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Online Appointment Booking facilitates patient self-booking.

Where a single practice has multiple Locations, the patients can book for the Location that best suits them.

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Features

Patients can book by practice Location, from a booking page set up for that location

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Within patient communications EXACT is able to generate patient recall URLs, planned Online Booking links and Marketing URLs for these specific Locations.

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These merge fields can be used in Email, SMS and EasyPost Letters, but they are only available if Locations is enabled for the practice and in the web setup.See: Location Support for Online Booking | Merge fields for patient Preferred Locationenabled for the practice and in the web setup.

Booking Reasons

When creating an online appointment both New and Existing patients may be required to select a Booking Reason:

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Match Booking Reasons to Provider

Historically the EXACT online booking system had two primary setup areas: Providers and Booking Reasons. These were treated separately, with no cross-matching of providers to reasons - there was no way to book Provider B for Reason 5.

From EXACT v12.3 onwards the configuration is more flexible, which increases patient use and reliance on the online booking system, expands the use of online booking to more patients as the reasons are more refined and better meet patient needs. This increases the likelihood that patients will pay online for treatment prices and deposits.

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Functionality includes a third party online payment infrastructure:

EXACT automatically generates email payment receipts based on a customisable template: .OLB_RECEIPT_EMAIL

See also: Online Payments | Patient online booking procedure | Online Booking Receipt Template

Configurable Policies

It is possible to customise the online booking text information for Cancellation Policy and Complaints Procedure. See Customising the Configurable Policies. 

Integration with practice processes

Online booking integrates and communicates with EXACT’s recall system, appointment book, provider schedule and treatment planning. For example:

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Receptionist action is seamless within the EXACT software; they do no work outside of the appointment screen.

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• The Practice needs a constant, reliable Internet connection to allow real time communication between the bookings website and EXACT.
• The Practice needs functional Email software.
• The Practice must have a valid and unique Practice ID, so that it can be identified in Online Recalls.
• EXACT version 10.16 or later for new patient and recall patients, and version 11.3 SP3 or later for the planned treatment patients.
• Contact Software of Excellence to purchase the Online Appointments module, and for help configuring the bookings website.
• The EXDOC^e (email) module must be registered in EXACT.

Requirements for multiple Locations per practice

• EXACT v12.8 or later.
• The practice is configured for Online Booking, with booking functionality.
• The practice is configured for multiple Locations.
• Recommended:
  • Patents are configured for a Preferred Location (in the Patient File Details tab).

    NOTE: If not specified, EXACT will assume the practice default Location as the patient's Preferred Location.

  • Providers are configured for a Preferred Location (in the Provider File).

    NOTE: If not specified, EXACT will assume the practice default Location as the Provider's Preferred Location.

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Configuration requirements for online recalls and bookings

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• The Online Appointments module must be registered in EXACT.
• Email and/or SMS templates must be configured for confirming the bookings. This includes
  • Welcome/Confirmation Email - Email sent to Patients when they successfully book online. You can opt to have a separate template for welcoming new patients and confirming their booking.
  • Welcome/Confirmation SMS - SMS message sent when a booking is made. You can opt to have a separate template for welcoming new patients and confirming their booking.
  • Recall Email - This template must contain the [recall.url] merge field, so that when sent out to patients, the required link to the online booking website is in the text of the message for the patient to click on or copy into their browser.
  • Recall SMS - This template must contain the [recall.url] merge field, so that when sent out to patients, the required link to the online booking website is in the text of the message for the patient to click on or copy into their browser.
  • Sending Email - When Emailed to planned treatment patients, the required link to the online booking website is in the text of the message for the patient to click on or copy into their browser.
  • Sending SMS - When SMSed to planned treatment patients, the required link to the online booking website is in the text of the message for the patient to click on or copy into their browser.
• Recall parameters must be configured with the appropriate services for the types of appointments booked.
• For the providers who are to have online bookings, the appointment book(s) must be correctly configured, with blocks set up for the providers so that available time can be identified (online bookings cannot be made without this configuration)
• Online Recalls must be configured from the Recalls Parameters screen.
• (Technical) The site needs to have the SOE Database server, Framework service and the SOE Transport service running on the main server.

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Requirements for Planned Treatment Online Booking:

• EXACT version 11.3 SP3 or later.
• The Online Bookings Recall Module must be registered for the dental practice.

  

  When a practice upgrades to EXACT v11.3 SP3 any Providers who are already configured for Online Recalls will be automatically configured for Planned Treatment online bookings.
  However, a practice can opt to differentiate Providers for online recalls and planned treatment online bookings.

• Providers must be configured appropriately for planned treatment online bookings. Only the patients of these Providers will be able to book their planned treatment online (the option is not available in the Appointment Workflow for other patients).
• The practice must have Appointment Workflow configured because a Planned Treatment Online Booking link can only be sent from its Departure Task List at the point of Patient checkout. There is no other way to send it.
• Email and SMS templates must be set, and they must contain the following merge field: [patient.planned.url].
• Patient requirements:
  • A Patient requires an Appointment for Today’s Date.
  • The Patient requires a Treatment Plan on the Chart Tab, and a minimum of one appointment Planned, with time specified for the Service.

  

  • Only Patient planned appointments on the Chart Tab that are marked as To Be Booked will show in the Departure Task List, so Providers must know to tick this checkbox. They also need to ensure that the Appointment has an Expected Time (duration):

  

  • If there is more than one appointment marked as To Be Booked in the Treatment Plan, only the first appointment will show the Planned Treatment hyperlink button.
  • If the first appointment in a series is booked manually, the Planned Treatment URL hyperlink button will move to the next appointment to be booked in the Departure Task List.