Prerequisites
Please note that Ocean's Online Booking is currently only available for Telus PS Suite and Med Access EMRs only.
- The Ocean site must have Cloud Connect set up.
- The user must have a Patient Messages & Reminders Licence.
- The site must have a configured and validated directory listing. Details from this directory listing are used to populate the clinic's information on the confirmation page and/or email to the patient.
Ocean is able to book appointments into your EMR scheduler through the Telus API. There are certain limitations to the Telus API that affect the following aspects of your EMR.
The Scheduler
By default, Ocean will display all empty time slots in your EMR for online booking. There are several ways you can make slots unavailable for online booking (depending on your EMR).
- Set Booking Time and Clear Booking Time. Using the Set Booking Time and Clear Booking Time to indicate bookable time slots in your schedule. Unavailable time slots will be denoted with a violet "x" in the scheduler.
- Booking Filler Appointments. Time slots with patients assigned are unavailable for online booking. To block off an appointment for online booking, you can simply mark it with "no online booking" in the description.
- PS Suite Appointment Types. For advanced restrictions, Ocean will require your site to use PS Suite appointment types. You must include "online booking" or "/ob" in the title of these appointment types.
- Background Text and Colour. Ocean cannot read background text and colour from the PS Suite scheduler. Time slots marked with background text and colour only will be seen as open, bookable time slots to Ocean.
- Working Hours. Ocean can read from the working hours setting and will not book appointments on dates and time slots that are marked as non-working hours.
- Booking Filler Appointments. Time slots with patients assigned are unavailable for online booking. To block off an appointment for online booking, you can simply mark it with "no online booking" in the description.
Warning for PS Suite users:
Do NOT attempt to block off time slots in the schedule by changing the slots using the schedule template or "Recurrent Text & Colour" feature. TELUS does not make these background colours available to third-party systems like Ocean, so the online booking engine is unable to determine their existence. As far as Ocean can see, a slot with a blue background with no appointment is the same as a slot with a white background with no appointment.
Primary Providers
Ocean can apply restrictions for online booking based on the patient's primary provider. However, Ocean obtains this information from the EMR in a very specific way.
A note on searching provider's schedules in your EMR.
In PSS: Click Appointments to open the EMR scheduler. In the top menu, click Providers to view a list of all providers in your EMR.
In Med Access: Click the dropdown menu under Provider or Resource to view a list of all providers in your EMR.
- The provider name that is being pushed out by Med Access is the text description and does not always match the provider name in Med Access. Please ensure that the provider names in Med Access are consistent.
Member vs Patient Status
Ocean doesn't key in on the Member Status of the patient. Ocean will key in on the Patient Status which must be set to "Active" in order for the patient to book online.
New Patient Chart
Ocean can search through existing patient's charts in your EMR. However, Ocean cannot create a brand new chart for a patient in your EMR. Read more about how to allow brand new patients to book online.