Last review date 03/02/2023

The appointments screen can often become very busy and finding a suitable available appointment can be very difficult and time consuming for receptionists. 


Free Slot Search Presets allow you to set up commonly used combinations of appointment search criteria such as next available GP appointment, specific nurse clinics or easily finding available slots together to create a 20 or 30 min appointments for example.  This is done at an organisational level so all staff would have access to these once set up and does not have to be done on an individual basis.


1. Configuring free slot search presets

Select Setup > Appointments > Free Slot Search Configuration.  Click New:

     

  • Type a name into the Preset name field.    
  • Select the relevant options that you want to include in your preset such as clinicians, how far ahead in time to search i.e. next 3 weeks, tick the rota types & slot types to be included.  You can also add a minimum duration such as 20 mins & also tick the box to 'combine slots' to find 2 x 10 min slots next to each other for example.
  • Click Ok.      

   

Staff at your organisation can access the presets using the Search for free slots from a list of presets quick action button on their toolbar (see customising your toolbar to add the button to the toolbar).    


To use the presets when booking an appointment, click on the Search for free slots from a list of presets toolbar button


The list of presets will be displayed, double click the preset required:

The above example shows next available appointment for selected criteria is Sat 29 Dec at 08:00, in 1 days time, slot duration is 30 mins, 3 slots used on that day and 34 available slots to book.

  • To book the first appointment shown within 'Earliest Date' column, double click the appointment shown or click Book.
  • To view the other 34 available slots on that day click 'Zoom to rota' and book into the rota in the normal way.


2. Free slot search bookmarks

These can be created at an individual user level

  



These work in a similar way to the bookmarks on the appointment screen, the only difference is that rather than giving them a name they are numbered.


2.1 To configure a bookmark

  • Ensure that you only have the relevant staff members ticked 
  • Select the relevant days of week, date and how many days ahead to search
  • Select the relevant rota types and slot types
  • Select the correct site if you have more than one 
  • click on a bookmark button without a number 
  • Confirm that you want to create the bookmark with the current settings


2.2 To remove a bookmark

  • Click on the bookmark you want to remove
  • Click on the 'X' to the right of the bookmarks 
  • Confirm that you want to clear the bookmark 


3. Staff roles

This option is under used and many staff are not aware that it is available. When you click on the button you will be presented a list of all roles that have been setup on staff in the practice. These are generally the roles taken from the users smartcard profile, for example 'Clinical Practitioner Access Role' is GP.  


This is a very quick way to search for an appointment for a particular staff role.    


 4. Skill sets 

This is a another under used option that many staff are not aware of.  This requires a bit of setup in the 'Staff and Organisation Setup' screens. 


4.1 Setup staff skill sets

  • Go to 'Setup > User & Policy > Staff & Organisation Setup' 
  • Right click on a staff member and select amend 
  • Go to the 'Skills Sets' tab and click on the '+' 
  • Select all relevant skills for that clinician 

NB: If you do not have skill set options in your list that you need, these can be added by going to 'Setup > Users & Policy > Configured Lists 



4.2 Using Staff skills sets

  • Click on the highlighted button above and you will see a pick list like this 
  • Click on the skill set that you want to book an appointment for and click on
  • You will now have filtered the appointments free slot search by staff who can perform that skill set