Scheduler: Find Availability

The Find Availability option allows you to use criteria to search for available appointment slots. Find Availability is especially helpful when you want to schedule an appointment for the next available provider or schedule an appointment with date flexibility. You can choose to find availability for a single appointment (standalone) or for a recurring series of appointments (recurrent).

Standalone Appointments

Use the following steps to find availability for standalone appointments. 

Important
The top portion of the Find Availability window is the same for standalone and recurrent options.

1. From any view in the Scheduler, click Find Availability. 
2. Select Standalone and set your search parameters in the Find Availability window.
3. There are four required fields on the Find Availability window: Duration, Range, Prefered Time, and Display up to. The rest of the fields are optional and can help you focus your search.  
   • Duration: Appointment length 
   • Range: Indicate the date range of appointments that the system should search through (e.g., Today, Tomorrow, Next Week, Next Month, etc.) 
   • Preferred Time: Select your search criteria using the available fields.
     • Important
       The Prefered Time drop-down segments are configured in your Scheduler Preferences if you would like to update the ranges.
   • Display Up To: This field is set to 20 by default, meaning that it will display up to 20 appointment slots that match your criteria. You can change this number as needed. 
4. Although not required, to view only the appointment blocks that match the appointment type you are creating, select an appointment type from the drop-down and then enable the Appointment Blocks only toggle.
   
5. Once you’ve set your criteria, click Find.  
6. Any matching results are displayed in the Slots Available table with the Location, Resource, Date, Time, and Appointment type information available for review. You can print or download the results by clicking on the respective icons.
7. To schedule an appointment, click Select.
   • Once you have added the start time, a back arrow will appear, which allows you to return to the Find Availability window.
8. The appointment will be prefilled with the appointment search criteria. Anything not included in the search (like Appointment type) won’t pre-fill.  
9. Complete the appointment details and click Save to schedule.

Recurring Appointments

To find availability for a recurring appointment series, follow these instructions.

1. From any view in the Scheduler, click Find Availability. 
2. Select Recurrent and set your search parameters in the Find Availability window.
3. There are five required fields on the Find Availability window: Location, Duration, Resource, and Start Date. The rest of the fields are optional and can help you focus your search. You can select the patient here or later on in the process.
   • Location: Select the location where the appointment will occur if your provider is in multiple locations.
   • Duration: Appointment length 
   • Resource: Select the desired resource from the drop-down list.
   • Start Date: Choose the date on which you wish the recurring appointments to begin. The field defaults to the current date.
     • Once you have added the start time, a back arrow will appear, which allows you to return to the Find Availability window.
4. Select your recurrence pattern. The section defaults to weekly with the recur every set to 1.
   • Daily: Choose this option if you wish the appointments to occur every day. Use the Recur Every field to indicate if the appointments should occur every week, two weeks, three weeks, etc.,
     
   • Weekly: Choose this option if you wish the appointments to reoccur weekly. 
     
     
     • Use the Recur Every field to indicate if the appointments should occur every week, two weeks, three weeks, etc.
     • Set the desired day (or days) the appointments are to occur. 
   • Monthly: Choose this option if you wish the appointments to occur once a month.
     • If you select On: Day, enter the date on which the appointment will always occur (here, the appointment would always occur on the 1st of the month.)
     • If you select On: Week/Day choose which week and day the appointment will always occur (here, the appointment will occur on the first monday of every month).
   • Custom: Choose this option if you wish to manually select the days on which the appointments will occur. You must choose the end date before you can select the appointment dates.
     
5. Ends: The method by which the appointments are ended.
   1. On: Choose the date on which the appointment series ends. 
   2. After: Choose how many appointments there will be in total. 
6. Preferred Time: Select your search criteria using the available fields.
   • Important
     The Prefered Time drop-down segments are configured in your Scheduler Preferences if you would like to update the ranges.
7. Although not required, to view only the appointment blocks that match the appointment type you are creating, select an appointment type from the drop-down and then enable the Appointment Blocks only toggle.
8. When you have set your perimeters as desired, click Find.
9. Depending on the options you choose, you will see the available options that meet the criteria you chose.
   1. Grey sections with Xs in them indicate that the resource you chose is not available and you will not be able to schedule an appointment with them during that time slot.
   2. Blue sections indicate that the resource is available. Double-click on the desired time to create a new appointment.
   3. The New Appointment window displays all the information as entered in the previous steps.
      • Choose the name of the patient from the drop-down if you have not already done so (this is a required field) and add any additional information, as needed.
   4. Click Save to schedule.
      1. Note: If you attempt to schedule a recurring appointment over an existing out of office block, you will receive a warning, however, you can override the warning by clicking Save again.