Configuration Guide: Availability
What is a configuration guide?
A resource that provides a simplified version of the configuration workflow with supporting information at each step.
How should I use it?
Review the table below to learn about the workflow in as much or as little detail as you prefer.
- At the simplest, the workflow is described in short steps.
- For more detail, each step includes a description, example, and location path.
- For step-by-step instructions and additional tips, select the workflow name to open an article about that step.
Who should use it?
People who are responsible for configuring scheduling. They should be familiar with checking availability and creating appointments.
Overview
Configuring availability involves:
- Creating and applying templates for clinic hours
- Creating and applying templates for provider and resource availability
- Using events to make small or short notice adjustments to availability
Providers and resources are unavailable by default. If clinic hours and availability aren't configured, the schedule grid is solid dark grey and schedulers receive warnings about trying to create appointments outside clinic hours and outside of provider or resource availability. Availability warnings can be dismissed if the appointment still needs to be scheduled.
To learn more about how availability is displayed, see Availability overview
| Workflow | Description | Example | Location | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Define your practice operating hours | The maximum hour range for displaying and configuring all clinic hours and availability. This hour range is displayed on the schedule grid. | Our practice operating hours are 7:00am to 6:00pm because we never schedule patients or meetings after 6:00pm or before 7:00am. We don't need to see the schedule from 6:00pm to 7:00am. | Practice Settings > Practice Information > Primary Information > Practice Operating Hours |
| 2 | Create clinic hour ranges | Define hour ranges when activities can be scheduled in your clinics. | Our clinics use a combination of three simple hour ranges: Standard Day: 7:00am to 6:00pm Morning Only: 7:00am to 12:00pm Afternoon Only: 1:00pm to 6:00pm | Practice Settings > Practice Information > Clinic Management > Clinic Hour Ranges |
| 3 | Apply clinic hour ranges to clinics | Apply an hour range to each day. This defines the maximum range that providers and resources can be available for activities each day in this clinic. | One of our clinics is only open in the mornings every other week. I used the apply tools to apply the Morning Only range to every other week for a year. | Practice Settings > Practice Information > Clinic Management > Edit Clinic > Edit Clinic Hours |
| 4 | Create provider/resource availability templates | Define common days of the week, time ranges, and clinics when providers or resources could be available. | Our hygienists work in two different clinics every day of the week. I created a Monday to Friday availability template for them with Clinic A from 8:00am to 12:00pm and Clinic B from 1:00pm to 5:00pm. | Practice Settings > Scheduling > Availability > Availability Templates |
| 5 | Apply availability templates to providers and resources | Take an availability template that was created in step 4 and apply it to specific providers or resources on each day. This defines when and for which clinics their schedule will appear available. | I used the apply tool to apply the availability template to all hygienists over the next year. Now their schedule grids show white and grey rows to indicate they're available at those times. Each range also shows a vertical colour stripe to indicate what clinic they're available in at different times of the day. | Practice Settings > Scheduling > Availability > Apply Availability |
| 6 | Create event types for availability exceptions | Events can affect availability in different ways. Confirm that you have different event types to cover multiple situations i.e., sick time, holidays, vacation, staff meetings, and special events. | I created a "Staff Meeting" event type that marks people as Busy and an "Out of Office" event type that marks people as Unavailable. | Practice Settings > Scheduling > Event Types |
| 7 | Schedule events for availability exceptions | Create busy or unavailable events that can appear on the schedule and affect availability warnings and search. | The team is scheduled for a Staff Meeting event (Busy) on Friday. They could be double booked if they had to, but this way you can see on the schedule and in search availability that they have something else scheduled. Dr. Chandra is scheduled with an Out of Office event (Unavailable) while she's away on vacation. This way there is an obvious visual on her schedule and she cannot be scheduled for anything. | Practice > Scheduling |