Creating and modifying appointment types

🎞️ View video tutorials:
Creating appointment types in the CHR
Overview of appointment types and presenting issues for eBooking

The TELUS Collaborative Health Record (CHR) comes out-of-the box with the following appointment types:

Phone Visit
Consultation
Follow Up Appointment

During implementation, some of your requested appointment types may also be added. However, you can add to or modify these appointment types as needed.

If you have French enabled in your CHR, you can create and edit the appointment type names, short and long descriptions in English and French. Once configured, the appointment types display in your current language across all areas of the CHR, with automatic fallback to the available language if the content isn't available in your set language.

Patients can also view appointment types and descriptions in their preferred language when booking appointments in the patient portal or CHR Connect app. If content isn't available in the selected language, the system defaults to showing it in the available language.

💡 Tip: If you no longer use an appointment type, you can archive it. Refer to Archiving appointment types for more information.

Steps

1. From the main menu, click Settings > Scheduling > Appointment Type.

A list of your clinic's active appointment types displays.

2. To modify an appointment type, click it. Or, to create a new appointment type, click Add.

💡 Tip: To copy an existing appointment type, click the copy icon beside the appointment type you wish to copy. The copied appointment type appears at the bottom of the list with the word copy at the end of its name, and all the data is duplicated to the new appointment type.

The Appointment Type window opens.

3. In the General tab, set the appointment type properties using the below table.

Field	Description
Name	Enter the appointment type name. 📌 Note: If you are using CHR Connect and the appointment type name has phone or virtual in it, the location address is hidden and a virtual or phone icon displays beside the appointment in the Appointments section of CHR Connect. 💡 Tip: If this appointment type is available for eBooking, make sure the name is understandable for patients.
Short Description	Type a short description that's visible when patients are prompted to select an appointment type during eBooking. Refer to Adding appointment type descriptions for eBooking.
Long Description	Type a more detailed description that appears when patients click the i icon when they are prompted to select an appointment type during eBooking. Refer to Adding appointment type descriptions for eBooking.
Icon	Select an icon to represent the appointment type. This icon displays beside the appointment type in appointments and in the patient eBooking site. See Customizing appointment type icons.
Color	Select the colour these appointments have on the schedule. 💡 Tip: For easy viewing, use different colours for different appointment types or categories.
Length	Select the default appointment length (in minutes). 📌 Note: When booking or approving these appointments, you can change the appointment length if necessary.
Internal Default Status	Select the default appointment status when these appointments are booked internally by your clinic staff. The most common selections are Confirmed or Booked. 📌 Note: If the default status is Booked, the appointment confirmation email sent to the patient indicates they must confirm the appointment.
Show Location On Appointment Letter	Determines if patients see the clinic location's address and map on any notifications they receive regarding this appointment type (for example, on appointment confirmations.) Select one of the following options: Default: Defaults to your clinic-wide setting Enable: Displays the clinic location's address information Disable: Does not display the clinic location's address information (for example, for virtual visits) Refer to Displaying your clinic address and map on appointment notifications.
Auto Assigning Workflow Phase	If you are using Pathways, you can automatically move the patient into a specific workflow phase for this type of appointment. For example: 15 minutes before the appointment time, the patient can move to pathways and into the Pre Visit phase. To enable, Click the toggle so it turns blue. Slect the appropriate Transition from the list to move a patient into that workflow phase. Under Moving Timing, select when the patient should be moved into the Pathway - immediately (as soon as the appointment is booked), or a time before the appointment. 📌 Notes: If you do not enable Auto Assigning Workflow Phase for a virtual appointment type, the patient will be assigned your default phase when they sign into their visit (refer to Configuring transitions for your Pathways). If your clinic is having data migrated from another system, do not configure the Auto assigning workflow phase feature until after the data migration is complete.

4. In the Online Booking tab, set the appointment type's online booking properties using the below table.

Field	Description
Types Of Patients Allowed To Book	If this appointment type is available for eBooking, select if New Patients (unregistered) and/or Existing Patients can book these types of appointments. For example, only existing patients can book a follow up appointment. 📌 Notes: If you don't want to allow unregistered patients to register online as new patients, always clear the New Patients checkbox. If you don't want this appointment type to be available for online booking, clear both the New Patients and Existing Patients checkboxes. Refer to Allowing new and current patients to self-book an appointment type. To apply conditions to appointment types so that patients can only e-book a specific type of appointment if certain rules are met, select Only patient included by the conditions defined below, and select + Add condition to add conditions. For more information, refer to Applying conditions to appointment types.
Minimum Booking Notice	If this appointment type is available for eBooking, select the minimum amount of notice your clinic requires for patients to book the appointment(s) online. Refer to Setting how far in advance patients can self-book appointment types (eBooking).
Maximum Booking Notice	If this appointment type is available for eBooking, select from the list how far in advance patients can book the appointment(s) online. Refer to Setting how far in advance patients can self-book appointment types (eBooking).
Default Status From Patient	Select the default appointment status that appear in the CHR schedule when patients book this type of appointment online. If this appointment type is available for eBooking and you want to review online appointments before they're officially booked, choose Requested. See Setting appointment types to require approval when booked through eBooking.
The Appointment Can Be Booked With	If this appointment type is available for for eBooking, you can set which providers patients can book with. You can allow patients to book only with their primary provider, or allow patients to book with any available provider offering this appointment type. Select if the patient can book this appointment type with: Any practitioner offering the appointment: The patient can request an appointment with any practitioner that has this appointment type configured in their schedule. The patient's practitioner of choice: Prompts the patient to select a provider before they select an appointment time. The patient can then choose an available appointment time with the selected provider. 💡 Tip: If you select this option, the providers' biographies and spoken languages are visible to patients in eBooking. The patient's primary practitioner or: The patient can choose an available appointment time only with their primary practitioner. Click No alternate practitioner selected if you want the patients to select from alternative practitioners for the appointment type. 📌 Note: This field is greyed out if you allow New Patients to book appointments online. Refer to Setting which provider(s) patients can book certain appointment types with when self-booking appointments.
Practitioner Search At Patient Registration Step	If this appointment type is available for eBooking, when prompted to review or add their demographic information, you can choose if patients can search and select their primary practitioner. To enable the search field, select the toggle so it turns blue. To make this field a required field for the patient to complete, select the Required to select a practitioner checkbox. 💡 Tip: For only specific providers to display in the primary practitioner search window, click All practitioners selected and select the providers. Refer to Allowing patients to confirm their primary provider when self-booking appointments.
Auto Assigning Appointment Time	To have the eBooking site auto-assign the next available appointment date and time (that's available for this appointment type) to patients when they self-book this appointment type, select the toggle so it turns blue. This is handy if you want to see these patients as soon as possible, as earlier appointment slots must be filled before patients can book later appointment slots. Refer to Auto-assigning appointment times when patients self-book appointments. If you want patients to choose an available appointment date and time from a calendar, select the toggle so it turns grey. 📌 Note: This is different from stacking appointments, which is a setting in scheduling hours that allows patients to select a date and the system assigns the next available appointment time.
Online booking pre-payment	If you're using CHR Connect and have a Stripe integration, you can require patients to pay a fee online before booking an appointment via the CHR Connect app. To enable click the toggle so it turns blue. From the Product list, choose the product that you want to charge for this appointment type. Refer to Charging an appointment fee during eBooking.

5. To attach pre-visit Qnaires to the appointment type, click the Pre-Visit Qnaires tab, and then click +Qnaire. Refer to Attaching pre-visit Qnaires to appointment types.

6. To customize when appointment reminders are sent for this appointment type and to add additional comments to the reminder message(s), click the Reminders tab, and then add or modify the reminders. Refer to Customizing appointment reminders for an appointment type.

📌 Note: For each appointment type, you can customize the message text for all email and SMS messages related to these appointments. This includes messages for appointment reminders, confirmations, changes and rejections. See Customizing notification templates.

7. When you're finished, click Save.

Updated May 16, 2025