Online scheduling lets patients book appointments from your website, and lets the AI agent book appointments during calls, using the appointment types that already exist in your Practice Management System. You control which appointment types are offered, how they are described, and what the booking page looks like.
Before you start: Patient Prism must already be integrated with your Practice Management System. If that integration is not in place yet, start with the Practice Management System articles and come back to this one.
Setup takes three stages:
- Link the Business Management Service to each location
- Configure Appointment Types
- Generate a Booking Link
Stage 1: Link the Business Management Service
This step connects each location to the Practice Management System integration so its appointment types sync into Patient Prism.
- Go to Manage > Locations and open the location you want to set up.
- Click Edit in the top right.
- Find the Business Management Service field.
- Select the service you integrated earlier (Denticon in this example) and click Save.
Repeat these steps for every location that will offer online scheduling.
Once saved, the location is linked to your Practice Management System and its appointment types will appear in the next stage (it may take 15-30 minutes for them to load into the system).
Stage 2: Configure Appointment Types
This is where you decide which appointment types patients and the AI agent can book, and how each one is presented.
Once a location is linked, its appointment types appear under the location's Appointment Types tab.
Each appointment type has the following settings:
| Setting | What it controls |
|---|---|
| Title | The name patients see on the booking page. |
| Description | Optional. Extra detail about the appointment type, or anything else you want the patient to know before booking. |
| Bookable | Whether this appointment type can be booked. (controlled by PMS most of the time) |
| Visible | Whether this appointment type appears on the scheduler and can be seen by the AI agent. |
| Patient type | Whether this appointment type is offered to new patients, existing patients, or both. |
| Cancelable | Whether the person who booked the appointment can cancel it themselves. |
Bookable and Visible work together
An appointment type is only available for scheduling when both Bookable and Visible are turned on. If either one is off, the appointment type will not show on the scheduler and the AI agent will not be able to book it.
| Bookable | Visible | Result |
|---|---|---|
| On | On | Shows on the scheduler and the AI agent can book it |
| On | Off | Not shown on the scheduler and not visible to the AI agent |
| Off | On | Not available for scheduling |
| Off | Off | Not available for scheduling |
Recommended setup
- Go through the list and turn on Bookable and Visible only for the appointment types patients should be able to book. Leave both off for everything else.
- Check the Title and Description on each enabled appointment type so patients understand what they are choosing.
For each enabled appointment type, set the Patient type to new patients, existing patients, or both. For example, a cleaning or an emergency visit might be open to both, while a general consultation is offered only to existing patients and a new patient appointment is offered only to new patients.
- Decide whether patients should be able to cancel on their own, and set Cancelable to match.
In this example, three appointment types are enabled, and each has a description added:
These are the options you will want to make sure are correct:
Tip: If only one appointment type is available for scheduling, the scheduler skips the selection step and goes straight to that appointment type. This shortens the booking flow for the patient.
Stage 3: Generate a Booking Link
With at least one location linked and its appointment types configured, you can create the booking link patients will use. Booking links are created at the company level as Booking Groups, so one link can cover one location or several.
- Go to Manage > Companies and click the company you want to create a booking link for.
- Select the Booking Groups tab on the left, then click +Create in the top right.
- Fill out the two tabs in the window that opens:
-
General: Name the booking group and select the location(s) it should include. You can also add a logo and write a custom booking confirmation message.
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Design: Customize the font, style, and colors of the booking pages to match your branding.
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General: Name the booking group and select the location(s) it should include. You can also add a logo and write a custom booking confirmation message.
- Save the booking group. Your booking link is now ready to add to your website.
Single location vs. multiple locations
If the booking group includes one location, the link takes patients straight to that location's booking page.
If the booking group includes multiple locations, the link first shows patients the offices they can schedule with. Each office has a Book Now button that leads to that location's own booking page. You can also link directly to an individual location's booking page from that location's page on your website.