Appointment Scheduling

CareLaunch provides an appointment scheduling system that connects patients with providers. Patients book from a day or week calendar. Staff manage the full schedule from the appointment dashboard. Scheduling rules are set once for the organization.

Overview

The scheduling system includes:

• Patient Scheduling Interface: Book appointments during registration or from the portal
• Provider Schedule Management: Configure availability, breaks, and out-of-office periods
• Appointment Dashboard: View and manage all appointments
• Patient calendar: Day and week views only
• Staff calendar: Day, week, and month, plus schedule and table views
• Rescheduling and Cancellation: Organization-wide policies for appointment changes
• Workflow-Specific Controls: Booking windows, layout, and payment requirements on a registration workflow, on top of the organization settings

Patient Booking Experience

Finding Available Appointments

Patients can book appointments through:

1. During Registration: Optional scheduling step in the registration workflow
2. Patient Portal: Book new appointments anytime
3. Rescheduling: Change existing appointment times

Registration-driven scheduling uses the workflow builder controls documented in Managing Patient Registration. A workflow can set its own layout, booking window, and payment requirements. Those choices sit on top of the organization-wide scheduling settings. The scheduling settings apply to the whole organization.

Booking Flow

1. Select Service: Choose the type of appointment needed
2. Choose Provider (Optional): Select a specific provider or see all available
3. Pick Date and Time: View available slots in the calendar
4. Confirm Booking: Review details and submit

Calendar Views

On the Standard layout, patients see day and week only.

View	When patients see it
Week	Default on a larger screen. Compare open times across the week.
Day	Default on a phone. See the time slots for one day.

A registration workflow can choose a layout for that step:

• Standard: The day and week calendar above.
• Streamlined: Pick a date on a calendar, then choose a time on that day.

Staff use a different set of views on the appointment dashboard: Calendar (day, week, and month), Schedule, and Table.

Provider Load Balancing

When patients do not select a specific provider, CareLaunch distributes the appointment across available providers. Load balancing is an organization setting on its own page: Settings > Provider Load Balancing, in the Scheduling area of Settings.

Load Balancing Strategies

Choose one of four strategies:

• Round Robin
• Least Recently Assigned
• Random
• Least Total Assignments

Each strategy spreads new appointments across the eligible providers, using a different rule to pick the next one.

Least Recently Assigned also shows Assignment Window (minutes). That window is how far back recent assignments are counted. The default is 1440 minutes (24 hours).

Max Assignments Per Day applies with every strategy. It caps how many appointments one provider can receive in a day. 0 means no daily cap. The highest value you can set is 50.

Saving applies the choice to new bookings. Appointments that are already booked stay with the provider they have.

Appointment Types

Appointments are categorized by status. New appointments are Booked by default the moment a patient or staff member completes a booking — there is no separate provider-approval step unless your organization has configured payment-required scheduling.

Status	Description
Proposed	An open slot in search results, or a staff draft not yet submitted — not a confirmed booking
Pending	Awaiting payment, only used if your organization requires payment before confirming a booking
Booked	Confirmed appointment (the default status)
Arrived	Patient has joined their virtual visit or been checked in
Fulfilled	Appointment completed
Cancelled	Appointment cancelled by patient, staff, or an automatic trigger (e.g. expired payment session)
No-show	Patient did not attend

See Appointment Statuses Explained for the full breakdown of what triggers each status change, including which ones happen automatically.

Managing Appointments

For Patients

From the Patient Portal, patients can:

• View Upcoming: See all scheduled appointments
• View Past: Review appointment history
• Reschedule: Change appointment time (policy permitting)
• Cancel: Cancel appointments (policy permitting)
• View Details: See appointment information and preparation instructions

For Staff

The Appointment Dashboard provides:

• Calendar Overview: All appointments across providers, in day, week, or month
• Schedule and Table: The same appointments as a schedule or a table
• Filtering: By provider, service type, status, or date range
• Quick Actions: Reschedule or cancel appointments. Admins can also record a patient's confirmation with Confirm for Patient.
• Patient Information: Access patient details from appointment view

Appointment Confirmation

Confirmation is separate from an appointment's status. Confirming an appointment does not change its status, so a confirmed appointment is still "Booked." An admin can record a confirmation on the patient's behalf with Confirm for Patient in the appointment view.

Patient confirmation is coming soon. The Confirmation tab on Settings > Scheduling is marked Coming soon, and Require Patient Confirmation cannot be turned on. An organization that already has it on can still turn it off. The other confirmation settings are not shown while the feature is coming soon.

Configuration & Administration

Scheduling settings live at Settings > Scheduling and apply to the whole organization. A provider's weekly hours are separate — see Manage Recurring Hours.

The Scheduling page has six tabs:

Tab	What you set
General	Video calling, default duration, buffer time, late reminders, and auto no-show
Confirmation	Patient confirmation. Marked Coming soon; see above.
Booking & Limits	How far ahead patients can book, same-day rules, and how many active appointments a patient can hold
Cancellation & Refunds	Whether patients can cancel, the notice window, the policy text, and refunds
Rescheduling	Whether patients can reschedule, the notice window, how many times, and the policy text
Automations	The business-hours window used by automation messages that wait for business hours

Appointment reminders are not on this page. They are configured at Settings > Reminders. See Appointment Reminders.

How appointments are handed out when the patient does not pick a provider is Settings > Provider Load Balancing.

The catalog of visit types is Settings > Healthcare Services. A service can have its own estimated duration and the states where it is available.

General

• Enable video calling for virtual visits turns video on for the organization.
• Automatically add virtual visits to all scheduled appointments appears after video calling is on. It creates a virtual visit for each new appointment.
• Default Appointment Duration is the standard length in minutes (default 30).
• Appointment Buffer Time is the gap between appointments in minutes (default 15).

Late/No-Show Management is on this tab:

• Enable Late Reminder Resend sends the appointment reminder email again when the patient has not joined. Late Reminder Delay (Minutes) is how long after the start time to wait (default 5). Off by default.
• Enable Auto No-Show marks the appointment no-show when the patient does not attend. No-Show Delay (Minutes) is how long after the appointment ends to wait (default 0). Require No Join for No-Show limits that to patients who never joined. Auto no-show is off by default.

Booking & Limits

• Advance Booking Limit (Days) is how far ahead patients can book (default 30).
• Prevent Same-Day Appointments blocks booking for today.
• Minimum Advance Booking (Minutes) is the shortest notice a patient must give when booking (default 0).
• Enable Appointment Limit caps how many active appointments one patient can have. Max Appointments defaults to 5. Period (Days) defaults to 30; 0 counts all future appointments. The count includes upcoming appointments in proposed, booked, pending, or arrived. A Platform Admin can still book past the limit.

Cancellation & Refunds

These rules apply to the whole organization.

• Enable Patient Cancellation lets patients cancel from the portal (on by default).
• Minimum Notice (Hours) is how much notice avoids a late cancellation (default 24).
• Require Cancellation Reason asks the patient for a reason.
• Notify Provider on Cancellation tells the assigned provider.
• Cancellation Policy Text is what patients see.
• Charge Late Cancellation Fee is on the page but cannot be turned on.
• Enable Automatic Refunds refunds a payment when an appointment is cancelled, based on how much notice was given. Full Refund Threshold (Hours) defaults to 48. Partial Refund Threshold (Hours) defaults to 24. Partial Refund Percentage defaults to 50%.
• Show Admin Refund Prompt asks a staff member about a refund when they cancel an appointment that has a payment (on by default). It is skipped when automatic refunds are on.

Rescheduling

• Enable Patient Rescheduling lets patients reschedule from the portal (on by default).
• Minimum Notice (Hours) defaults to 24.
• Max Reschedule Count defaults to -1, which means unlimited.
• Reschedule Window (Days) is how far ahead to show open times (default 30).
• Require Rescheduling Reason, Allow Provider Change, Maintain Appointment Type, and Notify Provider on Rescheduling.
• Rescheduling Policy Text is what patients see.
• Charge Late Rescheduling Fee is on the page but cannot be turned on.

Staff can reschedule from the appointment dashboard.

Automations

Business Day Start, Business Day End, and Business Days define the window for automation message steps that have "Send during business hours only" turned on. A message that comes due outside that window waits until the window opens. The default is Monday–Friday, 09:00–17:00. The window uses the campaign's time zone when it has one, and otherwise the organization's time zone. At least one business day is required, and the end time has to be after the start time.

Workflow-Level Controls

Inside the registration workflow builder, open the appointment step and click Configure Options to tailor that workflow:

• Standard (day and week) or Streamlined (date, then times) layout
• Whether patients can choose a location, whether a Reason for Visit field is shown, and whether each available slot shows the provider
• Booking window overrides (Minimum Days Out and Maximum Days Out)
• Whether payment is required before booking, and whether to cancel an appointment that is not paid within a set number of minutes

The dialog also shows a Default Participants field, but it cannot be changed. The dialog has no settings for forms or for limiting which services patients see.

Rescheduling

Patient-Initiated Rescheduling

Patients can reschedule from the portal when Enable Patient Rescheduling is on:

1. Navigate to the appointment
2. Click Reschedule
3. Select a new date and time
4. Confirm the change

Cancellation

When cancellation is allowed:

1. Patient or staff initiates cancellation
2. The organization cancellation policy is checked
3. If permitted, the appointment is cancelled
4. The patient receives a cancellation confirmation
5. The slot becomes available for other patients

Notifications

The scheduling system sends automatic notifications:

Patient Notifications

Event	Notification
Appointment Booked	Confirmation with details and calendar attachment
Appointment Reminder	Reminders at the times set in Settings > Reminders
Appointment Changed	Rescheduling confirmation
Appointment Cancelled	Cancellation confirmation

Provider Notifications

Event	Notification
Appointment Assigned	Sent when a provider is assigned to an appointment and can open the details
Cancellation	Sent when Notify Provider on Cancellation is on
Rescheduling	Sent when Notify Provider on Rescheduling is on
Patient Arrived	Alert when a patient joins a virtual visit

Appointment Assigned

When a provider is added to an appointment with accepted participant status, they receive the Appointment Assigned notification. They can open the appointment from that notification.

Providers can receive it in-app, by email, by SMS, or as a browser push, according to their own preferences:

1. Open Notifications → Notification preferences from the sidebar
2. Find Appointment Assigned
3. Turn each channel on or off

Appointment Confirmation Request is a different notification. It is used when a provider is added with a status that still needs their response. The usual assignment notice is Appointment Assigned.

Calendar Integration

Appointment confirmations include ICS calendar attachments that patients can add to their calendar apps.

Conflict Prevention

The system prevents scheduling conflicts:

• Real-time Validation: Checks availability when booking
• Provider Overlap Detection: Prevents double-booking providers
• Out-of-Office Awareness: Respects blocked periods
• Break Time Protection: Won't book during provider breaks

Conflict Responses

When a conflict is detected:

• Error Response: Clear message explaining the conflict
• No Slot Holding: Availability is checked at booking time only

Virtual Visits

Appointments can include a video visit:

• Video calling: Turned on from Settings > Scheduling > General
• Automatic virtual visits: A visit is created for each new appointment when that option is on
• Join links: Included in the invitation when a template is configured
• Pre-visit instructions: Guidance for joining

Best Practices

For Organizations

• Set realistic availability: Don't overbook providers. Use Max Assignments Per Day when a daily cap is needed.
• Configure reminders: Turn on the channels you want under Settings > Reminders
• Define clear policies: Put the cancellation and rescheduling rules in the policy text patients see
• Review no-shows: Auto no-show is off until you turn it on under General

For Providers

• Maintain accurate schedules: Update availability promptly. Recurring hours are per provider and role, not an organization scheduling setting.
• Use out-of-office: Block time for vacations and conferences
• Build in buffer time: The organization buffer applies between appointments

For Patients

• Book early: Popular times fill quickly
• Add to calendar: Use the ICS attachment
• Arrive prepared: Review any pre-visit instructions
• Cancel if needed: Free the slot when the cancellation policy allows it

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

No Available Slots Showing

• Verify provider availability is configured
• Check that the service is active
• Ensure the date range is within the booking window
• Confirm providers aren't marked out of office
• If load balancing uses a daily cap, that provider may already be at Max Assignments Per Day

Appointment Creation Fails

• Check for scheduling conflicts
• Verify the patient has the required information
• Ensure the provider is active and available
• If an appointment limit is on, the patient may already be at Max Appointments

Notifications Not Sending

• Verify patient contact information
• Check Settings > Reminders for the channel and timing
• Check Appointment Assigned under Settings > Notifications when a provider did not get an assignment notice

Calendar Sync Issues

• Confirm the confirmation email included the ICS attachment
• Check email client compatibility
• Verify time zone settings

Related Documentation

• Appointment Statuses Explained
• Manage Recurring Hours
• Managing Provider Availability
• Healthcare Services
• Patient Registration
• Appointment Reminders
• Notifications
• Virtual Visits

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Last updated: October 2026