PERMISSIONS: You need the Scheduling permission to approve or deny an appointment request.
Appointment Requests allow patients and their caregivers to request appointments via the patient portal. This is an optional scheduling feature and must be enabled by a clinic administrator. If a clinic is using Appointment Requests, schedulers have access to a list of pending appointment requests under the Schedule tab. From here, schedulers can confirm, edit or decline appointment requests, as well as view a calendar snapshot of how each requested appointment would align with other items on the therapist's calendar surrounding that timeframe.
Schedulers can also open and respond to Appointment Requests from the clinic calendar. Appointment Requests display on the calendar with diagonal stripes to indicate that an appointment for that timeframe has been requested, but not yet approved. A pending Appointment Request does not prevent schedulers from creating a different appointment at that time.
NOTE: Schedulers will only see appointment requests for patients they have access to.
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View Appointment Requests
The Appointment Requests list under the Schedule tab displays all appointment requests for the clinic. When you have pending appointment requests you need to respond to, the number of requests will display on the Appointment Requests menu item. The Appointment Request list defaults to show Pending requests, but you can click the Status button in the top right corner to filter for Approved or Declined requests.
- Hover over the Calendar
icon to view a snapshot of the request on the therapist's calendar.
- Click the Notes
icon to view a note from the portal user who is requesting the appointment. When there is a note from the patient, the Notes icon is a filled-in square
. When there is no note from a patient, the Notes icon is an empty square
.
Appointment Requests also display on the clinic Calendar. Pending Appointment Requests have diagonal stripes to distinguish them from confirmed appointments.
NOTE: Click on the appointment request for more information. Hovering over a pending appointment request will not show the request details.
Approve an Appointment Request
You can approve appointment requests from the Appointment Request list or from the pending appointment placeholder on the clinic calendar. You can also make changes to the appointment details (for example, the time or duration of the appointment) before approving an appointment request. Once an appointment is approved, the appointment automatically populates on the clinic calendar as a scheduled appointment. The portal user who requested the appointment will receive an email with the date, time, provider and location of the confirmed appointment.
NOTE: If you make significant changes to the appointment request before you approve the request, or you need to communicate information that is not in the automatically generated appointment confirmation email, you should contact the portal user who requested the appointment.
- Click on the Appointment Request from the Appointment Requests list or the Calendar.
- Review the Appointment Request. If you need to, you can make changes to the appointment details.
- Click the Approve Request button.
- Click the Yes, Continue button on the Confirm window.
Decline an Appointment Request
You can decline appointment requests from the Appointment Request list or from the pending appointment placeholder on the clinic calendar. If you decline an appointment request, the portal user will receive an email notifying them that their request was declined.
- Click on the Appointment Request from the Appointment Requests list or the Calendar.
- Click the Decline Request button.
- Click the Yes, Continue button on the Confirm window.