What is the difference between ‘Consolidated’, ‘Unrestricted’ and ‘Use Interval’?

ClinicOffice Web Edition has 3 modes for appointment booking. This option can be found under the Settings / Admin Settings / Bookings tab screen.

When a patient uses ClinicOffice Web Edition to search for an appointment slot, some customers have been confused and believe that the system is not showing the correct results. This article is designed to explain how ClinicOffice Web Edition determines which available time slots to show the customer and the difference between the 3 booking modes.

CONSOLIDATED

Let’s presume that a patient requires a 30 minute appointment with Dr John Smith next Monday. On that date, Dr Smith has the following availability :-

  • 9:30am to 11:30am (2 hours free)
  • 2:00pm to 3:00pm (1 hour free)

What time slots will be offered to the patient? ClinicOffice Web Edition will offer the following slots :-

  • Monday at 9:30am for 30 minutes
  • Monday at 2:00pm for 30 minutes

In other words, ClinicOffice Wed Edition offers the FIRST AVAILABLE slot of any contiguous period of available time.

What is this option useful for?

Firstly, if you allowed patients to pick their own time slots then your diary would get in a real mess. If patients could pick any timeslot, then they could enter something like 10:50 which essentially wastes 20 minutes of the practitioner’s time from 10:30 to 10:50.

Secondly, by far the majority of our customers have appointments of varying lengths e.g. 30 mins for a treatment, 1 hour for a consultation. If you allowed patients to pick appointments every 1/2 hour, then someone could pick 11:30-12:00 and another patient could pick 12:30 to 1pm, leaving 2 fragmented 30 minute slots. If a 3rd patient then wants a consultation (1 hr) it can’t be fitted in that morning and the practitioner is left with a fragmented morning which inefficiently wastes time.

In summary, by only allowing patients to choose blocks of time which are contiguous, ClinicOffice Wed Edition :-

  1. maximises the efficiency of fitting varying length appointments; and
  2. stops the practitioner’s diaries from becoming fragmented

Q. What if a patient specifically wants an appointment in the middle of the morning e.g. at 11am?

In that case, when the patient searches for their appointment they should select the time period when they are available – e.g. 11:00am to 12:00pm. In this case, ClinicOffice Wed Edition would offer the intersection of when the patient is available and when the practitioner is available. Using the above example, this would be :-

  • Monday at 11:00am for 30 minutes

UNRESTRICTED

The difference here is mostly self explanatory. While the consolidated option tries to keep things tidy, the unrestricted option will just offer a whole list of available time slots based on the criteria that the patient has used. They will be able to book the appointment for any slot that they wish.

 

INTERVAL

1. Setting the Interval in the Admin Panel

If you select time interval for the booking system then interval chosen determines how time slots are divided throughout the working day. For example:

  • A 30-minute interval creates slots like 09:00, 09:30, 10:00, 10:30, etc.
  • A 15-minute interval creates slots like 09:00, 09:15, 09:30, 09:45, etc.

This interval acts as a grid that structures the booking schedule, ensuring consistent availability throughout the day.

2. Appointment Durations & Availability

Each appointment can have its own length, such as:

  • 20 minutes
  • 30 minutes
  • 60 minutes

However, the system will only allow bookings to start at the pre-defined intervals. For example, if a 30-minute interval is set:

  • An appointment that lasts 20 minutes will still start at 09:00 or 09:30 but may leave a gap before the next available slot.
  • A 60-minute appointment will occupy two consecutive 30-minute slots.

Hopefully this helps to explain how ClinicOffice Wed Edition reports on available time slots when booking in patients. If you have any questions, please feel free to post below.