Patient Appointment Preferences

Patient appointment preferences let you record what a patient would prefer when your team is arranging appointments. Preferences can include preferred practitioners, locations, practitioner categories, schedule notes, and any extra notes.

These preferences do not book an appointment by themselves. They help staff and the patient app collect useful information so your team can offer appointment options that better match what the patient wants.

What The Settings Control

The Patient Appointment Preferences settings page controls two things:

Which preference fields are available.
Which options inside those fields can be selected by staff and by patients in the patient app.

For example, you might allow patients to choose their preferred practitioner, but hide an internal practitioner from the patient app. Staff could still see that practitioner if you want them to manage that preference internally.

The Most Important Rule

Disabled preference fields are always hidden.

If a field is enabled, it will appear only when there is at least one option available for the person using it.

For example:

If Preferred Locations is disabled, nobody will see it.
If Preferred Locations is enabled but no locations are visible to patients, patients will not see the field in the patient app.
If Preferred Practitioners is enabled and at least one practitioner is visible to patients, patients will see the field.

This keeps the patient app clean. Patients only see preference fields they can actually use.

Visibility Options

For practitioners, locations, and practitioner category options, each option can be set to one of these visibility levels:

Hidden: the option is not shown to staff or patients when recording preferences.
Staff only: staff can select the option, but patients cannot select it in the patient app.
Staff and patient app: both staff and patients can select the option.

Use Staff only for options that are useful internally but should not be offered directly to patients. Use Hidden for options that should not be chosen as a preference at all.

Why Default Visibility Matters

Each group has a default visibility setting.

The default is not just for the options that exist today. It also decides what happens when new options are added later.

For example, if most practitioners should be visible to patients, set the practitioner default to Staff and patient app. Then deselect or override only the practitioners you want to hide. When a new practitioner starts, they will automatically follow the default and appear in the list without needing extra setup.

If only a few practitioners should be available in the patient app, set the default to Staff only or Hidden, then override only the practitioners you want patients to see.

In general, choose the default that matches the normal case, then use overrides only for exceptions.

Recommended Setup Patterns

Most Practitioners Should Be Patient-Facing

Use this when almost all practitioners can be shown in the patient app.

Set the practitioner default to Staff and patient app.

Then override only the practitioners who should not appear to patients, such as internal, temporary, admin-only, or non-bookable practitioners.

This is usually the easiest setup to maintain because new practitioners automatically become visible.

Some Practitioners Should Be Staff-Only

Use this when staff can record a preference for a practitioner, but patients should not be able to choose them directly.

Set those practitioners to Staff only.

They will still be available to staff, but they will not appear in the patient app.

Hide Internal Or Secret Locations

Use location visibility to control which locations can be selected as preferences.

For example, if you have an internal room, admin location, testing location, or secret location, set that location to Hidden or Staff only depending on whether staff should still be able to use it.

If most locations should be visible, set the location default to Staff and patient app and override only the locations you want to hide.

Staff-Managed Preferences Only

If you want staff to record preferences but do not want patients to choose them in the app, set the relevant default to Staff only.

This is useful when a preference affects scheduling but needs staff judgement before being offered to patients.

Practitioner Categories

Practitioner categories let you offer preference choices that are not just a specific practitioner.

For example, you could create a practitioner category family for:

Practitioner gender.
Languages spoken.
Treatment style.
Personality preference.
Clinical interests.
Special skills or service areas.

This is useful when patients may care about the type of practitioner they see, but do not know which individual practitioner to choose.

For example, instead of asking the patient to pick a specific practitioner, you might let them choose a category such as "gentle approach", "sports focus", or "female practitioner".

How Practitioner Category Families Work

Practitioner category preferences are based on category families.

To make a category family available for appointment preferences:

Create the category family on practitioners.
Add the category options inside that family.
Assign those categories to the relevant practitioners.
Enable practitioner category preferences.
Select the category family in the Patient Appointment Preferences settings.
Choose the default visibility for the category options.
Override individual category options only when needed.

The patient app will show a category family only if at least one of its category options is visible to patients.

For example, if the "Practitioner gender" family is enabled but all of its options are Staff only, staff can use it but patients will not see it in the app.

What Patients See In The App

Patients only see:

Preference fields that are enabled.
Practitioner, location, and category fields that have at least one patient-visible option.
Options marked Staff and patient app.

Patients do not see:

Disabled preference fields.
Hidden options.
Staff only options.
Practitioner, location, or category fields with no patient-visible choices.

This means you can safely keep internal options available for staff without exposing them to patients.

What Staff See

Staff can see options marked:

Staff only.
Staff and patient app.

Staff do not see options marked Hidden when recording appointment preferences.

Use this when you want the staff workflow to be more flexible than the patient app, while still preventing fully hidden options from being selected.

Existing Preferences

Changing visibility settings controls what can be selected from that point forward.

It does not automatically delete a patient's existing saved preferences. This helps avoid losing information if an option is temporarily hidden or changed later.

If an existing saved preference is no longer visible, it may remain stored until the preference is updated.

Why A Field Might Not Appear

If a preference field is missing, check the following:

The field may be disabled.
There may be no visible options for that user type.
A practitioner may be disabled.
A practitioner may not be marked as providing services.
A location may be disabled.
A practitioner category family may not be selected.
A selected practitioner category family may have no visible options for that user type.

For patient app issues, remember that Staff only options are intentionally hidden from patients.

Quick Examples

Show All Practitioners Except One

Set the practitioner default to Staff and patient app.

Override the one practitioner you want to hide and set them to Staff only or Hidden.

This way, new practitioners automatically appear in the patient app unless you choose to hide them.

Keep A Location Internal

Set the location default to Staff and patient app.

Override the internal location and set it to Staff only or Hidden.

Use Staff only if your team should still be able to record that location as a preference. Use Hidden if it should not be selected at all.

Add A Gender Preference

Create a practitioner category family for practitioner gender.

Add the category options, assign them to practitioners, then enable that category family in Patient Appointment Preferences.

Set the default visibility based on whether patients should be able to select those options themselves.

Add A Personality Or Style Preference

Create a practitioner category family such as "Practitioner style".

Add options like "gentle approach", "direct approach", or "high energy", depending on what is appropriate for your clinic.

Assign the categories to practitioners, then enable that family in Patient Appointment Preferences.

This gives patients a more natural way to describe what they are looking for without needing to know every practitioner by name.

Best Practice

Set defaults for the common case, then override exceptions.

This keeps the settings easy to maintain as your clinic changes. New practitioners, locations, and category options will automatically follow the policy you chose, and you only need to adjust the unusual cases.