Users that have access to this setting: Site Admin, Full Patient Management.
Features
Before stepping through how to configure open and close hours, let's define the parameters and features associated with your facility's hours:
- Split scheduling (New!) - This feature, also referred to as Add Hours, allows you to split your daily schedule up into blocks of time. If you close for lunch and reopen later in the day or you have a period of the day when you are short-staffed and need to limit check-ins, split scheduling is for you. For example, let's say you are open from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM but close at noon for a two-hour period. Split scheduling will allow you to break up your schedule into two blocks, one for 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM and another for 2:00 PM to 8:00 PM. During the hours of 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM you will be closed.
- 24/7 - The 24/7 toggle is ideal for emergency departments or any setting that is always open. It does not require the facility to necessarily make reservations slots, either walk-in or online, available 24 hours a day. It bypasses the need to set an open and close time for each day and will in fact grey out the Days+Hours section when switched on.
- Pre-Open Time - The pre-open parameter determines when patients/clients can first check in for the day. For example, if your clinic opens its doors at 8:00 am, if you set your pre-open time to 7:30 am, then patients can sign in at 7:30 am. Until 7:30 am, they would see the 'clinic closed...' message. If you do not want patients to sign in before your clinic opens for the day, set your pre-open time equal to your open time.
- Open Time - This parameter controls the time the first appointment starts. To clarify, this does not control when patients are able to start saving their spot in line (this is controlled by pre-open time)
- Close Time - This parameter controls when the reservation form closes and patient can no longer make appointments. To clarify, this does not control when the last patient will be seen at your facility (that is overflow time).
- Overflow Time - The overflow parameter allow for extra slots to accommodate patients who show up at the last minute on a busy day where prior patients have already taken all of the day's time slots. It prevents the system from pushing today's patients into tomorrow's inventory. For example, if your clinic closes at 8:00 pm and you have a busy evening, your inventory may have already used all of the slots in the 7:00 - 7:55 pm hour. If a patient walks in the door at 7:51 and someone already has the 7:55 slot, the overflow setting will assign that last patient to 8:00 pm (or 8:05, 8:10, etc.) rather than pushing the patient into 8:00 am slot the following day.
How to set up your daily hours of operation
Step 1: Navigate to the blue menu on the left-hand side of the screen. If the menu is collapsed (i.e. you only see icons, no menu headers) click on the “>” icon at the top to expand the menu. Select Capacity Settings to display the submenu options, then click Open & Close Hours.
- If your facility operates on a 24/7 schedule - simply toggle on the 24/7 switch at the top. The Days+Hours section will become greyed out.
- If your facility is on a limited schedule - use the second section titled Days+Hours. Open and closed days can be scheduled by moving the toggle by each listed day of the week to the right for open and to the left for closed.
Step 2: Click on the dropdown next to a Pre-Open time, Open time, Close time, or Overflow time to make edits. Scroll up and down to adjust times.
Step 3 (Optional): To split up your schedule into more than one block of time, (such as creating a lunch break hour) click on the blue +Add Hours option to the right of the time block. This will create a new time block below that you must fill out by selecting times from the drop down menus. Keep in mind that your new schedule block must work with your existing schedule block. If you see that your selection becomes red or an error message appears, this means you have selected a time that is in conflict with your existing schedule for the day. For example, if your first schedule block shows a close time of 8:00 PM, your open time for your second schedule block must occur after 8:00 PM.
Use the trash can icon to the right to delete a schedule block if you no longer need it.
Step 4: Once all changes are completed, click the green Save button in the top right-hand corner of the screen. This button will only become activated if you have made edits on this page and there are no errors. If it is still greyed out, you have either not made an edit or there is an error in the schedule and you will need to review it.