Sometimes, a patient might need an appointment as soon as possible, or they might only be able to come in on a certain day of the week. In cases like this, you don't want to forget about this patient—and as much as sticky notes are a tried and true favourite, sometimes they just don't cut it!
This is why we have the wait list for you. 🤩 In this article, we'll cover:
We also have a video walkthrough of creating a waitlist (recorded: April 2018):
Wait list basics
The wait list comes with some default fields that you'll have to select from in order to properly add someone. These fields include:
The patient you're adding.
What day they should be removed from the wait list.
What appointment type they're waiting for.
What day of the week they can come in.
Which business they're able to attend.
Which practitioners they'd like to see.
If the appointment they need is urgent, or if they can only attend outside of normal business hours.
Any extra information, like notes about this particular appointment they need.
Below is an example of what the wait list "view" will look like:
If your account has only one practitioner or one business, they will be used by default and you will not see the options to choose them.
Adding a patient to the wait list
When a patient calls up and wants an appointment, but there are no times that work, it's time to add them to the wait list. There are two ways to do this—don't worry, they both yield the same results!
It's also worth noting that you can specify the wait list expiry period within your main account settings, or when adding a patient to the wait list. Learn more about that here!
Option one: by booking an appointment
If you go through the normal motions of booking an appointment, you'll see an option at the bottom to Add to wait list:
When you click that, you'll see that the window expands, giving you more options than a normal appointment:
You'll want to be sure that you select the patient's availability, which business they want to attend, which practitioners they want to see, and whether it's urgent or outside of business hours. Anything you add into the "Extra info" box will show up as a note on the waitlist.
Option two: from the wait list menu
On the Appointments page, you'll see a little link for the Wait list:
Clicking that will show you something like this (below is an example of what it looks like if there are no patients on the wait list):
Clicking the Add to wait list button, and you'll be able to fill in the blanks!
When you press Add to wait list, you'll then see a list of the patients on your list:
The More info menu will show you the details about that patient's wait list entry:
You can also filter the wait list by practititioner, business, and appointment type, making it easy to find patients who are waiting for something specific and get them booked right in. Here's a quick demo of what the filtering looks like:
Woo hoo! You've added someone to the wait list! 💃
Booking an appointment from the wait list
Now that you've added patients to the wait list, you'll be able to book appointments for them!
Book an appointment as you normally would, but on the appointment pop-up, you'll want select from wait list:
That will expand the appointment details for you, and you'll be able to pick a patient from the wait list:
You'll be shown a list of patients who are available on that day and who want to see that practitioner:
When you select a patient, you'll have a final option to edit the appointment, if need be:
If the patient already has an appointment booked for a later date that you now need to cancel or archive, you can action that by heading to the appointment itself via the patient's appointments tab.
Press the Create appointment button, and now you've booked an appointment for someone from the wait list! 🎉
Have more questions on booking appointments? Head over here, or ask our friendly support team by clicking the chat bubble in the lower-right! 💬