Set Up Online Booking

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).

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.

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.

1. Ensure you have met all of Ocean's online booking prerequisites.
2. Login to the Ocean Portal. Click the "Menu" button in the top left corner and select "Online Booking". Click the "Settings" button in the top right corner.
3. Next to the Appointment Types heading, click Configure.

Enable EMR Appointment Type Mapping/Disable EMR Appointment Type Mapping

Optional. EMR appointment type mapping is an optional feature that will allow for appointment type restrictions. This button will turn on EMR appointment type mapping. When this feature is on, you will see an added field called EMR Appointment Type. Read more about Appointment Type Mapping for online booking. 

 

Add Appointment Type

This button will add a new row to the appointments table.

 

Appointment Type Label

Refers to how the patient will see the appointment when booking online. We recommend giving each of your Appointment Type Labels a distinct name.

Appointment Duration

Refers to the length of the appointment that will be booked in your provider's schedule, in minutes.

Virtual Visit Appointment

Optional. This setting will remove the physical address of the clinic and include a note "Please do not go to the clinic for this appointment" for the patient on the confirmation page and in the confirmation email.

EMR Appointment Type

Optional. Select from a list of your EMR appointment types. If you've recently added a new appointment type in your EMR or if you notice a discrepancy in the EMR appointment types listed, try running a full schedule sync in Cloud Connect.

Mapping your online booking appointment type(s) to EMR appointment type(s) will allow Ocean to book the appointment in your EMR schedule and assign it the defined EMR appointment type. Enabling EMR appointment type mapping will allow you to apply restrictions based on the appointment type when assigning appointments to your providers' schedules. 

1. Navigate to Ocean's online booking settings.

   • Login to the Ocean Portal. Click the "Menu" button in the top left corner and select "Online Booking". Click the "Settings" button in the top right corner.
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   • Next to the Appointment Types heading, click Configure.

2. Enable EMR Appointment Type Mapping.

   • On the left side of your screen, click the button Enable EMR Appointment Type Mapping. This will add a fourth column to the appointments table titled EMR Appointment Type.
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   • Use the Add Appointment button and configure the appointment(s) you would like to make available for online booking. Ensure each appointment is given a duration (in minutes).
   • For each appointment defined in your table, you must select an EMR Appointment Type from the dropdown (this is a list of appointment types from your EMR). Ensure you do not leave any items blank in your table.
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   • When you are finished, click the Save button.

Where to find EMR Appointment Types

The second step in the online booking configuration is to set up your providers' schedules who will be using Ocean's online booking. Ocean will provide you with the schedules that have been synced through Ocean Cloud Connect.

1. Login to the Ocean Portal. Click the "Menu" button in the top left corner and select "Online Booking". Click the "Settings" button in the top right corner.
2. Next to the Provider Schedules heading, click Configure.
3. Click Add Schedule.
4. Select the provider schedule you would like to add. You can start typing into the search bar, or use the window below the search bar to find your provider's schedule. See descriptions below for details about each setting.
5. Click the Save button.

Patient friendly schedule name

This is the name that will appear to patients when selecting this provider schedule. This will also be the name for this specific configuration of this provider schedule in your online booking configuration.

EMR Time Slot Interval

This refers to the provider schedule's time slot interval in your EMR.

Appointment Types

Click the "Add Appointment Type" button to select the appointments that were configured in step one that patients can book into this schedule .

*Note: If EMR appointment type mapping is on, you can enable appointment type restrictions here. Read more about appointment type restrictions.

Who is allowed to book into this schedule?

All patients- any patient can book into your schedule.

Patients with Selected Primary Providers- use this setting to restrict patients who have certain provider's at their primary provider to book into this schedule. For example, if Dr. Doug Kavanagh would only like his patients to book into his schedule, he would select Dr. Doug Kavanagh from the drop down list of providers

Booking Window

Set how far in advance patients can book into this schedule.

Day/Time Restrictions

Set recurring times in the provider's schedule that aren't available for online booking. For example, you can select all days of the week, from 12pm - 1pm to ensure Ocean doesn't display appointment time slots over the lunch hour to be booked online.

Advanced Settings

The advanced settings contain your online booking forms. Advanced Ocean users can customize their eForms to additionally screen patients, or gather more information during their booking process.

If you decide to map to EMR Appointment Types, you will have access to appointment specific restrictions.

Only book [appointment type] in [EMR appointment type] EMR time slots

Using this restriction will allow you to set time slots in your schedule that will accept bookings of this appointment type.

For a step-by-step guide on how to use this restriction, please refer to: Restrict the types of appointments that can be booked into a certain time slot. 

Book a maximum of ## visits per day on [day of the week]

Using this restriction will allow you to limit the number of appointments of this type that are booked on a particular day. To add more days, click the Add Restriction button.

Prevent patients from booking another visit within ## days

Using this restriction will force the patient to wait a certain number of days before they can book an appointment of the same type again.

You can create multiple configurations for the same provider schedule. This can be helpful for a variety of reasons. For example, if a provider hosts a specialty clinic once a month and wanted a separate online booking link for those specialty appointments only, they could configure their default schedule to accept regular appointments, and their alternate schedule to accept speciality appointments. To reduce confusion, we recommend setting a different "Patient friendly schedule name" for each configuration of the same provider schedule.

1. Navigate to Ocean's online booking settings.

   • Login to the Ocean Portal. Click the "Menu" button in the top left corner and select "Online Booking". Click the "Settings" button in the top right corner.
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   • Next to the provider schedules you would like to edit, click Edit.

2. Add and configure your alternate schedule.

   • Next to the Default Configuration heading, click Add Alternate Configuration. Scroll down to find a new Alternate Configuration heading and setting below.
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   • Ensure you configure a different "Patient friendly schedule name" for your Alternate Configuration. An Alternate Configuration will inherit all of the settings from the default configuration. To change the settings for an Alternate Configuration, simply click the Change button next to Inherited from Default Configuration under each setting.
   • Click the Save button.

Booking links provide a URL for your patients to book their appointments online.

1. Ensure you have configured your Appointment Types and Provider Schedules prior to configuring your booking links.
2. Login to the Ocean Portal. Click Menu and select Online Booking.
3. Next to the Booking Links heading, click Configure.
4. Click Add Booking Link. Configure your booking link settings (see descriptions of each setting below).
5. Click Save.
6. Copy you booking link's URL. You can promote this URL on your clinic's website, or in emails to your patients.

Name of Online Booking Link

give your online booking link a name. This will only be visible in the online booking configuration page in the Ocean portal and won't be seen by patients.

Linked Directory Listing

Select the directory listing for this online booking link. Information from the contact information heading in the directory listing will populate the confirmation page and the confirmation email that patients will see when they have successfully booked an appointment online. The logo from the directory listing selected will appear in the online booking link's landing page.

Do you want to limit online booking to patients with a chart in your EMR?

Restrict your online booking link to only allow patients with an existing chart in your EMR to book, or allow brand new patients (no existing chart in the EMR) to book online. To learn more about how brand new patients can book online, please refer to this article: Can brand new patients book appointments online?

Bookable Schedules

Select the providers schedules that will be available for patients to book using this link. If your provider schedule has an alternate schedule, click on the arrow next to Default Schedule and select the alternate schedule.

Introductory Message

Optional. This message will appear on your online booking link's landing page.