How slot search works
How doctor schedules become bookable times in LeapHealthOS, and how capacity, walk-in reserve, booking rules and booking limits change what staff can book.
When you pick a service, centre and date in the booking wizard, LeapHealthOS shows which doctors can see the patient and which times are still free. This page explains where those times come from, why a doctor or time might be missing, and which settings change what you see. It is for administrators who set up schedules and for front-desk staff who want to understand the booking screen.
Slot settings are in SettingsPlatform ConfigurationSystem Settings on the Slot Engine tab. Booking limits also appear on the Appointments tab. For every setting, see Appointment and slot settings reference.
What a doctor needs before they can be booked
A doctor appears for a service at a centre only when all of these are set up. Work through this list when someone asks "why can't I book Dr X?".
- The service lists the doctor's staff type among the roles that can deliver it. A service with no roles listed cannot be booked with any doctor.
- The doctor is assigned to the centre, and the assignment is active.
- The doctor offers the service at that centre.
- The doctor has a weekly schedule (or an override) that covers the date. See Weekly schedules, blocks and overrides.
- The schedule falls within the centre's working hours for that day.
- The service has a price that applies to this doctor or centre. See How a price is resolved.
Where the times come from
- The doctor's calendar. An override for a date replaces the doctor's normal schedule for that day. Otherwise the doctor's schedule windows are used, with any blocks taken out. An all-day block removes the whole day.
- Centre hours. The windows are trimmed to the centre's opening hours for that weekday.
- Slot length. The length comes from the first of these that is set: the doctor's duration for this service, the centre's duration for the service, the doctor's default slot length, then the service's default duration. Any extra minutes for the visit type are added (see Visit type below).
- Buffer. Buffer Between Slots (default 5 minutes) is left between one slot and the next.
- Bookings already made. Each slot shows how many places are left.
- Rules. Walk-in reserve, booking rules and booking limits can make a slot unavailable.
Example
A doctor works 09:00 to 12:00, the service takes 15 minutes, and the buffer is 5 minutes. The bookable times are 09:00, 09:20, 09:40, 10:00 and so on, up to 11:40.
Calendar options that have no effect yet
- Breaks in the centre's working hours do not remove slots. To block a lunch hour, add a recurring block to each doctor's schedule.
- A weekly schedule set to repeat every second or third week still repeats every week.
- Limiting a schedule window to particular services has no effect; every window offers all of the doctor's services.
- Overlapping schedule windows each produce their own times, so you may see times that are offset from each other.
Capacity and overbooking
Each slot takes Default Per Slot patients (default 1). When Overbooking Enabled is on, Overbooking % of that number is added, rounded up.
Default Per Slot | Overbooking % | Patients per slot |
|---|---|---|
1 | off | 1 |
1 | 10 | 2 (10% of 1 rounds up to 1) |
10 | 10 | 11 |
10 | 25 | 13 (2.5 rounds up to 3) |
A place is taken by appointments that are draft, confirmed or checked in, and by appointments waiting for approval.
Consultations in progress free their slot
Once the doctor clicks Begin Consultation, that appointment no longer takes up its slot. If a consultation runs over, the next slot can still be booked.
Walk-in reserve
Walk-in reserve keeps part of each slot free from online booking, so the front desk can fit in patients who arrive without an appointment. It is in the Walk-In Reserve section of the Slot Engine tab.
The reserve is worked out for each slot, from that slot's capacity (patients per slot, including any overbooking). It is not a share of the doctor's day.
Strategy | What is held back in each slot |
|---|---|
None | Nothing (default) |
Percentage | Reserve % of the slot's capacity, rounded up |
Count | See the limitation below |
Apply to Online Only (on by default) decides who is held back:
- On: patients booking online and through the WhatsApp AI booking assistant cannot use the reserved places. Front-desk staff booking in the wizard can.
- Off: nobody can use the reserved places, including the front desk.
The reserved places are always the last ones left in the slot. Bookings made by anyone, including the front desk, fill the slot first, and online booking for that time closes once only the reserved places remain. A held-back booking at that point is refused with The remaining capacity at this time is reserved for walk-in patients.
Examples
Patients per slot | Reserve % | Places reserved | Online booking for that time closes when |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | 20 | 1 (20% of 1 rounds up to 1) | Always closed: online patients cannot book any time |
4 | 10 | 1 (0.4 rounds up to 1) | 3 places are taken |
10 | 20 | 2 | 8 places are taken |
11 (10 per slot plus 10% overbooking) | 20 | 3 (2.2 rounds up to 3) | 8 places are taken |
To use a walk-in reserve, raise Default Per Slot above 1 first.
The Count strategy has no effect yet
Choosing Count does not reserve any places. Use Percentage.
Walk-in reserve is not connected to walk-in tokens. See Walk-in tokens.
Booking rules
The Booking Rules section greys out times that are too soon or too far ahead. Greyed-out times cannot be picked in the booking wizard.
Setting | Default | A time is greyed out when |
|---|---|---|
Min Advance Booking | 1 hour | It starts less than this many hours from now |
Max Advance Booking | 90 days | It starts more than this many days from now |
Same Day Booking | On | It is today and this setting is off |
Same Day Cutoff | 2 hours | It is today and starts within this many hours from now |
If the Booking Rules section has never been saved, the form shows 1 hour for Same Day Cutoff while 2 hours is applied. Saving the section stores the value shown.
The booking wizard's calendar goes up to 45 days ahead, whatever Max Advance Booking says.
Booking limits
Booking limits stop one patient from holding too many appointments. If a limit is reached, the booking is not saved and staff see a message such as Maximum daily bookings limit reached for this patient.
Limit | What it counts for one patient | Default in effect |
|---|---|---|
Max Active Bookings/Patient | All their active appointments | 5 |
Max Bookings/Patient/Day | Appointments on the same day | 3 |
Max Bookings/Patient/Doctor/Day | Appointments with the same doctor on the same day | 1 |
Max Appointments/Centre/Day | Appointments at the same centre on the same day | No limit |
Max Appointments/Week | Appointments in the same week | No limit |
Exception for Different Services | Off. When on, the daily limit counts each service separately, so a patient can book different services on the same day. | Off |
"Active" means draft, pending approval, confirmed or checked in.
The same limits appear in Booking Rules on the Slot Engine tab and in Booking Limits on the Appointments tab. The value on the Appointments tab is used when both are set. When a limit is empty on the Appointments tab, the Slot Engine value applies. That is why, out of the box, a patient can book at most 3 appointments a day and 1 a day with the same doctor. Exception for Different Services is taken from the Appointments tab.
Limits are not shown in advance
The booking wizard does not grey out times because of booking limits. Staff find out when they confirm the booking.
Visit type
Every appointment has a visit type: New, Existing, Follow-Up or Repeat. When a service has different prices for different visit types, the visit type decides the fee. A doctor can also be given extra minutes per visit type, for example a longer slot for new patients; ask your implementation team to set this up. The Patient Type Duration fields in System Settings (New Patient Extra, Existing Patient Extra, Follow-Up Extra and Repeat Patient Extra) have no effect yet. See Appointment and slot settings.
- New: no earlier visits at your hospital.
- Follow-Up: the doctor asked for a follow-up and the patient is within the follow-up period.
- Repeat: the patient was seen recently by this doctor, centre or hospital.
- Existing: anyone else.
The booking wizard uses new-patient times and fees
Times and fees in the booking wizard are always worked out as for a new patient. If your services have different New and Follow-Up prices, check the fee on the Confirm and Pay step before you confirm.
Sort order
Sort By in the Search section lists times Earliest first (default) or Cheapest first.
Settings that have no effect yet
These settings can be changed but do not affect which times are offered. Leave them at their defaults.
- In Slot Generation: Granularity, Min Slot Duration, Align to Hour and Break Handling. Only Buffer Between Slots is used.
- In Search: Default Range, Max Range, Max Results and Include Fully Booked. Fully booked times are never shown.
- In SKU Resolution: Priority Order, Strict Matching and Cache TTL.
- The Approval section on the Slot Engine tab. Use the one on the Appointments tab instead.
Hospital, centre and doctor settings
Slot settings can be saved for the whole hospital, a centre, a department or a doctor. See How configuration is inherited.
- Buffer, capacity and visit-type extra minutes can be set per doctor.
- Set walk-in reserve, booking rules, booking limits and sort order for the whole hospital or a centre. The list of times does not use doctor or department values for these.
- Department values are not used for slot times.
Troubleshooting
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