Patient Self-Scheduling Configuration Settings

Use this page to look up Patient Self-Scheduling configuration information, including best practice setting values.

Important: All athenaCommunicator features require the "Patient Cycle" implementation setting enabled at the tablespace level.

Patient Self-Scheduling via Patient Portal base settings

Setting Name	Description	Location	Configuration Level	Default Value	Best Practice Value	Customer Facing	Setting Owner for New Customers	Setting Owner for Existing Customers	Notes
Web scheduling - Only surface care team appointment slots for existing patients	Only surface providers that existing patients have had an encounter with in the portal scheduling workflow. This setting only works if "Enhanced Portal Scheduling" is enabled and "Consumer Portal Scheduling" is OFF.	> Implementation > Client Functions > Settings	Tablespace	OFF	OFF	No	PEX Onboarding	CSC	This setting appears in the Settings page but no longer is active.
New Patient Case for Web Scheduled Appointment	Create a new Patient Case anytime an existing patient schedules an appointment online.	> Implementation > Client Functions > Settings	Tablespace	OFF	ON	No	PEX Onboarding	CSC
Discover More Providers in Portal Patient Self-Scheduling	Allows patients to discover availability and book appointments with providers within their provider group, but beyond patient's usual provider, providers seen before, and had clinical encounters with.	> Implementation > Client Functions > Settings	Tablespace	ON	ON	No	PEX Onboarding	CSC

Patient Self-Scheduling enabling scheduling rules

Setting Name	Description	Location	Configuration Level	Default Value	Best Practice Value	Customer Facing	Setting Owner for New Customers	Setting Owner for Existing Customers	Notes
Add/view scheduling rule	These rules are optional. They help put restrictions around blocks of time, providers, appointment types etc to help patients schedule properly in the providers schedule.	> Communicator > Communicator > External Scheduling Rules	Provider, Appointment Type	OFF	Optional	Yes	PEX Onboarding	Customer	Ideally rules are built into the providers scheduling template, thus reducing the number of manual rules to manage via external scheduling rules.

Patient Self-Scheduling enabling patient appointment reasons

Setting Name	Description	Location	Configuration Level	Default Value	Best Practice Value	Customer Facing	Setting Owner for New Customers	Setting Owner for Existing Customers	Notes
Add Patient Appointment Reason	These are patient facing reasons they select in order to schedule an appointment. These are required if a patient is to schedule a net new appointment on their own.	> Communicator > Communicator > Patient Appointment Reasons Settings	Tablespace	Active PARS depend on specialty	Enable all that apply for the practice.	Yes	PEX Onboarding	Customer	The reason is what the patient see's to schedule. The reason why patients don't see appointment types to schedule is that some of them may be labeled in a way that only the staff understands i.e. FU20 may mean to a staff member Follow Up Appointment for 20 minutes, a patient won't know that naming convention hence the PAR: Follow Up

Patient Self-Scheduling enabling departments, providers, appointment types

Setting Name	Description	Location	Configuration Level	Default Value	Best Practice Value	Customer Facing	Setting Owner for New Customers	Setting Owner for Existing Customers	Notes
Mapping Patient Appointment Reasons to Appointment Types	When a PAR is mapped to an appointment type, this means the patient can schedule the appointment initially on their own.	> Communicator > Communicator > Appointment Settings > Edit Settings > Web Scheduling > Edit Settings	Appointment Type, Provider, Department, Tablespace	None	Map all PARs to an appointment type	Yes	PEX Onboarding	Customer	*Enable at provider/appt type level as there is a bug at the other levels, which will not always trickle down the configuration as it should.
Allow web scheduling	When this setting is checked off, the patient can reschedule the appointment only. Note: If the appointment is mapped to a PAR, this setting is greyed out as ON. This means the patient can schedule and reschedule the appointment.	> Communicator > Communicator > Appointment Settings > Edit Settings > Web Scheduling > Edit Settings	Appointment Type, Provider, Department, Tablespace	OFF	ON	Yes	PEX Onboarding	Customer	Allow web scheduling is an outdated term, it truly means reschedule only.
Allow appointments within the next xx days	Allows patients to see a certain window of time to scroll through and schedule their appointment.	> Communicator > Communicator > Appointment Settings > Edit Settings > Web Scheduling > Edit Settings	Appointment Type, Provider, Department, Tablespace	90	Default	Yes	PEX Onboarding	Customer	This is of benefit if the practice books further out and they want to allow patients to see a 90 day window or more of time to schedule an appointment.
Disallow scheduling/cancellation within xx hours	Allows customers to designate a window of time where patients are not allowed to cancel or schedule an appointment if it's within x time of the appointment start time.	> Communicator > Communicator > Appointment Settings > Edit Settings > Web Scheduling > Edit Settings	Appointment Type, Provider, Department, Tablespace	24	Default	Yes	PEX Onboarding	Customer	This is usually used in cases so patients cannot cancel or schedule last minute appointments.
Require cancellation reason	Prompts the patient to enter a comment when cancelling their appointment to inform the practice of their reasoning.	> Communicator > Communicator > Appointment Settings > Edit Settings > Web Scheduling > Edit Settings	Appointment Type, Provider, Department, Tablespace	OFF	ON	Yes	PEX Onboarding	Customer
Show more appointment types	Allows customers to select more appointment types to configure PSS.	> Communicator > Communicator > Appointment Settings > Edit Settings > Web Scheduling > Edit Settings	Appointment Type, Provider, Department, Tablespace	N/A	Select All	Yes	PEX Onboarding	Customer	Typically this is needed when more appointment types are added after tablespace creation. Not all appointment types may show in the drop down to enable to schedule or reschedule, thus a customer would need to show more appointments to select for enablement.