Appointment Settings

This page is a complete reference for every setting that controls how appointments work in Hospital OS. Each setting is explained in plain language with its default value and practical examples.

Where to Change These

These settings are found in your hospital's configuration section. Most can be overridden at the centre or doctor level — see Config Hierarchy for details.

Slot & Scheduling

Setting	What It Does	Default	Example
Slot Duration	How long each appointment lasts	15 minutes	Set to 30 for specialist consultations that need more time
Buffer Between Slots	Gap between consecutive appointments	5 minutes	Gives the doctor time to prepare. Set to 0 if no gap needed
Slot Granularity	How finely time is divided	15 minutes	With 15 min: slots start at 9:00, 9:15, 9:30. With 30 min: 9:00, 9:30
Align Slots to Hour	Force slots to start on the hour	Off	When on, slots only start at 9:00, 10:00, etc. (not 9:15)
Min Slot Duration	Shortest possible appointment	10 minutes	Prevents creating very short appointments

Booking Rules

Setting	What It Does	Default	Example
Min Advance Booking	Earliest a patient can book before the appointment	1 hour	Set to 2: patients must book at least 2 hours ahead
Max Advance Booking	Furthest in the future a patient can book	90 days	Set to 30: patients can book up to 1 month ahead
Same-Day Booking	Whether patients can book for today	Allowed	Turn off to require at least 1 day advance booking
Same-Day Cutoff	Hours before slot time for same-day bookings	2 hours	With 2h cutoff: can't book a 3 PM slot after 1 PM
Max Bookings Per Patient Per Day	Daily limit for each patient	3	Prevents a single patient from taking too many slots
Max Bookings Per Patient Per Doctor Per Day	Same patient, same doctor, same day	1	Ensures a patient books only once per doctor per day
Max Active Bookings Per Patient	Total concurrent active appointments	5	Patient can have up to 5 upcoming appointments at once

Draft & Hold

Setting	What It Does	Default	Example
Hold Duration	Time to complete payment before draft expires	10 minutes	Set to 15 for complex payment processes
Payment Timeout	Payment window timeout	10 minutes	Must match or exceed hold duration
Cooling-Off Period	Wait time between booking operations	5 minutes	Prevents rapid repeated booking/cancellation

Approval

Setting	What It Does	Default	Example
Approval Required	Appointments need approval after payment	No	Turn on for specialist or limited-availability doctors
Approval Timeout	Hours to wait for approval decision	24 hours	Set to 4 for same-day appointment approvals
Timeout Action	What happens when approval times out	Auto-approve	Change to 'Cancel with Refund' for strict approval workflows

Capacity & Overbooking

Setting	What It Does	Default	Example
Default Capacity Per Slot	Patients per time slot	1	Set to 3 for group consultations or clinics
Overbooking Allowed	Book beyond slot capacity	No	Turn on for high-demand doctors with buffer tolerance
Overbooking Percentage	How much over capacity	0%	10% means a 10-capacity slot allows 11 bookings

Walk-in Reservation

Setting	What It Does	Default	Example
Walk-in Reserve Strategy	How to reserve slots for walk-ins	None	PERCENTAGE: reserve a % of slots. FIXED_COUNT: reserve exact number
Walk-in Reserve %	Percentage of slots kept for walk-ins	0%	20%: if doctor has 20 slots, 4 are prioritised for walk-ins
Walk-in Reserve Count	Fixed number of reserved slots	0	Set to 5: always keep 5 slots for walk-ins regardless of total
Apply to Online Only	Only restrict online bookings	Yes	Staff bookings bypass walk-in reservation

Patient-Type Duration

Setting	What It Does	Example
New Patient Extra Time	Additional minutes for first-time patients	Set to 10: new patients get 25 min slots (instead of 15)
Existing Patient Extra Time	Additional minutes for returning patients	Usually 0 (standard duration applies)
Follow-Up Extra Time	Additional minutes for follow-ups	Can be negative: set to -5 for shorter follow-up visits

Cancellation & Rescheduling

Setting	What It Does	Default	Example
Who Can Cancel	Roles allowed to cancel	Patient, Staff, Doctor, System	Remove Patient to allow only staff cancellation
Cancellation Reason Required	Require reason when cancelling	No	Turn on for tracking cancellation patterns
Max Reschedules	How many times an appointment can be rescheduled	3	Set to 1 for stricter scheduling
Reschedule Until Hours Before	Deadline for rescheduling	4 hours	Must reschedule at least 4 hours before the slot
Free Reschedule Count	Reschedules without a fee	1	First reschedule is free, subsequent ones may incur a fee
Reschedule Fee	Fee per paid reschedule	Rs 0	Set to Rs 100 to discourage frequent rescheduling
Price Difference Handling	What happens when new slot costs differently	Pay Difference	Patient pays extra or gets refund based on price change

Check-In

Setting	What It Does	Default	Example
Early Check-In Window	How early a patient can check in	30 minutes	Patient can check in up to 30 min before appointment
Late Arrival Handling	What happens when patient arrives late	Warn	Options: Warn, Mark No-Show, Require Approval
Late Threshold	Minutes after slot start to count as late	15 minutes	Arriving 16+ minutes late triggers the late handling policy
Check-In Methods	Supported check-in methods	QR, Manual	Available: QR code scan, Manual by staff

No-Show

Setting	What It Does	Default	Example
Grace Period	Minutes after slot before marking no-show	15 minutes	Wait 15 min past appointment time before marking no-show
Auto-Mark Enabled	Automatically mark no-shows	Yes	Turn off to require staff to manually mark no-shows
Auto-Mark After	Minutes after slot end to auto-mark	30 minutes	System waits 30 min after slot ends, then marks no-show
Blacklist Threshold	No-shows before blacklisting	3	After 3 no-shows, patient is flagged
Blacklist Window	Duration of blacklist period	90 days	Blacklisted patient is flagged for 90 days

Completion

Setting	What It Does	Default	Example
Auto-Complete After	Hours after appointment to auto-complete	24 hours	If doctor doesn't manually complete, system does it after 24h
Require Doctor Confirmation	Doctor must mark as complete	No	Turn on for appointments requiring explicit doctor sign-off

Refund Policy

Setting	What It Does	Default
24+ Hours Before	Refund when cancelling more than 24h before appointment	100% refund
12-24 Hours Before	Refund when cancelling 12-24h before	50% refund
Under 12 Hours	Refund when cancelling less than 12h before	0% (no refund)
Hospital Emergency	Refund when hospital/doctor cancels	100% refund
Emergency Auto-Reschedule	Offer alternative slots on hospital cancellation	Yes
Emergency Priority Window	Priority rebooking window after emergency	48 hours

Start with Defaults

The default values work well for most hospitals. Only change settings when you have a specific need. You can always adjust later without affecting existing appointments.

What's Next?

See Config Hierarchy to understand how these settings can be overridden at different levels.

settingsconfigurationappointment-configreference

Appointment Settings