Booking an appointment (staff-side)

Booking an appointment and creating a visit are the same action in Ona. There is no separate "appointment" record — the visit is the appointment, and it becomes the clinical container once the patient arrives.

There are two entry points, and the only difference is how much is filled in for you.

Book from the calendar

Use this when you're looking at a clinician's week and want a specific slot — the usual case with a patient on the phone.

Go to Calendars, select the clinician, find an open slot, and click it.

The Create New Visit dialog opens with Date and Time already set to the slot you clicked, and the clinician taken from the calendar you were viewing. Fill in the patient and services, then click Add New Visit.

Because the date and time come from the slot, this route avoids the most common booking mistake — typing a time that the clinician isn't actually available for.

Book from the Visits list

Use this when the time isn't settled yet, or when you're working through a list rather than a calendar.

Go to Visits and click Add New Visit in the top right. The same dialog opens, but empty — you pick the clinician, date, and time yourself.

Filling in the booking

Both routes use the same dialog. In brief:

• Title — defaults to "Visit"; make it specific.
• Patient (required) — search, or click New patient to create one inline.
• Clinician (required) — pre-filled when booking from a calendar.
• Date, Time, Timezone — pre-filled when booking from a slot.
• Mode — Video call or In person.
• Location — a site or a specific room, for in-person visits.
• Services — what's being delivered. This drives billing, so select it now.
• Consents and Questionnaires — sent to the patient when you save.

For the full field-by-field walkthrough, see Creating a consultation / starting a visit.

After booking

The visit appears on the clinician's calendar and in the Visits list with the status Scheduled. Selected consents and questionnaires go out to the patient straight away.

As the appointment approaches, move the status along — Confirmed when the patient confirms, Checked in when they arrive. Status changes are made from the visit itself.

Rescheduling and cancelling

To move an appointment, open the visit and use Reschedule in the header.

To cancel without opening the visit, use the ⋮ menu at the end of its row in the Visits list: Mark as cancelled or Mark as no-show. Both keep the record; they don't delete it. No-shows feed the no-show figure in Visit activity, so marking them accurately is worth the extra click.