Recurring Appointments: Manage Treatment Series Easily

What is a recurring appointment?

A recurring appointment, or series, is several appointments booked at once at the same time and at a fixed interval. It suits patients in ongoing treatment, because instead of booking each appointment separately you book the whole series in one action. You or your front-desk coordinator book the series from the admin area, and not the patient on their own.

How to book a series

1. On the Appointments screen open a new appointment and choose a patient, a treatment type, a location and the date and time of the first appointment.
2. Tick "Recurring appointment (series)".
3. Choose a frequency and a number of sessions.
4. Press the booking button, and the system creates all the appointments.

Frequencies and number of sessions

• Weekly
• Every two weeks
• Monthly, on the same day of the month

You can book up to 52 appointments in one series. The local time is kept throughout the series, even across the change between summer time and winter time, so a 1 pm appointment stays at 1 pm after the change. In a monthly series that starts on the 31st, a shorter month gets its last day.

A check of every date

Each date in the series is checked separately. A date that has already passed, a date outside working hours, a blocked day or a date with no free room in the location is skipped automatically, and the rest of the series is booked as usual. At the end you see how many appointments were booked and which dates were skipped and why, so you can book a substitute date by hand for the skipped ones.

One message, not dozens

When the appointments are booked as confirmed, the patient receives a single confirmation message, about the first appointment in the series, and not a message for every appointment, so as not to flood them. Each appointment in the series syncs to your Google calendar if you connected one, and gets a video meeting if the treatment type is video. Each appointment also gets its own reminder, once about a day before, as described in the notifications guide. You can read about calendar sync in the Google Calendar guide, and about video in the video appointments guide.

Managing the series after it is booked

Every appointment in the series is a regular appointment, and you can manage it separately, mark that the patient arrived, and cancel or move any appointment as needed. There is currently no action that cancels or moves the whole series at once. A treatment card is deducted automatically when a patient books an appointment on their own, so for a series that you booked it is worth updating the card balance by hand, as described in the treatment cards guide.

When a series is worth booking

A series is convenient for a patient who comes on the same day and at the same time every week. It is easier to book a short series, for example a few weeks, and extend it as it nears its end, than to commit half a year in advance. After booking the series it is worth glancing at the diary and making sure the skipped dates received a substitute time.

Frequently asked questions

Can the patient book a series on their own? No. Booking a series is available only from the admin area.

What happens if one of the dates is blocked? It is skipped and you see it in the summary, and the other dates are booked.

How many appointments can a series have? Up to 52.