Provider availability and time off

Availability tells NeatPractice when a provider can be booked. It comes from four things, all read in the location's time zone:

1. The location's business hours: nobody is booked at a location while it is closed.
2. Holidays: a practice holiday closes every location for the day, and a location holiday closes that location.
3. The provider's weekly hours at that location.
4. The provider's time off, which applies at every location.

A provider is available only where all four agree. A 9:00 to 5:00 day stays 9:00 to 5:00 when daylight saving time starts or ends, and a provider who works in two time zones keeps local hours at each.

Who can change availability#

Every provider can set their own weekly hours and time off. People whose role can manage providers or manage schedule settings can change them for anyone. Everyone with access to Setup or the schedule can see them.

When your clinic turns on time off approval, providers ask for their own time off instead of adding it, and an approver books it.

Weekly hours#

Open Setup > Providers > Providers, open a provider and click the Availability tab. The Weekly hours table lists the hours at each location, the dates they apply and a Current badge on the ones in effect today.

To add hours:

1. Click New Weekly Hours.
2. Choose the Location. It starts as the provider's default location.
3. Set Starts, and Ends if the hours stop on a known date. Leave Ends empty to keep them until you replace them.
4. Under Working hours, set a day, a start time and an end time for each interval. New hours start as Monday to Friday, 8:00 to 5:00.
   • Add a second interval on the same day for a split shift, such as 8:00 to 12:00 and 1:00 to 5:00.
   • Click the duplicate button on an interval to repeat it on the next day.
   • Intervals on the same day cannot overlap; one can start when the other ends.
5. Click Add Hours.

A provider can have hours at several locations. At one location, only one set of hours applies on any date. When you add hours that start later than an open-ended set, NeatPractice ends the earlier set the day before, so changing a schedule from a date is one step. If the new hours overlap a set that already has an end date, NeatPractice tells you and saves nothing.

Hours for certain appointment types#

An interval can be kept for some appointment types only, such as evaluations on Tuesday mornings. In the interval's last box, pick one or more appointment types; leave it on Any type for every type. In the Weekly hours table, an interval kept for certain types is marked with an asterisk (*).

Find a Time then offers that interval only when you search for one of its types. Booking another type there still works, but the booking checks warn that the provider's hours at that time are kept for other appointment types.

To change hours, choose Edit from the menu on the row. Delete hours only when they were entered by mistake; to change a schedule from a date, add new hours starting that day instead.

Time off#

The Time off table on the same tab lists vacations, sick days and other absences, latest first. To add one:

1. Click New Time Off.
2. Choose the From and To dates and a Reason: vacation, sick, personal, continuing education, administrative or other.
3. Leave Whole days on to block every day in the range. Turn it off to block part of a day: the time off then runs from Starts at on the first date to Ends at on the last date.
4. Click Add Time Off.

Time off blocks the provider at every location, read in each location's own time zone. New bookings there get a booking check warning.

Appointments already booked in the time off#

If the provider already has appointments in that time, Booked Appointments in This Time Off opens right after you save. For each appointment, choose What to do:

• Leave as booked: nothing changes.
• Cancel (by the clinic): the appointment is cancelled with your clinic's first by-clinic cancellation reason and the note "Provider time off".
• Reschedule: pick the New time (date and start). The appointment keeps its length and goes through the usual booking checks.

Leave Notify patients on to send a notice to each patient whose appointment you cancel or reschedule, then click Apply. Each appointment is handled on its own: if one cannot be changed (for example, the new time fails a booking check), NeatPractice says which one and why, and the others still go through. Patients who could not be notified are listed so you can call them.

Click Decide Later to close the window without changing anything. A notice above the Time off table then lists each booked appointment with its date and time; click one to open it and reschedule or cancel it, and click Dismiss once you are done.

You need permission to manage appointments to cancel or reschedule from this window.

Location hours and holidays#

Business hours and holidays are part of each location. Open the location and click the Hours and holidays tab; see Locations. Practice-wide holidays are on Practice.