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Appointments are the foundation of your eye care center’s day. Every patient visit starts with an appointment that reserves a time slot with a specific doctor or optometrist and defines the type of visit - whether it is a routine eye check, a glaucoma follow-up, a pre-operative assessment, or an emergency.

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Before You Start

  • Healthcare Practitioner records must exist for each doctor and optometrist.
  • Practitioner Schedules must be set up.
  • Appointment Types must be configured for your center.
  • The patient must be registered.

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Step 1: Set Up Eye Care Appointment Types

Appointment Types define the kinds of visits your center offers. Set these up once in advance.
  1. Go to Healthcare workspace → Consultation Setup card → Appointment Type → New
Recommended appointment types for an eye care center:

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Step 2: Set Up Doctor/Optometrist Schedules

Define when each practitioner is available.
  1. Go to Healthcare workspace → Masters card → Practitioner Schedule → New
  2. Name the schedule (e.g., “Dr. Kumar - Mon/Wed/Fri AM”)
  3. In the Time Slots table, add each availability block:
  1. Save and link to the practitioner: open Healthcare Practitioner → Practitioner Schedules table → add the schedule

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Step 3: Book an Appointment

  1. Go to Healthcare workspace → Consultation card → Patient Appointment → New
Patient Appointment form showing patient, appointment type, practitioner, date, and time fields with eye-care appointment types in the dropdown
  1. Fill in the appointment:
  1. Click Save
The patient receives a confirmation SMS automatically. Include advice in the confirmation message - for example, reminding patients who are coming for a dilation appointment to bring a driver.

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Step 4: Patient Arrival and Check-In

When the patient arrives:
  1. Find their appointment in the list
  2. Change status to Checked In
  3. Save
The appointment appears in the Open Appointments count. The ophthalmic technician begins pre-screening.

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Step 5: Pre-Screening (Before the Doctor)

The ophthalmic technician or nurse typically completes pre-screening before the doctor or optometrist sees the patient:
  1. Go to Healthcare workspace → Consultation card → Vital Signs → New
  2. Select the patient and link to their appointment
  3. Record:
    • Distance visual acuity (unaided and corrected) - use the Notes field
    • Near visual acuity - use the Notes field
    • Blood pressure (important for pre-op patients and those with retinal disease)
    • Weight and height (for BMI, relevant for surgical patients)
  4. Save
The pre-screening results are visible to the doctor in the patient’s history before the consultation begins.

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Online Appointment Booking (Patient Portal)

Patients with portal accounts can book their own appointments:
  1. They select the appointment type and practitioner
  2. They choose an available date and time slot
  3. They submit the booking
A Patient Appointment record is created in the system with status Scheduled. The front desk can see and manage it like any other booking.

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Video Consultation Appointments

For remote consultations (e.g., post-operative follow-ups where the patient cannot travel, or medication review appointments):
  1. The Practitioner Schedule must have Allow Video Conferencing ticked
  2. When booking, tick Add Video Conferencing
  3. A Google Meet link is generated and stored on the appointment
  4. Both the doctor and patient receive the link
Note: Video consultations are not suitable for appointments requiring actual vision testing or examination. Use them only for medication reviews, result discussions, or condition monitoring consultations where examination findings are not needed.

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Cancelling or Rescheduling

To cancel: Open the appointment, set status to Cancelled, save. To reschedule: Open the appointment, update the date and time, save. A new confirmation SMS is sent.

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Field Guide: Patient Appointment

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Monitoring Appointments

  • Open Appointments number card: patients currently waiting
  • Appointments to Bill number card: completed appointments needing an invoice
  • Patient Appointment Analytics report: appointment volumes by type, doctor, or period

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Troubleshooting

Time slots are not appearing when booking The doctor or optometrist does not have a linked Practitioner Schedule. Set up the schedule and link it to their Healthcare Practitioner record. The patient did not receive a confirmation SMS Check the mobile number on the patient record and confirm that Appointment Confirmation is turned on in Healthcare Settings. A completed appointment is still showing as Open Close it manually by changing the status to Closed. This also happens automatically when the Patient Encounter linked to the appointment is submitted. A patient wants to book an emergency appointment but no slots are free Emergency Eye Appointment slots should be reserved in the schedule every day. If none are reserved, the front desk can create an appointment directly at any time without needing a free slot - just set the status manually and override the scheduling.

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Best Practices

  • Always put the appointment type instructions in the Notes field for dilation appointments: “Please arrange a driver - your eyes will be dilated and you will not be able to drive afterwards”
  • Block out pre-op consultation slots separately from post-op slots to prevent scheduling confusion on surgical days
  • Keep Emergency Eye Appointment slots free every day - acute presentations (sudden vision loss, eye injury, flash and floaters) cannot wait
  • Set the appointment duration accurately for each type - a 15-minute slot for a comprehensive eye exam creates a running-behind problem all day
  • For diabetic screening days, create a separate session or clinic - doing diabetic retinal photography in a general optometry session slows down the whole clinic