two doctors with a blue schedule and one doctor with a green schedule, and make the appointment in a blue block of time.

Create a schedule

To create a schedule:

1. Go to Zedmed's Management tab.
2. Select Practice Setup then Appointments > Schedules.
   The Set Schedules for Doctor or Resource screen will open.
3. Select the Doctor or Resource you need to create a schedule for.
   The Schedules section shows all schedules currently set for the doctor. The Sessions section shows the sessions that occur each week for the selected schedule.
4. Select Add.
   This will clear the fields that are used to create a new schedule.
5. In the Start Date field, enter a date using the dd/mm/yyyy format and press Tab.
6. If this is an ongoing schedule, leave the End Date blank. If there is an End Date, enter one.
7. Select a cycle from the Cycle(Days) drop-down.
   This is how long the schedule runs before repeating. 
8. Select Graphic Display.
   This will open the Doctor Schedule screen (below).
9. Use the Display slot size field to divide the schedule into time increments that are appropriate for the schedule.
   When the schedule is created, it will use this slot size as the default for appointments booked in the schedule.
   For example, if you were making a schedule for short 15-minute consults, you would select 15 mins. 
10. Double-click the time slot where the schedule will start.
    The Daily Schedule will open.
    The Start Time and End Time will reflect the period of the slot you opened. You can select any start or end time to add the schedule.
11. Review the Slot Length.
    This is the schedule's duration divided by the slot size. A 4-hour schedule with 15-minute slots will have a slot length of 16.
12. Set your End Time as appropriate.
13. Select an Activity Type.
    To learn more, see the Create an Activity Type article.
    
14. Repeat this process to add more schedules as required.
15. Select Close to save and exit
    This will take you back to the Set Schedule screen.
16. Select Check for Conflicts
    If there are any conflicts, you will need to change one of the conflicting schedules so that they do not overlap.
17. Close to save and exit the Set Schedules screen.
18. Configure Online Appointments
    If the practice is using Zedmed Online Appointments, you will now select each session in each schedule and tick Available Online as required. To complete these steps, follow the steps in the Set up Online Appointments guide.