Vello online booking

Vello online booking makes it easy for clients to make appointments directly from medical service reminders or from the Vello client portal.

Vello has two methods that a client can use to make an appointment in the Vello client portal:

They can make an appointment request
They can schedule an appointment directly in your PIMS calendar (direct booking)

Note: Before clients can make appointments in the client portal, a practice manager must:

Select Online Booking in the Preferred Booking Method section of the Appointment Booking screen
Configure a visit type to use direct booking or appointment requests

Method: Appointment requests

Appointment requests that clients use the client portal to send show in the Requests tab of the Requests & Notifications screen. Then, you can select the applicable appointment request entry and make changes in the Add Appointment to Calendar dialog box as necessary. These are the changes that you can make:

Appointment type
Appointment staff member
Appointment date and time
Appointment room

Add Appointment to Calendar dialog box — Figure 1. Add to Appointment Calendar dialog box

As the last step for appointment request approval, select Add to Calendar for the appointment request. Then, Vello syncs the appointment to your PIMS calendar.

Method: Direct booking

If a client uses the client portal to schedule an appointment directly in your PIMS calendar, it is not necessary for you to give approval for the appointment.

When a client schedules an appointment directly, an entry shows in the Notifications tab of the Requests & Notifications screen:
Entry in the Requests tab

Then, you can select the entry to do a check of the appointment information in the Review Appointment dialog box.

If a practice manager makes the necessary setting when they configure direct booking for a visit type, the Vello client portal shows an I'd like to learn about early screening setting. Clients select it to tell your practice that they want to learn about diagnostic screening. As a result, the applicable appointment record in your PIMS shows Client indicated an interest in Diagnostic Screening text. The text includes the type of diagnostic screening that the client wants to know about.

Figure 2. Client portal: I'd like to learn about early screening setting

Note: The Vello client portal shows a link adjacent to the I'd like to learn about early screening setting that a client can select to open a video about diagnostic screening.

Information that clients can select for appointments

When a client makes an appointment, they can:

Select a visit type (for example, a wellness visit or a sick visit)
Select a practice staff member for the appointment
Select an appointment date and time

Note: The dates and times that Vello online booking shows to a client are from your PIMS calendar. As a result, clients can make appointments only during the times that your practice is available.

A practice manager can configure the information that Vello online booking shows to clients when they make appointments. Available information that you can configure:

The available staff members for appointments
The available days and times for appointments
Make visit types available for online booking

Alternative methods to online booking

Vello has alternative methods to online booking that clients can use to make appointments. You can configure Vello to show only one of the methods in medical service reminders and the Vello client portal.

The alternative methods are:

Text to book
Custom booking link
Walk-ins welcome
Call to book

To configure an alternative method, select Change in the Preferred Booking Method section of the Appointment Booking screen:

For example, if you want clients to only send a text message to make an appointment, you can configure Vello to use the Text to book method. As a result:

Buttons and links in the Vello client portal and medical service reminders show Text to Book
If a client uses their mobile device and selects Text to Book, they can send a text message to the phone number that you configured in Vello

Figure 4. Example of a Text to Book button in the Vello client portal

Note: If you configure Vello to show an alternative method to online booking, clients cannot make an appointment request or schedule an appointment directly in your PIMS calendar. And they do not get access to:

The available staff members for appointments
The available days and times for appointments
The available visit types

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Vello online booking

Method: Appointment requests

Method: Direct booking

Information that clients can select for appointments

Alternative methods to online booking

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