Integrating online booking into your healthcare practice's website offers a convenient way for patients to access services. To ensure these services are appropriately targeted, setting up intelligent restrictions based on age, gender and ODS code. This guide details how to implement these restrictions, ensuring that your online booking system efficiently matches patients with the right services.
NHS practices benefit from using NHS Login and the Patient Demographic Service (PDS) to apply booking restrictions. This system authenticates patients before booking, allowing access to their registered practice ODS code, sex, and age. Consequently, it intelligently permits or denies booking requests based on your specified criteria.
Private practices can achieve similar results by utilising patient data within their Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems, such as EMIS or System1. This method ensures that only eligible patients can book certain appointments online, streamlining the process while maintaining service integrity.
Navigate to Appointment settings: Go to Settings > Services > Appointments on your dashboard.
Select the Appointment: Choose the appointment type or slot you wish to apply restrictions to and click Options > Edit.
Configure restrictions: Find the online booking section and scroll to the restrictions area. Here, you can enable or disable restrictions for that specific appointment, customising the booking process to your practice's needs.
Intelligent restrictions enhance the booking process by ensuring appointments are booked by the appropriate demographic:
Cross-organisational booking: Restrict bookings to patients whose registered practices match specified ODS codes.
Sex restrictions: For appointments like smear tests, limit bookings to female patients to ensure relevance and appropriateness.
Age restrictions: Specify age limits for certain services, such as flu jabs for patients over 65, to target the right patient groups.
