Clinic appointment system: online booking, reminders and cancelled slots back in the diary
A clinic appointment system is a booking flow where patients choose their clinician and a free slot online. ALTAI Digital builds it on the practice's rules: appointment length, buffer time, clinician availability and days off. The diary syncs both ways with Google Calendar or Outlook. Reminders go out one day and two hours ahead, with a cancellation link inside. A cancelled slot returns to the diary and the waiting list is notified. If the form asks about health, an explicit consent step is added.
In a private practice the phone is busiest during clinic hours. The receptionist is checking in one patient while another one rings. The caller hears the engaged tone or reaches voicemail, and may try another practice instead. A patient who does book still has to be reminded, and that depends on someone remembering. When a patient does not turn up, the slot is lost. In the UK this is usually called a DNA, short for did not attend. Another patient could have had that slot. A clinic appointment system closes these gaps in one place.
Dental, physiotherapy, dermatology and psychology practices in the Netherlands and the UK keep their own diaries. Each practice has its own appointment types and lengths. ALTAI Digital builds the booking flow on those rules rather than on a fixed template. Patients choose the clinician and a free slot on the practice's own booking page. Appointment length, buffer time, clinician availability and days off are set as rules. The diary syncs both ways with Google Calendar or Outlook. When a clinician blocks an afternoon for training, that afternoon never opens for booking.
Health data is a special category of personal data under GDPR Article 9. If the booking form asks about symptoms or medication, the practice collects health data at the moment of booking. In that case the build adds a privacy notice and an explicit consent step before the form is sent. Which fields the form asks for is decided in the discovery week. Where no health question is needed, the form keeps to name, contact details, clinician and slot. Reminder texts are shown to the practice and sent only after its approval.
We work from Rotterdam and Istanbul. The build suits a practice with one clinician as well as a group practice with several. It can be combined with a WhatsApp Business line and the handling of incoming enquiries. Which channels are connected is decided in discovery. Below you will find the scope of the build, the four steps and the questions practices ask us most often. Pricing follows the discovery call, once the number of clinicians and the payment set-up are clear.
What goes wrong today
- 01
The phone is engaged when patients call
The receptionist is on one call, or at the desk with a patient, when the next call comes in. The caller may not try again and rings another practice. The missed call is counted nowhere, so the practice only sees the empty slots.
- 02
Reminders depend on someone remembering
One person rings patients the day before their appointment. When that person is off or busy, nobody rings. A patient who forgets and does not attend leaves a slot that another patient could have taken. Often nobody counts the DNAs, so their cost stays invisible.
- 03
A cancelled slot stays empty
A patient rings in the morning to cancel an afternoon appointment. Another patient would have taken that slot, but nobody tells them in time. If there is a waiting list, it sits in a notebook or a spreadsheet that nobody opens during clinic hours.
- 04
The clinician's calendar and the practice diary disagree
A clinician adds a training day to the calendar on their phone. The practice diary at the front desk does not show it. A patient is booked for that day and arrives while the clinician is away. While two calendars are matched by hand, this keeps happening.
- 05
Enquiries after hours wait until morning
A patient wants to book in the evening, when the practice is closed. The phone goes to voicemail and the website has no booking page. A message sent by email or WhatsApp is opened the next morning. By then the patient may have booked elsewhere.
- 06
The booking form asks about health without a consent step
The form asks for the reason for the visit but shows no privacy notice and no consent box. Under GDPR Article 9 that answer can be health data, a special category. Such forms are often copied from a generic template that never had a consent step.
Scope of the build
Clinician and slot chosen by the patient, on the practice's rules
The patient picks the appointment type, the clinician and a free slot on the booking page. Appointment length, buffer time, clinician availability and days off are set as rules. When a rule changes, the diary changes with it. A full or clashing slot never appears as an option.
Two-way sync with Google Calendar or Outlook
The booking diary syncs both ways with the Google Calendar or Outlook the clinicians already use. A training day entered on a phone closes that time for booking. A booking made online appears in the clinician's own calendar. Nobody keeps two calendars in step by hand.
Reminders one day and two hours before
By default, reminders go out one day and two hours before the appointment. The channel is WhatsApp, SMS or email, and the practice chooses which. Each message carries a cancellation link, so a patient who cannot come cancels with one tap. The practice approves every reminder text before launch.
A cancelled slot goes back into the diary
When a patient taps the cancellation link, the slot returns to the diary. Patients on the waiting list are notified that it is free. Nobody has to open a notebook and ring down a list. If a deposit was taken, the refund follows the practice's own rule.
Booking form with a consent step where health data is asked
The form asks only for what the booking needs: name, contact details, clinician and slot. If the practice also wants health information at booking, a privacy notice and an explicit consent step are added. Health data is a special category under GDPR Article 9. The practice approves the wording before launch.
Optional deposit or prepayment
If the practice wants it, selected appointment types open only after a deposit or prepayment through Stripe. The practice decides which types, for example long first appointments. Refunds follow the practice's own rule. Appointment types left out of the rule are booked without payment, as before.
Monthly report: occupancy, DNAs and most requested times
Each month the report shows occupancy, the DNA rate and the most requested times. Which clinician's days stay half empty becomes a number, not an impression. Where the practice has its own DNA figures from before launch, the two are compared side by side.
How the build runs
- 01
Discovery (1 week)
Clinician calendars, appointment types and lengths, buffer times and days off are written down. The form fields are fixed, and with them the need for a consent step.
- 02
Build
The rules go into the diary and the Google Calendar or Outlook sync is connected. Reminder texts and form wording are prepared; WhatsApp templates go to Meta for approval.
- 03
Trial week
The practice team books test appointments and receives the reminders on their own phones. Cancellation and the waiting list are checked in use, and rules that get in the way are corrected.
- 04
Launch and measurement
The booking page goes live on the site and in the Google Business Profile. The first live flow opens within four to eight weeks. The first monthly report follows a month later.
Clinic appointment system, single practice
- Booking page where patients pick clinician and slot, on your site or standalone
- Rules for appointment length, buffer time, clinician availability and days off
- Two-way sync with Google Calendar or Outlook
- Reminders by WhatsApp, SMS or email, with a cancellation link
- Cancelled slots back in the diary, waiting list notified
- Privacy notice and explicit consent step where the form asks about health
- Optional deposit or prepayment through Stripe
- Monthly report: occupancy, DNA rate, most requested times
Pricing is given after the discovery call, once the scope is clear.
Products used in this build
Online booking and scheduling
Online booking for clinics, salons and hotels; reminders and cancellation handling close the empty slot.
WhatsApp Business integration
Notifications, order tracking and customer conversations gather in the business account; the history stays with the company.
Request handling
Requests from five channels collect in one list, the draft reply arrives ready, and the decision to send stays with you.
Terms used on this page
- Clinic appointment system
- A clinic appointment system is a booking flow where patients choose clinician and slot online and cancelled slots return to the diary.
- DNA (did not attend)
- A DNA is an appointment that the patient neither attended nor cancelled, leaving a slot that another patient could have taken.
- Buffer time
- Buffer time is the preparation gap set between two appointments, which the booking page never offers to patients as a free slot.
- Waiting list
- A waiting list is the list of patients who asked for a full slot and are notified when that slot is cancelled.
- Explicit consent
- Explicit consent is a patient's clear agreement to the processing of their health data, given after reading the privacy notice.
clinic appointment systemFrequently asked questions
The first live flow opens within four to eight weeks. Discovery takes one week; the build, a trial week and launch follow. The exact time depends on the number of clinicians and appointment types. WhatsApp template approval and payment set-up also play a part. Your own timeline is written in the discovery report.
Yes. The booking diary syncs both ways with Google Calendar or Outlook. A meeting, holiday or training day in a clinician's own calendar closes that time for booking. A booking made online appears in the clinician's calendar. A clashing slot is never offered, and nobody matches two calendars by hand.
WhatsApp, SMS or email, as the practice chooses. The default is two reminders: one day before and two hours before the appointment. Each message carries a cancellation link, so a patient who cannot come cancels with one tap. WhatsApp reminders use templates approved by Meta, and the practice approves every text before launch.
It works on three points. Reminders go out without anyone having to remember them. The cancellation link sits inside each message, so a patient can free the slot instead of simply staying away. Practices that want it can ask for a deposit on selected appointment types. The monthly report then shows the DNA rate month by month.
Health data is a special category of personal data under GDPR Article 9. If the form asks about symptoms, medication or the reason for the visit, the build adds a privacy notice and an explicit consent step. If no health question is needed, the form keeps to name, contact details, clinician and slot.
Yes. Each appointment type has its own length, set as a rule. A buffer between patients is also set as a rule and never offered as a slot. When a patient picks a long appointment type, only slots with enough free time appear on the booking page.
Yes, if the practice wants it. Selected appointment types can open only after a deposit or prepayment through Stripe. The practice decides which types need it and sets the refund rule. Appointment types left out of the rule are booked without payment, as before.
Pricing is given after the discovery call. It depends on the number of clinicians, the appointment types, the reminder channels and whether payment is included. The scope for a single practice is listed in the package above. For a group with several locations, the scope is written again in the discovery report.
The process first, the proposal after
In a short discovery call we map the process together and tell you plainly whether it is worth automating. If it is not, we say that too.
30 minutes · no preparation needed
