How can a patient cancel their appointment on their own

Overview

Respecting our patients’ time is important. Rather than requiring them to call the clinic to cancel their appointment, Core Practice offers a convenient feature that allows patients to cancel on their own.

This article will guide you through:

1. How the cancellation feature is set up by the clinic, and

2. The step-by-step workflow from the patient’s perspective.

Clinic Workflow

Follow the steps below to enable this feature for your patients. If you are unable to see the options on your end, it’s likely due to restricted permissions. In this case, please reach out to your system administrator and request to have your group’s permissions updated accordingly.

Configuring Calendar Settings

1. On the Appointment screen, click the More button in the upper right corner, then select Calendar Setup.

   

2. On the right side of the provider's name, click the three dots and select Calendar Settings.

3. If online booking is not yet enabled for this provider, click the Turn On button. If it’s already enabled, skip this step.

   

4. Beside Cancel, choose the number of hours. 

   

   • Note: The number of hours refers to the minimum notice a patient must give to cancel their appointment.
     For example, if it's set to 24 hours and the patient tries to cancel within that period, the Cancel button won’t appear—they’ll need to contact the clinic instead.

5. When you're done, scroll down and click the Save Changes button.

   

6. Repeat the following steps for each provider you want to enable this option for.

Create Appointment Confirmation Link in Templates

1. Follow the steps in this KB article to create an SMS and email template.
   • Creating Email / SMS templates – Core Practice
2. When creating the appointment confirmation template, be sure to include the token $onlineAppointmentUrl$, as this will be used to include the cancellation button.
3. Once finished, click the Save button, then click the Complete Template button.
4. On the appointment block, click the paper plane icon and select SMS Chat.
5. Under Apply Template, select the template you created.

6. When done, click the Send button.

    

Patient Workflow

This workflow outlines the message that the patient will receive, as well as the steps they can follow to cancel their appointment on their own.

1. The patient will receive an SMS containing their appointment details and a shortlink.

   

2. When the patient opens the link, they can either confirm or cancel their appointment without needing to call the clinic.

   

3. After clicking the Cancel Appointment button, the patient will see a confirmation message in the upper right corner of the screen.

The appointment will automatically be cancelled on the Appointment screen.

However, if the patient tries to cancel an appointment that falls within the provider’s set cancellation timeframe, they will not see the Cancel button and will receive this message instead.

If you have any questions, please click the yellow Help button at the bottom left and chat to us. We are more than happy to help!