How do I manage patient appointments online?
A calendar per doctor, visit types as services and confirmation done by your front desk.
Specific kinds of business
A medical practice or clinic can cut some of the phone traffic at the front desk with an online booking page: patients ask for a time at any hour, and each doctor keeps an organized schedule. 4appointments handles scheduling only. It isn’t a medical records system, and it sends nothing to patients, so your team confirms and informs them directly.
Add each doctor as a provider with their own weekly schedule. Create the visit types as services, each with its own duration and price, for example a first visit and a follow-up. Every service is shown for every provider, so tell patients when a doctor doesn’t offer a certain type.
Share the public link of the practice, or the separate link of a particular doctor. Patients choose a service, a doctor or the option “Any available person”, and an open time, without an account. The page offers only open times, and the notice rules decide how close to the appointment someone can still book.
Each request arrives as pending and holds the time. The front desk confirms or rejects it in the Bookings section and then calls or texts the patient, because the tool sends no confirmation or reminder. This is also the moment to give prep instructions, such as fasting or documents to bring.
The front desk can create bookings for emergencies and for patients without internet access, and block time for administrative tasks using days off and blocks. Permissions can be set per team member, so the front desk can manage bookings while others only view them, and the team calendar can be kept private. Keep the data minimal: the form collects a name, an optional email address and a free note, so ask patients not to write medical details there, and keep clinical information in your own records system.
What to remember
- ✓A calendar and weekly schedule for each doctor
- ✓Visit types set up as services with their own durations
- ✓The front desk confirms by hand and tells the patient directly
Common questions
How do I protect patient data?+
Collect as little as possible: the form needs only a name and an optional email address. Don’t use the free note for medical information, and keep clinical records in a dedicated system. Set permissions so that each team member sees only what they need.
Is it possible to integrate with a medical records system?+
No. 4appointments has no integrations or API. You can export the list of bookings as CSV, XML or PDF if you need the data elsewhere.
More guides to explore
Do you run a medical practice?
Give each doctor a calendar and let patients request a time online, while your front desk keeps control of every confirmation. The first 12 months are free, with no card.
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