Patients can only book times that exist. If your system thinks a doctor is free when they are not, you get double bookings, waiting rooms and apologies. Getting availability right is the quiet foundation of everything else a clinic does.

Here are the pieces, in the order to set them up.

Weekly hours

Start with the usual week: which days the doctor works and the hours on each. Many doctors work several periods in one day, for example a morning session and an evening session. Enter each period separately so the gap between them is not offered to patients.

Appointment length

Decide how long a standard appointment lasts. The system uses this to cut the working hours into slots. Ten-minute and thirty-minute doctors need different slots from the same hours.

Breaks

Lunch, rounds and other regular gaps should be entered as breaks, not left as "free" time. A break is the difference between a schedule that looks right and one that is right.

A daily limit

Some doctors would rather see a set number of patients a day than fill every possible slot. A daily limit stops bookings once that number is reached, even if the hours would allow more.

Exceptions for one date

Real days differ from the usual week. Three exceptions cover almost everything:

  • A day off. The doctor is away on one date.
  • Different hours. The doctor starts late or finishes early on one date.
  • A lower daily limit. The doctor will see fewer patients on one date.

An exception applies to that date only. The weekly schedule stays exactly as it was, so nobody has to remember to change it back.

Why slots should come from the schedule

Patients should never be offered a time you typed by hand. When slots are built from the schedule, an exception removes the affected times automatically, and the times patients see are times that exist.

A quick setup checklist

  1. Enter each working period for each weekday.
  2. Set the appointment length.
  3. Add regular breaks.
  4. Add a daily limit if the doctor wants one.
  5. Add exceptions for known days off and changed hours.
  6. Book a test appointment and check the time shown.

In Archster, a doctor sets weekly hours, breaks and a daily limit once, and adds a day off, custom hours or a lower limit for a single date without touching the weekly schedule. See availability in the product.