About the Waitlist Feature 

Keona Health's Waitlist feature is a way for Patient Self-Scheduling (PSS) and Health Desk users to be added, or "registered" to a waitlist when scheduling appointments. This feature will give the option to subscribe based on a wait list configuration and resource/location availability.


Once a patient is registered to that wait list, CareDesk will perform the following tasks on a 15 minute interval:

  • Scan for waitlist entries based on each waitlist's configuration and search for available appointments
  • "Reserve" the appropriate appointment slots in Keona
  • Send messages to patients subscribed to that waitlist in order of registration

Some things to note:

  • The system monitors available appointments starting from the time that the initial appointment message is sent (e.g., today at 9am) up to a set number of hours, without exceeding the patient's original appointment time. 
  • If an appointment becomes available, the system reserves the very first available slot (if multiple slots are available) exclusively for patient X for 15 minutes. Patient X receives a notification and must follow a unique link to view and potentially claim the slot.
  • The slot is tied to the link sent to the patient and can only be accessed through it. It is not visible to scheduler or saved in a way accessible through other means.
  • Once the 15-minute reservation period expires, the slot becomes available again for anyone to use within Keona.
  • The system may briefly search for available slots again before assigning the slot to another patient, depending on the number of people on the waitlist or other factors.
  • When the patient clicks the link to verify the "reservation," if the slot is not expired by the time the patient sees the message, the patient will be prompted to use the Patient-Self Scheduling to move forward.
  • When the patient clicks to see PSS, the system will present all available slots just like if the patient just visited PSS with a regular link.
  • The patient will be presented with the saved slot among all other results available for scheduling, with no particular indication that the slot is saved just for them.
  • If the patient takes too long to see the results, the slot can still expire.
  • If the patient checks the link within 15 minutes and the slot is still available, they can proceed to schedule the appointment using the system normally.
  • If the patient checks the link after 15 minutes and the slot has expired, they are informed with a configurable message.
  • Even if the slot expires, the patient still has the option to use PSS to search for another available slot, as the expired slot may not necessarily have been taken by someone else or reserved for another patient.


Configuring the Waitlist

The waitlist is enabled by default.


Fields to Configure

Max attempts before canceling

  • Max number of messages to send to a patient before the system removes them from the wait list.


Expiration hours before appointment

  • How far in advance to stop looking for appointments for this wait list entry before their originally scheduled appointment


Messaging window start time

  • At which time Keona should start looking for appointments to "reserve" and send messages to patients


Messaging window end time

  • At which time Keona should stop looking for appointments to "reserve" and send messages to patients


Visit Reason Type

  • Which Visit reason type should this apply to (Single Visit, Multi Day, sequential, etc.) - Required


Visit Reason


  • If we want to make this available only for a specific visit reason instead of a visit reason type - Optional


Facility


  • Which facility/location should use this configuration - Optional


Resource


  • Which resource should use this configuration - Optional


Expiration date


  • When to stop using this configuration - Optional


Use Patient Self-Scheduling Original Selection 


  • If enabled, when using waitlist on PSS, the system will use the visit reason menu item selected instead of the actual visit reason, this will allow the user to answer any protocol questions associated with the selected visit reasons before selecting an appointment when clicking a link sent to the patient.


Minutes to hold appointments


  • Amount of time in minutes to "reserve" an appointment slot for a given patient. How long Keona will hold this appointment from the moment the message has sent to the patient.


Days to skip to search appointments


  • If needed, how many days in the future should we skip to start searching for appointments.


Hours window to look for appointments


  • How many hours/days ahead should we look for appointments.


Appointment search start time


  • Appointments start time to search for this wait list entry.


Appointment search end time


  • Appointments end time to search for this wait list entry.


Allow subscription to waitlist if previous slots were available    


  • If enabled, the patient will be presented with the option to subscribe to the waitlist as long as the selected appointment is available for PSS.
  • If disabled, the first condition applies, but the option to subscribe will be removed if there are appointments available to schedule at an earlier date than the one selected.