Set up Online Appointments

With a few clicks, patients can create their own appointments from a practice's website using Zedmed's Online Appointments (OLA). The interface can include your practice logo and allows patients to choose from the doctors, Appointment Types and locations that are made available. This guide explains how to add this information and enable Online Appointments.

Requirements

•  Zedmed v35.7 or later.
• An HPI-I number or a Practitioner ID for each participating practitioner. 
• Biographic information is also needed for each practitioner, and photos are recommended. 

Branch setup

In the Branches screen, you enable Online Appointments for each branch and enter the opening hours, phone numbers and fee information you want to display. 

To set up each branch:

1. Check that you are running Zedmed v35.7 or later.
   You can check the version by looking at the bottom of the Zedmed screen.
   
2. Go to Zedmed's Management tab.
3. Select Practice Setup > Branches.
   The Practice Details screen will open with the Branches tab selected.
4. In the Name field, select the branch you are setting up OLA for.
5. For each branch, review the following Online Appointments options:
   
   
   • Available Online - When ticked, the branch will be available for Online Appointments. If it is not ticked, the branch will show in Online Appointments with the status 'Not available'.
   • Can Cancel Online Appointments - If you tick this box, patients can cancel their own appointments up to the appointment's start time.
6. Select the Online Appointment Details button.
7. Fill in the Online Appointment Details fields.
   These changes will take 1 hour to update on the practice website.
   

Doctor's setup

The Doctor Details screen is where you enable each doctor for Online Appointments and add information like qualifications, medical interests and languages. Information added to Medical Interests and Language will become selectable options for the patient to filter the doctors shown in Online Appointments - as shown at the top of the OLA screenshot below.

To set up a doctor for Online Appointments:

1. Go to Zedmed's Management tab.
2. Select Practice Setup > Doctors > Find Treating Doctors.
   The Find Doctor Details screen will open.
3. Find and open the doctor.
4. If the doctor's schedule is to be made available for Online Appointments, select the Available Online tickbox.
5. The following information must be in the Doctor's Details, or their appointments will not appear:
   
   
   • A valid title.
   • A valid name.
   • A valid Doctor Code.
   • A valid HPI-I number or a Practitioner ID if the practitioner does not have an HPI-I (see Dr Details screenshot below). 
   • For the doctor's online appointments to appear, information must be entered into the Biographic section (Step 7).
6. Under Clinical Settings, fill in the Qualification section with the information you want to appear in Online Appointments. There should be a comma between each item.
   
7. Use the Qualification field to enter the practitioner's clinical qualifications. 
8. Use the Booking time buffer field to enter a value in minutes. 
   This will restrict the available appointments sent to the Online Appointments (OLA) by only allowing appointment slots that begin after (Booking Time + Buffer) and preventing bookings close to the current time. Requires Zedmed v37 and later.
9. Select Biographic Information and fill in the Biographic Details screen with information about the doctor.
   For Medical Interests and Languages Spoken - separate each item with a comma because these items are added to OLA as filters. We recommend monitoring the terms used or providing guidelines to avoid variations of the same interest/language.
   
10. Use the Load Image button to add a photo, with the following considerations:
    
    
    • The photo's height and width must be no larger than 800px.
    • The photos must be 24-bit (32-bit is not supported).
    • Use a square photo cropped to the face without the shoulders for the best results.
    • To make the required modifications, you may need to use image editing software or a free site like https://www.resizepixel.com/, where you can upload an image, crop it to a square and resize it to 800px.
11. Select Close to save your changes.
    This information will appear in the Online Appointments > Doctor Details section, as shown in the screenshots below.
    These changes will take 1 hour to update on the practice website.
    

Appointment Types setup

Each Appointment Type needs to be enabled for Online Appointments in Zedmed, and doctors must be confirmed for each appointment type.

To set up Appointment Types for Online Appointments :

1. Go to Zedmed's Management tab.
2. Select Practice Setup then Appointments > Appointment Types.
   The Appointment Types screen will open.
3. In the left-hand pane, select an Appointment Type to be made available for Online Appointments.
   The Appointment Type will appear in the Type Name field.
4. Select Available Online.
5. Respond to the prompt asking if you want to make all doctors available:
   
   
   • Selecting Mark as Unavailable will leave the doctors in the Available Online column unticked. You can then manually choose the doctors accepting Online Appointments for the selected Appointment Type.
   • Selecting Mark as Available will select all doctors in the Available Online column.
6. Set if the selected Appointment type should be available for new or existing patients.
   Zedmed v36.9 and later
   Under the Available to section, select one of the three options to determine who can book the selected Appointment Type: Only new patients, Only existing patients (the default) or Both new and existing patients.
   
   Zedmed v36.8 and earlier
   Tick Initial Consultation to make the selected Appointment Type available for new patients only. If Initial Consultation is not selected, the Appointment Type will only be available to existing patients. To make an Appointment Type available for both new and existing patients (e.g., a vaccination appointment), create the Appointment Type twice - one with Initial Consultation selected and one without it selected.
   
   
   

   Important- Appointment Types in OLA are selected using a drop-down that lists them in the order they appear here. The top Appointment Type is the default, and you can change the appointments' order using the up and down arrows.

7. Repeat the steps for each Appointment Type.
8. Select Close to save and exit.
   

Schedules setup

The sessions in each doctor's schedule need to be enabled for Online Appointments before they will appear on the website, even if the doctor has been selected in the Appointment Types screen.

Before proceeding, decide if you want to add messages to the appointment slots, as messages are added in the same screen used to make sessions available online.

To set up a doctor's schedule for Online Appointments:

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. In the Doctor field, select the doctor who is using Online Appointments.
4. In the Schedules section, select the schedule entry.
5. In the Sessions section, select the day.
6. Select the Available Online tick box.
7. Messages.
   This option adds a message to a session, which will be displayed when a patient selects an appointment time during that session. All messages are saved and can be used by other doctors. If you select multiple messages, they will be appended to the same message dialog. See the Using Messages section below for suggestions and examples.
   To add a message to a session:
   
   
   1. Select Messages.
   2. Tick the box next to a message you want to use - or - select Add and create a new message.
8. Repeat all of these steps for each doctor.
   Important: check that all active schedules have been reviewed and the session made available as required.
9. Select Close to save and exit.
   

Using Messages

The Schedules section showed how to add a message to a session that will be displayed when a patient selects an appointment time during that session. Messages have a No or Yes confirmation, so the patient can confirm they understand or accept the message. For example, you could add a message for a payment requirement that the patient will confirm (Yes) or reject (No).

• Selecting No, Cancel takes the patient to the previous step 
• Selecting Yes, Continue will create the appointment.

Example - Messages selected in the schedule

Example - How the selected messages display in OLA

Testing the setup

Once the setup has been completed, it should be tested when Online Appointments is live on your website to ensure it functions as intended. This will also help you understand a patient's booking process.

To learn more about using OLA, see our guide for patients.

The recommended checks are:

1. Select Our Centers from the top menu and check that each branch/location you set up is there.
2. Select each branch to check their details display ( contact number, hours, information).
3. Select Our Doctors from the top menu and check all the doctors are there with photos properly displayed.
4. Select each doctor's details to make sure they are displayed.
5. Click Select Appointment next to each doctor and check if they have appointment slots available.
6. Make a test booking. To proceed further, you will need to provide some test patient information.
7. Check the booking appears in your Zedmed Appointment book.
8. Reconcile the booking to the patient in Zedmed using the Processing Online Appointments guide.
   You only reconcile a patient's booking to their record in Zedmed the first time they make an Online Appointment.