Appointment Types

Overview

Before appointments can be booked on your calendar, you need at least one appointment type configured under Operations. Appointment types define what can be scheduled, who or what is required, how booking works, and what happens before and after the visit.

An appointment type is the primary scheduling template your organization builds from. Each type captures a service or visit category — for example a new patient consult, follow-up, or imaging-only appointment — with its own duration, pricing, availability, and workflow rules. Most calendar and booking behavior flows from how these types are set up.

General Info

Core details that describe the appointment type to staff and patients:

• Duration — Length of the appointment slot on the calendar
• Price — Default charge associated with the visit, when applicable
• Description — Patient- and staff-facing summary of the service
• Requires room or provider — Whether booking must attach a specific room, a specific provider, or either, depending on how your practice schedules

Availability

Control when and with whom each appointment type can be booked:

• Attach rooms and/or providers to the appointment type for the windows when that service is generally available
• The scheduling engine is smart about shared resources — if a room or provider is assigned across multiple appointment types, they will never be double-booked. Conflicts are prevented across types, not just within a single calendar view

See Rooms & PACS for room setup used in availability rules.

Booking Configuration

Rules that govern how patients and partners schedule this appointment type:

• Publicly bookable — Whether the type appears on your public booking flow
• Patient booking email — Messaging and behavior around the booking confirmation path for patients
• Payment required — Whether payment must be collected at booking time
• Future booking window — How far in advance patients can schedule
• Minimum advance booking — How soon before the appointment start time a booking is allowed
• Buffer time between appointments — Padding after each slot to account for turnover or clinical prep
• Cancellation notice — Required notice period for cancellations
• Refund policy — How refunds are handled when appointments are cancelled or rescheduled

Booking, reminder, confirmation, and results emails are fully customizable with a rich text editor, so you can match tone, branding, and clinical instructions to your practice.

Appointment Reminders

Configure a reminder schedule for this appointment type — for example reminders at 24 hours and 2 hours before the visit. Reminder emails use the same customizable rich text templates as other patient-facing appointment messages.

Confirmation and Results

After booking and after clinical work is complete, you control how patients are kept informed:

• Confirmation — Automated or assigned to specific users on your team
• Results — Automated delivery or manual assignment when reports or outcomes are ready
• Custom emails — Tailored confirmation and results messages per appointment type, edited in the rich text editor

When results are assigned to users rather than sent automatically, those tasks surface in your team’s workflow so nothing is missed.

DICOM Imaging Configuration

For appointment types that include imaging, you can enable end-to-end study and report workflows:

• Process studies — Turn on imaging capture and processing for appointments of this type
• Modality — Specify the imaging modality (for example CT, MR, MG) tied to the workflow
• Report assignment — Choose who receives studies to read and complete reports
• Critical findings notifications — Staff to notify when critical findings are identified; these alerts surface in the calendar and in the view report flow so urgent results are visible in context

Users with Can Use AutoScribe can generate reports for qualifying imaging workflows. See Inviting Users for provider permissions.

Intake Forms

Attach patient intake forms to an appointment type so patients complete the right paperwork before or at the visit. You can assign one or more forms per type, or leave intake empty for types that do not require forms.

Forms can also be completed on office tablets for in-person check-in.

Connect Configuration

If your organization uses Avara Connect, each appointment type can participate in partner workflows:

• Referrals enabled — Allow approved Connect contacts to send referrals for this type
• Bookable in Connect — Let referring organizations book their patients directly on your calendar for this type (see Referrals for the full workflow)
• Payment required on Connect booking — When Connect booking is enabled, require or waive upfront payment for referred bookings
• Referral notifications — Staff to notify when referrals are received, so your team stays on top of inbound requests

Connect booking and referral settings work alongside your public booking and payment rules — configure each channel independently as needed.

Promo Codes

Create promo codes for public or Connect booking flows tied to this appointment type. Promo codes adjust pricing or promotions at checkout when patients or referring partners schedule online.

Scheduling Notifications

Assign staff to notify on scheduling events — new bookings, changes, cancellations, and other calendar activity — so the right people stay informed via email without monitoring the calendar all day.

Notification lists are per appointment type, which lets front desk, clinical leads, and specialty coordinators receive only the events relevant to their role.