Emergency leave and centre blackouts
What happens to booked appointments when a doctor takes emergency leave or a service is stopped at a centre, the handling modes, and how to request them today.
Sometimes a doctor cannot work at short notice, or a service at a centre has to stop for a few hours, after patients have already booked. LeapHealthOS has two emergency operations for this: doctor emergency leave and centre-service blackout. Both deal with the appointments already booked in that time. This page explains what each one does so that administrators know what to ask for and what patients will experience.
No screen in LeapHealthOS today
There is no screen in LeapHealthOS to file emergency leave or a centre-service blackout, or to see their history. Ask your implementation team to carry them out for you. Give them the doctor (or the service), the centre, the start and end of the period, and a reason.
Which tool to use
Situation | Use | Booked appointments | New bookings in that time |
|---|---|---|---|
Planned time off, nobody booked yet | A block on the doctor's schedule. See Weekly schedules, blocks and overrides. | Not touched | Stopped |
A doctor is suddenly unavailable and patients are booked | Doctor emergency leave | Handled by the handling mode (below) | Stopped |
A service at a centre has to stop (for example a machine is down) | Centre-service blackout | Cancelled | Still possible; see the limitation below |
Doctor emergency leave
Emergency leave covers one doctor at one centre for a period that starts now or later; it cannot start in the past.
When it is filed, LeapHealthOS:
- Blocks the doctor's time at that centre so no new appointments can be booked. If the period is part of a single day, only that part is blocked. If it covers a whole day or runs over more than one day, the doctor is blocked for the whole of every day from the start date to the end date.
- Finds the affected appointments: appointments with that doctor at that centre that start inside the period and are booked, awaiting approval, checked in, or still being booked.
- Handles each appointment according to your organisation's handling mode.
Handling modes
Mode | What happens to each affected appointment |
|---|---|
Auto Cancel (default) | The appointment is cancelled straight away. |
Patient Reschedule | Appointments that start within the Reschedule Window (default 48 hours) are cancelled straight away. For the others, the patient is asked to reschedule. If the patient has not rescheduled or cancelled by the end of the window, the appointment is cancelled, or left as it is if the Fallback Action is Hold. |
Approval Based | Administrators are notified. If nobody acts, the appointment is cancelled automatically after the Approval Timeout (default 24 hours). |
When an appointment is cancelled by emergency leave:
- The refund due is worked out under your cancellation refund policy for cancellations made by the system (by default, a full refund). As with any cancellation, the money is not returned automatically. See Rescheduling, cancellation and refunds.
- The patient is informed through your notification rules. Set up rules for the emergency leave and cancellation events so that patients and staff hear about it. See Notification events and recipient strategies.
Emergency Leave settings in System Settings have no effect yet
SettingsPlatform ConfigurationSystem Settings has an Emergency Leave section on the Appointments tab (Handling Mode, Auto Cancel Refund, Notify Admin, Approval Timeout, Notify Patient, Reschedule Window, Fallback Action). Changes made there are not used yet. Emergency leave uses Auto Cancel unless your implementation team has set a different handling mode for you.
Gaps in the reschedule and approval modes
- The message sent to patients does not include a reschedule link yet; patients reschedule by contacting you or through the other ways you offer. See Rescheduling, cancellation and refunds.
- In Approval Based mode there is no way yet to approve keeping an appointment; it is cancelled once the timeout passes.
Checked-in patients are included
Emergency leave also cancels appointments of patients who have already checked in. Make sure the front desk talks to any patient who is already waiting at the centre.
Centre-service blackout
A blackout cancels every booked appointment for one service at one centre that starts inside a period, for example when a scanner is out of order. A reason is required and is recorded on each cancelled appointment.
- Appointments that are booked or awaiting approval are cancelled, and any open tasks for them are closed.
- Refunds follow your cancellation refund policy for cancellations made by the system, as for emergency leave.
- Appointments of patients who have already checked in are not cancelled. Handle those at the front desk.
A blackout does not stop new bookings
A blackout cancels existing appointments only. Patients can still book that service at that centre in the same period afterwards. To stop new bookings, also ask your implementation team to block the time of the doctors who provide the service (blocks have no screen yet). See Weekly schedules, blocks and overrides.
Walk-ins
While a doctor has a block on a day, including the block created by emergency leave, walk-in tokens for that doctor are refused for the whole of that day. See Walk-in tokens.
Related pages
- Weekly schedules, blocks and overrides
- Rescheduling, cancellation and refunds
- Notification events and recipient strategies
- Appointment and slot settings reference
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