Online appointment booking and appointment request - Configure your online services

Steps to follow - Configure a service

1. From the Administration module, click on Manage online services.
   
2. Click on Add a service.
3. Define the various service fields:
   
   
   
   1. Service name: Write the name of the service as you refer to it internally. This name will not be displayed to patients. E.g. 48h Hub, 24h Hub, Walk-in, etc.
   2. Activity(ies): One or more activities can be linked to the same service. The name of the activities will never be displayed to patients.
      • For online appointment booking, configuring activities linked to a service allows you to filter availabilities in order to only display online those associated with the activity.
        
        As soon as a time slot is linked to an activity available online in a schedule that meets the inclusion/exclusion criteria (see below), a cloud icon will appear at the end of the availability. By hovering your cursor over the icon, it will be indicated that this is an availability published on the appointment booking portal.
        
      • For the appointment request, it is not mandatory to associate one or more activities. We would like to eventually enhance the feature so that from the appointment request, the schedule would already be prefiltered according to the activity matching the service.
   3. Service presentation (title and description): This section allows you to define the information displayed online to patients. You must indicate a title and a description of the service in each of the two official languages.
      
      Please note:
      
      • The title is displayed in the drop-down menu called Consultation category in the appointment booking and request form.
        
      • The description appears once the consultation category (service) has been selected by the patient. This allows you to give more details about the type of appointments offered, give instructions to patients or indicate when the slot will be displayed, for example. The description should contain any information that allows the patient to identify whether they have selected the right consultation category for their needs.
   4. 🚦Understanding accessibility and visibility criteria
      
      Criteria(s): You can restrict access to certain services by applying inclusion or exclusion criteria. By applying a criteria to a service, you define the type of patients who will be able to see the service in the consultation category selection menu, as well as the times/schedules to which these patients will have access. Several criteria can be combined for the same service.
      
      The following criteria can be applied:
      
      
      1. ☑️ Registration with the family doctor
         
         Two options are available:
         a) Include: All patients with a family doctor in the institution see the service, however they can only see and book appointments with their own RAMQ family doctor.
         b) Exclude: Only patients who do not have a family doctor in the institution see the service. Then, the patient can view and book availability with any health professional who offers the service.
         
         * If family doctors at your clinic do not offer the service, you can add a second criteria (Responsible healthcare worker or family doctor, see criteria description below.) which will allow you to precisely list the healthcare workers to include or exclude.
         ** For appointment requests, this criteria acts in the same way as the Family doctor in the institution criteria, since it has no automatic effect on appointment allocation. You can give the patient an appointment with any health professional.
         
         
      2. ☑️ Family doctor in the institution
         
         Two options are available:
         a) Include: All patients with a RAMQ family doctor in the clinic can view and book availability for the service, regardless of who offers the service.
         b) Exclude: The service is offered to patients who do not have a RAMQ family physician in your clinic. They can view and book service availability regardless of who provides the service.
         
         * If family doctors at your clinic do not offer the service, you can add a second criteria (Responsible healthcare worker or family doctor, see criteria description below.) which will allow you to precisely list the healthcare workers to include or exclude.
         
         
      3. ☑️ Appointment
         
         Two options are available:
         a) Include: The patient must have had an appointment with the selected activity in the selected past period in order to see the service. The patient then sees and can book availability with any of the health professionals offering the service.
         b) Exclude: The patient must not have any appointments with the activity listed in the criteria for the selected past period, or in the future, in order to view the service. The patient then sees and can book an availability with any health professional offering the service.
         
         * If family doctors at your clinic do not offer the service, you can add a second criteria (Responsible healthcare worker or family doctor, see criteria description below.) which will allow you to precisely list the healthcare workers to include or exclude.
      4. ☑️ Patient status
         The available statuses are the same as those available in the Patient Status field, in the Administrative Information section of the Administration Center.
         
         
         Two options are available:
         a) Include: In order to see the service, the patient must have one of the statuses selected. The patient then sees and can book availability with any provider offering the service.
         b) Exclude: To view the service, the patient must not have one of the selected statuses. The patient can then view and book availability with any health professional offering the service.
         * If family doctors at your clinic do not offer the service, you can add a second criteria (Responsible healthcare worker or family doctor, see criteria description below.) which will allow you to precisely list the healthcare workers to include or exclude.
      5. ☑️ Record number
         
         The patient must have a file number in your institution to view the service and associated availabilities.
         Two options are available:
         a) Include: To view the service, the patient must have a file number in the clinic. The patient can then view and book availability with any provider offering the service.
         b) Exclude: To view the service, the patient must not have a file number in the clinic. The patient can then view and book availability with any of the service providers offering the service.
      6. ☑️ Responsible healthcare worker or family doctor
         
         
         A combination of 4 options is possible:
         a) Include + appointment with your professional: To view the service, the patient must be associated with at least one of the health professionals listed. Then, the patient sees and can book the availability of his or her own professionals only. 
         b) Include + appointment with any professional: To view the service, the patient must be associated with at least one of the health professionals listed. The patient can then view and book the availability of any of the listed professionals.
         c) Exclude + appointment with your professional: To view the service, the patient must not be associated with at least one of the health professionals listed. The patient then sees and can book the availability of his or her own professionals only. 
         d) Exclude + appointment with any professional: To view the service, the patient must not be associated with at least one of the health professionals listed. The patient can then view and book the availability of any of the listed professionals. 
      7. ☑️ Attachment 
         The patient must or can attach a file to their appointment request. You will need to indicate whether adding a file is mandatory, as well as provide a description in French and English to describe to patients the type of file you wish to receive (e.g. a valid consultation request must be provided). This criterion is only applicable to the appointment request. Attached files will be viewable in the request and will be available to be imported into the file later. Learn more.
         

⚠️ A service without any eligibility criteria is automatically offered to the entire population (including your patients, patients registered elsewhere and orphaned patients). An appointment made online by a patient who does not exist in Omnimed then contains provisional contact details and not a real patient file. 


e. Associate the service with the online service feature(s): Each service can be associated with online appointment booking, appointment request, or both features. 

1. 1. 1. Online appointment booking:
         • Enable online appointment booking by clicking on the slider button so that it turns blue.
         • Set automatic display of online availability: 
           
           • Enter how many days before the ranges can be displayed online (e.g. 1 day before, 2 days before, etc.).
           • Enter the time at which the slot becomes available (all availabilities within this time slot are published at the same time).
           • Indicate how many hours before the start of the slot you want availability to no longer appear online.
             
             
             In the schedule, when an availability time slot is planned to be published later online, there is an icon of a cloud with a clock on it at the end of the time slot. If you hover your cursor on it, you will see the moment it will be published.
             
      2. Appointment request:
         • Activate the appointment request for this service by clicking on the slider button so that it turns blue.
           

5. Click Add to create the service.

Edit or delete a service

It is possible to modify or delete a service by clicking on the three small vertical dots displayed at the end of the service.

Disable a service

Since all services are visible online even when there is no availability, it may be relevant to deactivate a service that is temporarily no longer offered at your clinic, for example a seasonal flu vaccination service. This will remove it from the selection menu of consultation categories offered by your clinic. You will be able to reactivate it in due time.

In order to do so,

1. Click on the three small dots at the end of the service.
2. Click on Modify.
3. Click on the slider button to display the service on the appointment booking or appointment request portal so that it becomes gray again.
   
4. Click on sur Modify.

The service then appears in the inactive services section.

Related articles

Activate patient portal - appointment requests, online appointments and patient forms
Create schedules
Prendre un rendez-vous en ligne

Demande de rendez-vous - Par où commencer?