📅 Appointments & Scheduling

The Appointments module allows front-desk staff and clinicians to schedule, track, and manage patient visits across all practicing doctors in the clinic.

Accessible by: Admin, Receptionist, Doctor (Billing staff have read-only schedule visibility)

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1. Booking a New Appointment

1. In the sidebar, click Appointments (or press <kbd>A</kbd>).
2. Click the + New Appointment button.
3. Complete the booking fields:

1. Click Confirm Booking.

Once booked, the appointment enters the Scheduled state. If patient notifications are enabled, the patient receives an automated WhatsApp and SMS confirmation message containing the appointment time, clinic address (or Zoom video link for telemedicine appointments), and doctor details.

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2. Multi-Doctor Calendar View

Press <kbd>K</kbd> or click Calendar in the sidebar to switch from the list view to the interactive multi-clinician calendar:

• Day View: Side-by-side columns comparing each doctor's schedule for the day.
• Week View: Comprehensive 7-day schedule grid.
• Doctor Filtering: Toggle specific doctors on or off to focus on individual availability.
• Color-Coding: Bookings are color-coded by assigned clinician for rapid visual identification.

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3. Appointment Lifecycle & Statuses

Every appointment progresses through defined lifecycle states:

Record Integrity: Once an appointment is marked Completed, its clinical and scheduling timestamps are permanently locked to preserve medico-legal audit integrity.

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4. Handling Patient Arrival (Check-In)

When a patient arrives for their scheduled appointment:

1. Locate the booking in the Appointments list or Calendar.
2. Click Check In.
3. A visit encounter is generated automatically, and the patient is assigned a queue token and placed into the Today's OPD Queue for the doctor.

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5. Rescheduling & No-Shows

If a Patient Needs to Reschedule:

1. Locate the appointment and click Reschedule.
2. Select the new date and time slot.
3. The previous slot is freed up immediately, and an updated confirmation message is sent to the patient.

When a Patient Does Not Show Up:

If the appointment time passes and the patient has not arrived:

• Click Mark No Show. This updates the status to No Show rather than cancelling, allowing the clinic to track attendance reliability.
• You can reschedule directly from a No-Show record at any time when the patient calls back.

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6. Online Patient Self-Booking Portal

In addition to manual receptionist booking, ZidBit provides an Online Patient Booking Portal:

• Each clinic receives a custom booking link: https://zidbit.com/portal/your-clinic-slug
• Each doctor receives a personal microsite booking link: https://zidbit.com/dr/doctor-name
• Patients can view available doctor slots, choose a time, and enter their details directly from their phone or computer.
• Bookings created online instantly sync into the clinic's appointments schedule with an "Online Booking" tag.

(Learn more in Portals & QR Self-Check-in).