Purpose
The appointment book is the organisation-wide view of appointments on a given day to help your administrative team see a general overview of appointment availability and arrival statuses for that day. This user guide will take you through how to view and interpret the appointment book.
Viewing the appointment book
The Appointment Book is visible from your Medicus homepage.
The appointment book displays all staff members who are assigned to an appointment diary that day, as well as any appointment queues that have been set up.
You can search for specific patients in the appointment book or filter by appointment service, site, team and job role if you're searching for a particular patient or appointment.
If no staff member is assigned then Unassigned will be shown instead of the staff name.
Each appointment book will display the following details:
- The appointment service
- The diary start and end time
- The site and room
- How many appointments are booked and the duration of those appointments put together
- How much time is left unallocated
- Any appointment booking rules will be shown
You'll be able to book patients into available slots directly from the appointment book.
You'll also see any breaks, meetings or other activities in the appointment book. You'll be unable to book patients into appointments during these times as the staff member is busy.
Untimed and mixed appointment diaries
Untimed appointments do not show as timed slots in the appointment book as they do not have an assigned start and end time.
Appointments in an untimed appointment diary are displayed in the order that they are booked.
In a mixed appointment diary, untimed appointments are displayed below the timed appointment slots.
Viewing booked appointments
Booked appointments are shown as cards on the appointment books with the following information:
- Patients name (and preferred name)
- Appointment reason (or no reason given if this is not completed)
- Appointment duration
- Delivery mode
- Appointments arrival status
- If the appointment is high priority
Clicking on a booked appointment will open the View appointment details screen on the right hand side.
Staff Usual Site within the Appointment Book
When you open the appointment book, the Site filter defaults to your usual surgery location if one is set. This helps you quickly view appointments for your main site.
You can remove or change the Site filters anytime to see appointments at other locations.
This default filter applies only in the appointment book. For booking future appointments, you can select any site as needed.
To set or update your usual location, go to Modules > Staff & User Management, then select the staff member from the Staff List.
From here, click on the arrow to the right of the Usual location to open the Edit Usual Location pop-up and select the required location from the drop-down menu.
High Priority Appointments
High-priority appointments will be marked with a High Priority badge. In addition, there will be a High priority appointments message shown at the top of the appointment diary.
Appointment Type Colours
Practices can choose to add colours to help distinguish different appointment types. These colours appear as a vertical line on the left side of the appointment in the booking system.
To add or change the colour of an appointment type, go to Modules > Scheduling & Appointments > Appointment Services. From the list, select the relevant service to open the View Appointment Service pop-up. From there, choose the appointment type you want to edit and click the arrow to the right.
This opens the View Appointment Type window, from here select the pencil icon to edit and select the required colour from the drop-down menu in the Edit Appointment Type pop-up. Alternatively, you can select a colour when creating the appointment type.
Slot Reservations
We allow users to reserve appointment slots that they intend to book so that they don’t get booked while they are providing the patient/appointment details. These are reserved and labelled Booking in Progress for 5 minutes or until the booking is completed.
These reservations can be manually removed by right-clicking the reserved slot and selecting Remove slot reservation.
Hiding 'Completed' Appointments in the Appointment Book
Users can choose to hide completed appointments in the appointment book using the Hide completed appointments filter. When enabled, the system hides:
Unbooked slots that have ended
Breaks or rota activities that have ended
Appointments marked as Seen or Did Not Attend
(Appointments marked Cancelled or Rescheduled are always hidden)
Diaries at capacity
When a diary is at capacity, you'll see a warning message informing you of this.