Online scheduling streamlines appointment booking for your practice, offering a user-friendly experience for both patients and staff. Follow these steps to configure online scheduling and optimize your settings.
Configuring Online Appointment Scheduling in TrackStat
Purpose of Online Scheduling
Online Appointment Scheduling allows new and existing patients to book appointments at any time of the day and night without having to call or text the office. Use this feature to set up and control appointment purposes/types, provider availability (hours), options, and tracking while reducing front desk workload. New patient online scheduling also creates a new patient record in your EHR automatically and reduces manual entry efforts as well as data entry errors. To avoid unintended bookings, ensure proper configuration of provider availability. If specific timeslots are not set for an appointment type, patients might inadvertently book any time within the provider’s general availability. Explicitly define availability windows to align with practice scheduling preferences.
Audience
This article is for office managers, administrators, and staff members with permission to manage Online Scheduling settings.
Definitions
Online Scheduling
The TrackStat feature that allows new and existing patients to book appointments without staff assistance.
Visit Purpose (aka Appointment Type)
The reason for the visit selected by the patient during the scheduling process (for example, New Patient, Adjustment, Maintenance Care).
Case Type
A classification that determines how an appointment is handled in ChiroTouch (for example: Chiropractic, Personal Injury, Workers Compensation, Massage). Case Types not available in ClinicMind/Genesis accounts.
Prep Time
Additional time added before or after an appointment for setup or preparation.
Provider Availability
The days and times (hours) a provider is available for online booked appointments.
Appointment Grouping
A rule that limits how many appointments can be booked within a specific time block.
Thank You Page
The page or message shown to patients after they complete online scheduling.
Tracking Scripts
Code snippets (Google, Facebook, or other platforms) used to track scheduling conversions.
Rules and Constraints
Appointment Types (Visit Purposes) must be created in your EHR and used at least one time before they are visible in Online Scheduling.
Appointment duration must match the duration in your system.
TrackStat's Online Scheduling uses one shared scheduling link for all new patient appointment types and one shared scheduling link for all existing patient appointment types.
Unique scheduling links are not available for each Appointment Type (Visit Purpose).
The "Available for online scheduling" box must be checked for each Provider that should be available through online scheduling.
The "Available for online scheduling" box must be checked for each Visit Purpose (Appointment Type) that should be available through online scheduling.
Specific Visit Purposes (Appointment Types) must be selected within each provider settings to make them available through online scheduling. Visit Purposes will be yellow when selected.
Patients can be allowed to reschedule appointments, cancel appointments, or both.
Navigation Paths
Extras (3 dots icon) > Scheduling > Settings
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1: Access Online Scheduling Settings
Go to Extras (3 dots icon)
Select Scheduling
Click Settings
Step 2: Configure Visit Purposes
Visit Purposes (Appointment Types)
Confirm all Appointment Types in your EHR are visible in TrackStat by clicking the "Add Visit Purpose" button in the upper right corner
If an appointment type is missing, schedule an appointment using that specific Visit Purpose in your EHR and check the patient in. Visit Purposes must be used at least one time in order to be utilized in online scheduling.
Set Visit Purpose Details
Select the Visit Purpose tab within Settings
Click the "Add Visit Purpose" button in the upper right corner
Select the Visit Purpose from the drop down
Enter a Display Name that will be visible to patients. If a Display Name is not entered, the Original Name of the Visit Purpose will be shown to patients when scheduling online.
Enter a Description if desired. This will be visible to patients.
Set the Duration or appointment length in minutes. This number must match the default settings for the appointment type in your EHR.
Set Prep Time in minutes if needed. Most practices use 0 minutes.
Select Intervals (optional) to control the start time of the appointment type. Some options include 0:00 on the hour, 0:05, 0:10, 0:15 on the quarter hour, 0:30 on the half hour, 0:45 on the three-quarters hour. For example, if you only want to allow a New Patient appointment type to schedule at 9:00AM and 9:30AM, then check the boxes for 0:00 on the hour and 0:30 on the half hour. Times can also be controlled in the Provider Availability Settings as well.
Select Available For New Patients, Existing Patients or All
Select Case Type(s) that are allowed to schedule this type of appointment. Select only one default case type for new patient appointment types such as TBD. Select multiple case types for existing patient appointment types. Select shift on the keyboard to select all case types at the same time. Select Ctrl on the keyboard to select specific case types from the list.
Select a Room if desired (optional)
Add a Price ($) if desired to display to patients (optional).
Charging Price - check the "Charge patients for a visit" box and enter a price. Note this feature requires the merchant processor integration with Fortis or CashPractice.
Check the "Available for online scheduling" box to make it visible to patients.
Check the "Show Price" box to display a price for patients (optional).
Check the "Show Duration" box to display the length of the appointment to patients when scheduling (optional).
Click the blue Save button to save your changes.
Step 3: Set Referral Sources
Select the Referral Sources tab within Settings
Check the boxes next to the referral sources that should be visible to new patients when scheduling their first appointment.
Click the Edit icon on each row to edit the Display Name as needed. This is the Referral Source name that will be visible to patients and may be different that the terms used internally within the clinic.
Step 4: Set Provider Availability
Add Providers and Hours
Select the Provider Availability tab within Settings
Click the "Add Provider" button in the top right corner
Select the provider to add to online scheduling from the drop down list. Please note that Providers must be assigned as the primary provider to at least one patient in the EHR to be visible on the list.
Add a Display Name that will be visible to patients. This may be different than the provider name used internally.
Add a Description if desired. This is optional.
Add Max Appointment per Time Block setting if needed. Use -- setting for none. Note that the Max Appointment per Time Block setting for the provider overrides the individual settings for Visit Purposes (appointment types). This setting may not be necessary if using Visit Purpose groups and the Weight Strategy.
Select the Appointment Interval. Options include 5, 10, 15 all the way to 120 in intervals of 5. 15 minutes is a very common appointment interval. The Appointment Interval is the time between appointment start times. In order to use the selected appointment interval, uncheck all intervals and override them in the selected Visit Purpose settings.
Check box "Available for online scheduling" so that patients can schedule appointments with this provider.
Check box "Opt-in to Weight Strategy" if using Appointment Purpose groups. The Weight Strategy enables more flexible scheduling by considering the "weight" or resource usage of different appointment purposes. For instance, if Group A can have 6 appointments per time block and Group B only 3, then we equate two Group A appointments to one Group B appointment. This allows mixing of appointments from different groups within the same time block, maximizing efficiency.
Purpose Groups - drag and drop Visit Purposes into different groups to control how many appointments can be scheduled within the same time block. For example, create a "New Patient" Group with a limit of 1 appointment per time block to prevent overbooking of new patient appointments. Create an "Existing Patients" Group with a limit of 2 appointments per time block to allow 2 chiropractic appointment types to be scheduled during the same time block. Adding Visit Purposes that are not available for patients to schedule online to Groups can be used to properly calculate availability for appointments. An example would be adding a "ROF" or Report of Findings Day 2 appointment type into the "New Patient" Group to prevent scheduling a new patient and a Day 2 appointment at the same time.
Provider availability hours - set hours for each provider. Time selections for availability can be general such as 8:00AM - 12:00PM and 2:00PM - 5:00PM or can be very specific such as 9:00AM - 9:30AM, 10:30AM - 11:00AM, 1:30PM - 2:00PM and 3:00PM - 3:45PM. Keep in mind that the end time of the appointment cannot exceed the end time stated in the availability section. For example if a new patient appointment type is 30 minutes in duration and the last availability block ends at 5:00PM, then the last new patient appointment that could be scheduled would be at 4:30PM. Check the Unavailable box to block an entire day. Make sure to remove all selected hours for that day (select blanks for time options).
Really want to have full control over available hours? Click the gear icon next to each individual Visit Purpose (Appointment Type) to set specific hours for each Visit Purpose and Provider. Click on the box for each day of the week to set the hours. Then check the Override provider availability hours box to use those hours for the specific appointment types and provider.
Use Override provider availability to restrict or extend hours for specific appointment types.
Going to be out of the office for an appointment or a conference? Is a doctor sick or unavailable? Use the Set exceptions for specific days section to block off or prevent online scheduling on certain days. Click the day on the calendar and add specific times or check the "All day" box to block off the time.
Always make sure to Save your changes!
Define explicit time slots for appointment availability to restrict unintended bookings. For example, configure Discovery Day appointments exclusively for Mondays between 8:00 AM and 12:00 PM on 15-minute intervals. Use the Override provider availability hours feature to ensure these intervals apply only to the set appointment types.
Step 5: Configure Site and Settings
Customize scheduling preferences and messages displayed on the site
Click the Site and Settings tab in Scheduling > Settings
New Patients Online Scheduling Link is available in Site and Settings as well as in Account Settings (accessed via triangle icon in upper right corner). This link can be copied and added to your website as a button to allow new patients to schedule appointments online. The feature will search for availability on your scheduler and create a new patient record and add an appointment to your EHR. The link will include your unique Practice ID and will be similar to this: https://clinic.patienthealthcenters.org/book?clinic=PRACTICEID
Existing Patients Online Scheduling Link is available in Site and Settings as well as in Account Settings (accessed via triangle icon in upper right corner). This link can be copied and added to your website as a button to allow existing patients to schedule appointments online. The feature will search for availability on your scheduler and add appointments to your EHR. This feature can also allow patients to view, reschedule and cancel existing appointments based on your settings selection. The link will include your unique Practice ID and will be similar to this: https://clinic.patienthealthcenters.org/schedule?code=PRACTICEID
Embed Scheduling on Your Website
Copy the Embed Code in the grey area that starts with <iframe id = and paste into your website where you want scheduling to appear.
To prepopulate query parameters in the embedded scheduler from your website, paste the additional script that starts with <script> function configure() before the </body> tag. Example parameters:
?first_name=John&last_name=Doe&[email protected]Supported parameters:
first_name,last_name,email,phone,birth_date
Scheduling Preferences
Workflow Options - select radio button next to Capture Information First to ask new patients to enter their contact information before seeing dates and times of available appointments or select bubble next to Show Appointments First to display dates and times of available appointments before asking patients to enter their contact information. The Show Appointments First setting is generally preferred by most marketing agencies and clinics.
Check box to Allow patients to cancel appointments online
Check box to Allow existing patients to reschedule appointments online
Check box to Allow existing patients to schedule new appointments online
Check box to Allow new patients to reschedule appointments online
How far can patients reschedule appointments? Select options from dropdown menu to select anywhere from 3 days to 60 days in 1 day increments.
How far in advance can patients book? Select options from dropdown menu to select anywhere from 1 day to 90 days in 1 day increments.
How much advanced notice time do you require for appointments? Select options from dropdown menu to select 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours, 1 day, 2 days or 3 days
Check box to Receive an email notification when patients book an appointment online
Check box if New patients can only request appointments. Appointments must be confirmed by clinic in order to be pushed into EHR. This requires manually accepting or rejecting the appointment.
Check box if Existing patients can only request appointments. Appointments must be confirmed by clinic in order to be pushed into EHR. This requires manually accepting or rejecting the appointment.
Check box to make Patient cell phone required (recommended)
Check box to make Mobile opt-in required (required by law)
Click + button next to Email address for notifications to add additional email addresses to receive messages when appointments are scheduled or changed. Notifications are sent to the TrackStat Inbox by default when appointments are booked online.
Select statuses you want patients to be notified on update. Most common selection is cancelled and rescheduled.
Click color box to Choose primary color for scheduling pages
Click color box to Choose accent color for scheduling pages
Clearly define scheduling configurations and provider availability to prevent booking errors. Use explicit intervals, time blocks, and appointment-specific settings to maintain control over booking processes.
Allow First Available Provider Options
Choose one radio button depending on your preferences:
Disable first available provider. Always show provider if more than one
Enable first available provider and show providers
Enable first available provider and mask (hide) providers
Thank You Page
Customize the confirmation message, or
Redirect patients to a custom thank-you page on your website.
Use query strings to pass patient data for marketing and form pre-fill.
Tracking Scripts
Add tracking scripts for Google, Facebook, or other platforms.
Use these scripts to track completed scheduling conversions.
QR Code
Download the QR code.
Print or share it so patients can schedule using their phone.
Completion Criteria
Appointment types appear for patients during scheduling.
Providers show correct availability.
Patients can successfully book an appointment.
The correct confirmation message or thank-you page displays.
FAQs
How can I prevent a new patient from double-booking an appointment next to a “Report of Findings” (ROF) or another appointment type?
Add the ROF (or other appointment type) as a scheduling blocker by adding it to the same scheduling group as the New Patient appointment types without enabling it for online booking.
Go to Extras → Scheduling → Visit Purpose.
Add the Report of Findings (or the appointment type you want to block around).
Do not enable it for online scheduling.
Go to the Provider Availability tab.
Edit the provider’s schedule settings.
Find the scheduling group where New Patient appointments are available online.
Add the ROF (or blocked appointment type) into the same group as the New Patient appointment types.
Save your changes.
When that blocked appointment type is already on the schedule, patients will not be able to book New Patient appointments into those conflicting time slots.
How do I modify default settings for online scheduling?
Update the default settings in Site and Settings to control patient preferences, provider display, messages, and scheduling limits.
Do patients receive a confirmation when they schedule online?
Yes. Patients receive a confirmation email after they book online.
Can patients cancel or reschedule appointments online?
Patients can reschedule online if you allow it. Cancellation is optional and can be enabled or disabled in Site and Settings.
How far in advance can patients schedule online?
Patients can schedule based on the limits you set in Site and Settings (for example, 1 week to 3 months in advance).
How do I avoid simultaneous scheduling of incompatible appointments?
Use Appointment Grouping to limit overlaps and control how many appointments can be booked within a time block.
What if I don’t want patients to know which provider they are booking with?
Use the provider display settings to mask providers so patients do not see who they are scheduling with.