How to create Appointment Types

Article author
Iida
  • Updated

What is the context?


A very important task in the process of configuring Meddbase is to create appointment types. Appointment Types are the 'blocks' booked on clinicians' schedules. An appointment is an encounter between a Medical Professional and the Patient.

Appointment types are generally umbrella terms such as ‘Initial Consultation’ and ‘Procedure’. You may want to break down appointments by length such as ‘Initial Consultation 15 mins’, ‘Initial Consultation 30 mins’.

What is the purpose of the article?


This article explains how to create and configure appointment types in Meddbase.

Create an Appointment Type


To create a new appointment type:

  1. Go to the Start Page and click Admin > Appointment Admin.
  2. On the Appointment Admin page, click New.
  3. Enter the relevant details (see configuration options below).
  4. Click Save.

There are a number of configuration options on this page, these include:

Appointment Type Details


Section Field Definition
Details Name Set the relevant name for the appointment type. This name will be visible1 in Meddbase when interacting this appointment type as well as on the Patient Portal2 for patient self-booking.
Default duration The length of time the appointment is expected to take. This duration can be overriden during the booking process.
Follow up When ticked/set to true, this checkbox allows this appointment type to be booked as follow-up from a previous appointment. When booking this appointment type via schedule, a list of previous appointments is presented and the user can select which one this booking is a follow up from. The list only shows previous appointments linked to an ongoing referral.
Clinical Form  Select the Clinical form from the dropdown to be used in Consultation for this appointment type by default. Click here for more details on Clinical Forms.
Charged by the hour When ticked/set to true, this checkbox will cause the price of this appointment type to be calculated based on the price set in billing rules and the default/actual length of the booking and will be charged using a formula5
Service Code An alphanumeric code can be entered here. This code can be reported on. Furthermore it will be used when this appointment type is consumed and charged for, as an additional description of the Billing item on an invoice.
Cancelled Code An alphanumeric code can be entered here. This code will be used when this appointment type is booked and subsequently cancelled, as an additional description of the 'Cancellation' billing item on an invoice raised by the cancelling the appointment6
Did not arrive code An alphanumeric code can be entered here. This code will be used when this appointment type is booked and the patient subsequently Did Not Arrive, as an additional description of the 'Did Not Arrive' billing item on an invoice raised by the marking the appointment as DNA.
Reschedule code An alphanumeric code can be entered here. This code will be used when this appointment type is booked and subsequently rescheduled, as an additional description of the 'Rescheduling' billing item on an invoice raised by rescheduling the appointment.
Vat exempt Define whether VAT charges are applied to this appointment type.
OH referral mandatory When this appointment type is booked, it must be made into an OH referral.
Can book services on portal This checkbox when ticked, allows services, e.g. Test or Vaccine, to be added to this appointment type when it is booked via the Patient Portal.
Case required Requires a case to be assigned to the appointment before this appointment can be booked.
Accountancy Nominal code

Nominal codes can be defined in Admin > Configuration > Accountancy and subsequently assigned to appointment types to sort them into groups.

Nominal Codes provide additional reporting options for accountants (on utilisation of this service). Nominal codes are also used in the integration with Xero and mapped to the chart of accounts.

Department code Department codes can be defined in Admin > Configuration > Accountancy and subsequently assigned to appointment types to sort them into groups. Department codes can be reported on as well as used in the integration with Reviso.
Questionnaires Questionnaires Add questionnaires for patients to fill out prior to appointment arrival (for use within the patient portal only).
Security Medical Policy Applied Defines whether a medical policy is applied for split medical records. This should only be set if using split medical records. To learn more about split medical records, see Enable Filtered /Split medical records.

Additional Appointment Type Details


The right-hand side of the window consists of multiple tabs, each containing specific settings.

Patient Confirmation


If these settings are used, they will override the default patient confirmation/reminder settings in Task Checker. However, they will only take effect if patient confirmations/reminders are already enabled for the entire chamber. Use this section if the appointment type requires specific/different confirmations.

Field Definition
Confirmation letter template Set the template used for appointment confirmation letter.
Prevent confirmation email This checkbox when ticked prevents any appointment confirmation emails  from being sent for this appointment type.
Prevent confirmation SMS This checkbox when ticked prevents any appointment confirmation SMS from being sent for this appointment type.
Prevent reminder email This checkbox when ticked prevents any appointment reminder emails from being sent for this appointment type.
Prevent reminder SMS  This checkbox when ticked prevents any appointment reminder SMS from being sent for this appointment type.
Confirmation SMS template Set the template used for appointment SMS confirmations for this appointment type.
Confirmation email template Set the template used for appointment email confirmations for this appointment type.

Notes for Admin


This section allows adding a message that will be displayed as an on-screen pop-up to the Meddbase user booking this appointment type. The user must accept the message before continuing.

Notes for Patient


This section allows adding a message that will be displayed on the Patient Portal* under this appointment type name when it's selected for booking by the patient.

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Referral


This tab is specifically for Occupational Health. Any appointment type can be used for an Occupational Health referral, however, the appointment type must have at least one associated specialism to be referred.

Field Definition
Specialisms Choose a specialism from the catalogue. For OH referrals, the default is the Occupational Health specialism. This is visible in reporting and the incoming referral task.
Referral Letter Questionnaire Set the referral questionnaire to be completed by the referring manager at the time of referring in the OH Portal. If left blank, no form is required, and this step will be skipped during the referral process.

Recall


Define automatic recall settings. To learn more about recalls, see Recalls.

Field Definition
Recall reason Define the reason for a recall for this appointment type
Recall reason Set the number of days a recall should be generated after this appointment type has been consumed.
Recall months Set the number of months a recall should be generated after this appointment type has been consumed.
Recall years Set the number of years a recall should be generated after this appointment type has been consumed.

Telemedicine


Configures settings for telemedicine consultations. 

Field Definition
Telemedicine Type

Choose whether this appointment type is a telemedicine appointment. This setting needs to be configured if the appointment is telemedicine-based.

Options include: 

Disabled - when this option is selected, Telemedicine is disabled for this appointment type

Enabled by default - when this option is selected, Telemedicine is enabled for this appointment type and can be disabled during the booking process

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Can be enabled at booking time - when this option is selected, Telemedicine is disabled for this appointment type and can be enabled during the booking process

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Mandatory - when this option is selected, Telemedicine is enabled for this appointment type and can not be disabled during the booking process

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Telemedicine confirmation SMS

Set the template used for telemedicine SMS confirmations for this appointment type.

This setting overrides the patient confirmation email for telemedicine appointments, but only if patient confirmations are enabled for the entire chamber and routine appointments.

Telemedicine confirmation email Set the template used for telemedicine email confirmations for this appointment type.
This setting overrides the patient confirmation email for telemedicine appointments, but only if patient confirmations are enabled for the entire chamber and routine appointments.

Review date


This article was last updated on 31st January 2025.