Syncing Scheduling Templates
Syncing with OSCAR Scheduling Templates
Introduction
OSCAR EMR has the feature of scheduling templates to define clinician availability. Since this is an OSCAR feature, we don’t normally get too involved in teaching how to use this feature. That being said, here’s two external links explaining this feature and how to use it!
External Link #1: Written Tutorial
External Link #2: Video Tutorial
If your clinic uses this feature, it is possible to configure Veribook to use this schedule, as configured within OSCAR.
It’s bit tricky, so your Veribook account manager will need to help with this configuration. Just work through the below, and they’ll be able to handle getting things setup.
1. Identify the OSCAR template codes in use by the clinic
OSCAR provides a list of template codes. This list can be configured for different clinics differently.
See the screenshot for a sample list.
2. Identify the list of Veribook services in use by the clinic
As part of configuring your Veribook account, your account manager will typically create a set of Veribook services to reflect the nuances of how your clinic schedules.
These services typically correspond to different types of appointments that are offered by your clinic, and may be individualized to specific clinicians, or to the clinic generally.
A list of these services should be supplied to you by your account manager as part of this process. If you did not receive this list, please get in touch!
3. Advise which Veribook services should be offered for each template code, for each clinician
For each of your clinicians, for each OSCAR template code in use, send back to your Veribook account manager a list of which Veribook services can be booked during corresponding appointment slots (see screenshot).
In other words, we need to know things such as …
during slots coded L, no appointments can be booked
during slots coded U, only same day appointments can be booked
during slots coded 1, any type of appointment can be booked
Once configured, this acts as a whitelist - only services explicitly listed will be bookable during the corresponding appointment time slots.
Additionally, you only need to supply a list for the OSCAR template codes that your clinic uses in practice. Template codes that your clinic does not use can be safely ignored.
4. Once setup…
Once setup, Veribook will start syncing with your OSCAR scheduling templates automatically in two scenarios:
once daily, in the middle of the night. This full sync is done infrequently because it is resource intensive, and may temporarily impact the performance of your OSCAR.
immediately, whenever a patient schedules. This partial sync is done “in the moment”, before a patient’s appointment is confirmed, just to double check the appointment slot remains available. This is how we ensure patients are never booked into an inappropriate slot, even if we do a full sync only once daily.
Within Veribook, once this sync is configured, you will see that a physician is available “all day”. Not to worry though, they will be only available during the times specified as such in your OSCAR scheduling templates. Check the booking page to confirm, just in case! This is just a quirk of how the system works!
If you make changes to your templates and wish to trigger the sync immediately, so that your changes are reflected online immediately, access the calendar, then click the synchronization button, and choose the applicable option. Please be patient though, you’ll see just how slow the sync is when doing this step manually.
Note - Even if you don’t do this, patients can not incorrectly book during this gap in time; we’ve designed things so that your current schedule is “double checked” every single time a patient books.
