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Booking a new appointment

PHOXBook pharmacy portal (rx.phoxbook.ca): Book one patient or a whole family on one screen: the patient, the services and their questions, the time, then contact and consent.

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Written by William

Where to start

The same New appointment dialog opens from all of these:

  • Dashboard: the New Appointment card ("Book or walk-in")

  • Header: the calendar-plus button at the top right of any page

  • Appointments: the New Appointment button, or click an empty time on the calendar

  • Pharmacy calendar: click an empty time

  • Find Patient or Appointment (Ctrl + K): New appointment on a PhoxBook account, or the book button ("Book an appointment for this patient") on a dispensing-system patient

  • A patient's profile: New Appointment

  • Waitlist: Book Appointment on a row

  • An appointment: Book again, or Book dose 2

  • A minor-ailment assessment: Book follow-up

When you start from a patient, what is known is filled in and a line at the top says where it came from, for example "From Zas Test's patient profile. Name, date of birth, gender and contact are filled in." When you start from a time on a calendar, that time is already chosen ("Chosen on the calendar").

What you see

New appointment dialog

  • The header reads "New appointment", then the patient's name and the chosen services once you enter them.

  • On the left is the work: the people on the booking, the patient's details and the list of services.

  • On the right is the Booking rail with three steps: Patient and services, Time, and Contact and consent. The step you are on is open. A finished step keeps a short summary and an Edit link.

  • There is no separate review step. The rail is the review: everything you have entered is summarized there before you confirm.

  • The button at the foot of the rail moves you to the next step. When it is greyed out, the reason is written right under it, for example "Choose a time."

Step 1: Patient and services

The patient

  • Enter the first name, last name, date of birth (as YYYY-MM-DD; the age shows beside it) and gender.

  • Names can use any letters, including accents ("Hélène"), and spaces, hyphens and apostrophes.

  • Sex assigned at birth is asked only when a chosen service needs it, and says which service.

More than one person

  • Click Add person to book a family member on the same booking, up to six people.

  • Each person is a chip at the top showing how many services they have. Click a chip to open that person's details and services. The rail lists everyone.

  • Everyone on the booking shares one email and phone.

  • If two people have the same name, gender and date of birth, both are marked. Change the details or remove the extra person.

Finding the patient in your dispensing system

Find in dispensing system appears when your pharmacy has patient linking on and only one person is on the booking.

  1. Type at least 3 letters of the first or last name and click Search

  2. Each result is scored against the name, date of birth and gender you typed, for example "72 of 80"

  3. Click Use this patient

The patient's details fill only the fields that are still empty, and the booking is linked to that record when it is made. If you then change the name or date of birth, the dialog shows what the record has and reminds you to check with the patient; the booking is still linked. Remove drops the link. Adding a second person also removes it, because a booking for more than one person is not linked.

Choosing services

  • Search by service or category name, or scroll the list, which is grouped by category.

  • Tick each service the patient needs. In a category marked One per person, picking a second service replaces the first; Undo brings it back.

  • A greyed-out service says why it cannot be booked for this person, for example "65 and over" or "Not offered for this gender".

  • Not booked here means Head Office has blocked the service from booking. Open it to read Head Office's message to the patient.

  • Waitlist · 18 of 20 means the service is waitlist-only at your pharmacy. See Waitlist-only and mixed bookings below.

  • When you start from Book again, Book dose 2, a follow-up or the waitlist, only that visit's service is listed, with a line saying why. To book a different service, start a new appointment.

Eligibility and screening questions

Each chosen service appears in the rail with its questions:

  • Eligibility · read to the patient: read each question and choose the patient's answer.

  • Screening · read to the patient: read each question and record Yes or No.

An answer that rules the patient out blocks the service, and the reason under the button says so, for example "Flu Shot is blocked for Zas Test. Remove it or change the answer." If the eligibility check cannot be reached, the dialog says "Eligibility check temporarily unavailable"; you can continue, and confirm the age and province rules with the patient.

Click Continue to time.

Step 2: Time

  • The calendar shows the days you can book. Closed days are greyed out, and the last day of the booking window is noted under the calendar.

  • Start times are grouped Morning, Afternoon and Evening, in the store's own time, for the total length of the chosen services. Earlier times today are not offered ("Earlier times today have passed.").

  • A dashed time is unavailable, with the reason under its group, for example when the service needs a qualified pharmacist and nobody at the store is qualified for it. It cannot be chosen.

  • If a day has no open times, the dialog offers Go to the next open date.

  • Pharmacist, optional: leave it empty for any available pharmacist, or pick one. When your pharmacy uses staff qualifications and a chosen service needs a qualified pharmacist, only pharmacists qualified for it are listed; a service that needs no qualification leaves everyone listed.

Click Continue to contact and consent. The time is checked again; if it has just filled up, choose another.

See Selecting a time for the details of the time picker.

Step 3: Contact and consent

  • Email and Phone: one of them is required; they are used for everyone on the booking.

  • Preferred contact: Email or Text. It is used only when the patient consents to both.

  • Booked by: Phone for a booking taken over the phone, Walk-in for a patient at the counter.

  • Read to the patient: read the privacy notice (Show the rest of the notice opens the remaining paragraphs), then the terms box, which is required, and the two consent questions for email and text messages.

The patient will receive shows, in the rail and under the consent boxes, which one channel the confirmation and reminders will go by, and why:

  • Both consented: the preferred contact decides.

  • Only one consented: that one, whatever the preference.

  • Neither consented: "No confirmation or reminders will be sent". Give the patient the confirmation code and the time before they leave or hang up.

When the booking is linked to a PhoxBook account, the email is locked to the account ("Locked to the PhoxBook account."). Remove account link unlocks it; the booking then does not appear on the patient's account.

Click Confirm booking.

After you confirm

The done screen shows:

  • The confirmation code, with a copy button

  • The patient, when, the services, the pharmacist and who booked it

  • What the patient will receive: for example "Confirmation and reminders will go by email to zas.test@example.test"

  • Not linked to Kroll (or your system), with the reason, if the link to the dispensing-system record could not be made. Link now appears when the link can be tried again from here

Click Done to close. The appointment is on the calendar with the status Scheduled.

Waitlist-only and mixed bookings

  • Every chosen service is waitlist-only: there is no Time step. The button reads Add to the waitlist, and the done screen shows the patient's waitlist position and whether a waitlist confirmation will go by email, by text, or not at all.

  • Some services are waitlist-only: the bookable services are booked at the chosen time and the others go to the waitlist. The note under the button says which, for example "Books Flu Shot and adds Shingrix to the waitlist." The done screen shows the booking and each waitlist entry. If the person was already on that waitlist, the booking is still made and the done screen says so.

  • A full waitlist: the button is greyed out with the reason. Remove that service to continue.

When the booking cannot be made

  • The time filled up while you were booking: you are taken back to Time with a message; the contact and consent you entered are kept. Choose another time. A full time cannot be booked.

  • No pharmacist is scheduled to work at this time, or the daily booking limit is reached: choose another time or date. Nothing was booked.

  • The booking is still processing: the first try has not finished. Wait a moment and check the appointments list before you try again.

  • You can't book appointments: your account does not have the Create appointment permission. A pharmacy manager can give it to you.

  • Staff booking is switched off for this pharmacy: head office controls this setting; ask them to turn it back on.

  • Checking your access: shown for a moment while your permissions load.

Tips

  • Read the eligibility and screening questions to the patient as written; they come from the service set-up.

  • Check the email and phone with the patient: they decide where the confirmation goes.

  • For a patient standing at the counter, set Booked by to Walk-in.

Need help?

Open the Help Center from the ? icon in the header, or press Shift + ? for keyboard shortcuts.

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