Online booking ensures that your patients can schedule appointments whenever it suits them, online. Appointments sync automatically into your health record system’s calendar, avoiding double bookings and manual data entry for your team.
There are three steps to enable online booking:
Create appointment types
Configure provider availability
Customize online booking form
Set up your appointment types
Appointment types are the options patients see when they book online through NexHealth.
To create your appointment types follow these steps:
Navigate to the gear icon and select Settings
2. Select Appointment Types from the left side menu.
3. Click Add Appointment Type.
4. Configure the appointment type:
Name the appointment type (this is what patients see)
Toggle Show in online booking ON
Toggle Allow patient to cancel ON if you would like patients to be able to cancel their appointment from their appointment reminders
Determine the appointment duration (Note: this can be adjusted on a per-provider basis later if needed)
Add Insertion Rules (if desired) - Insertion rules are the Visit Types, Service Types, Appointment Types, and/or Procedure Codes associated with this appointment. These will write into your practice management system with the appointment when NexHealth inserts the appointment into the schedule.
Click Save.
5. Repeat for each appointment type you want to make available for patients to book online.
Configure provider availability
Availabilities are the working hours for your providers. Your providers have been synced from your health record system. Setting up provider availability configures the available blocks of time NexHealth reads from your health record system and the times available to patients to schedule appointments.
1. Switch to Availability on the left side menu.
2. Locate the provider whose schedule you'd like to configure.
3. Configure the provider:
a. Edit the provider's name (if desired) by clicking on the pencil icon. Click on the check mark to save.
b. Click on the image to upload a photo of the doctor or practice logo.
c. Use the drop-down to select a different provider type (if needed).
d. Switch the Status to Active for providers available to be scheduled online.
e. Click Edit next to Default appointment types to assign specific appointment types to this provider (the default is ALL available appointment types). Toggle on appointment types you would like patients to be able to book online.
Click on Customize appointment durations if you need to adjust the duration of a particular appointment type for a particular provider (for example, one hygienist spends 45 minutes, while another spends 60).
f. Click + ADD TIME to set the hours the provider is available to be booked online.
a. Click the Select day dropdown to choose the day. If the provider's hours are the same on multiple days, you can select multiple days.
b. Set the time by clicking on the hour and minutes. Be sure to set AM and PM correctly. If you have a standard break for lunch, we recommend creating a morning block, and then a separate afternoon block, leaving the lunch break open.
c. Click the Select operatory dropdown to choose the operatory in which the provider will see patients.
4. . Click Save
5. Repeat for each different block of time you wish to set for this provider.
Note: if you have more specific hours such as every other Tuesday, or the first Saturday of the month, use the On a specific date or the Custom repeat buttons to configure those times.
Customize the online booking form
The online booking form captures patient information as they book online. We recommend keeping it as brief as possible, but it is possible to customize it.
1. Switch to the online booking form.
The information in the gray area cannot be customized or removed. NexHealth uses this info to determine if the patient booking online is a new patient or an existing one.
2. If you would like to capture additional information (such as a credit card deposit, health-related information, or previous provider(s)), click on Customize Form.
3. Click +Add Field to choose the type of field you want to add.
If you have NexHealth Payments and have already set up your banking information, the Payments widget will appear. This allows you to capture a credit card on file to charge in the event of a no-show or cancellation.
4. Use the toggle to make the field hidden for existing patients and to select the location(s) that should also see this field.
(*Note: If you do not see the toggle to hide for existing patients, please contact our Support team. They can enable this feature for you.)
5. Drag and drop fields to reorder them using the grab bars (six dots) on the left side of the field.
6. Use the Preview button at the top to review the form.
7. Click Save when complete.
Publish your online booking link
Once your online booking experience is configured, it is time to let patients know about it. Add the link where your patients will find it such as on your website and social media.
To enable it on your website:
1. Switch to Widgets on the left side menu.
2. Test the availability that you configured by clicking on any of the Book Now (b) buttons (they are all the same URL). Clicking a Book Now button takes you to the online booking page that your patients will use.
3. Use the Copy (a) button to copy the code for the color button you want to insert in your webpage. If you only need the URL, click on Book Now, and copy the URL from your browser.
4. If you want online booking links that are specific to different Locations, Providers, or Appointment Types, switch to the type of button (c), and follow the same steps as above.
NexHealth partners with Google to put your online booking link in Google Maps and search. Read more about our Reserve with Google integration.