Appointment self-booking is currently only available for SystmOne practices. We anticipate it will be available for EMIS practices in June 2023.
Please note - patients may not currently be able to see available appointment slots if the clinic or slot have blank spaces at the end of their name. To resolve the issue you should remove any blank spaces from the end of the clinic or slot names in SystmOne.
How it works
Appointment self booking can be used to invite an individual patient or group or patients to book into specific clinic slot at your practice.
Patients can book appointments up to 6 weeks in advance so you should make sure the issue they are booking an appointment for can safely wait that long. There is no expiry date on the link sent to patients to book an appointment.
Here's a 3 minute demonstration video on how it works:
Enabling Appointment Self-Booking
Appointment self-booking can be enabled from your feature settings page by your PATCHS Admin user.
Before enabling appointment reminders you should add your practice's SystmOne Practice Name.
You can find your Practice Name in SystmOne by going to: Staff & Organisation Setup --> Amend Organisation
You can then then enable appointment reminders by ticking the box.
Sending an Appointment Self-Booking message
Appointment self-booking can be sent:
When responding to a patient request
When sending a message to patient from the request details page, choose Self book appointment.
Choose the clinic and/or slot you'd like the patient to book into then send the link.
From the PATCHS Toolbar
Select the 'message' button on the PATCHS Toolbar to send a self book appointment link to the patient you have open in your clinical system.
Then choose Self book appointment.
Choose the clinic and/or slot you'd like the patient to book into, then send the link.
Appointment self booking for multiple patients
When creating a new bulk message choose Self book appointment.
Choose the clinic and/or slot you'd like the patients to book into, specify the message sending options and then send.
What patients see
Patients receive a message notification in the usual way with a link to book an appointment - either by SMS or email. They then follow the instructions in on-screen to book an appointment.
When confirmed, the patient appears in your clinical system's appointment book:
If you also have appointment reminders switched on, the patient will be remaindered about their appointment 24 hours beforehand and can also cancel their appointment if needed.
