Automatically set appointment duration based on service type (Calendar & Client Portal)
When patient (or provider) makes appointment for patient, the calendar slot should auto match in length to the service selected (45 min, 30 min, 60 min). Having an auto time select based on the service length selected saves time and prevents the patient from accidentally or unintentionally over/underbooking the length of time.
Inversely, Clients are able to schedule an hour intake in a 30 min time slot. The portal needs some parameters to prevent this.

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Stephanie Dos Santos commented
It would be amazing to have a permission as a practice manager to schedule without the limitations that my clients do. Maybe a schedule override function that will let me schedule in whatever amount of time or time frame I need to
For example client appointments are scheduled only on the hour this is fine. But I may need to schedule a block that is an hour and a half long and can't do so.
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Lacy Bangert commented
Allow me to define how much time needs to be scheduled for each service type. Currently there is no way that I have found to prevent clients from scheduling 45min-1 hour sessions in a 30 min opening on the calendar.
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Alicia Goodman commented
Agreed! If they try to schedule at 3:30 where the appointment would go into 4:30, and the 4-5pm time slot is not available, it lets them schedule because the start time was open! This is a problem that needs fixed!
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Kathryn Burnett commented
Problems:
1. clients can set session length wrong when requesting visit (eg, can schedule a 60 min service visit but only put 30 min on calendar.
2. staff must correct an incorrect service length and can't change the requested appointment before confirming it. Since it isn't in the calendar but a separate page you have to check the calendar to see if there is enough time for the actual requested services and then confirm it, and then navigate back to the calendar to change the visit length.
3. clients can't request a telehealth visit so staff has to manually change every requested visit if you are all telehealth.Request:
1. Show any appointment requests on the calendar (for us visual people) in a unique color and allow us to confirm from there.
2. Allow changes to the requested appointment before confirming.
3. Allow patients to request a telehealth visit. -
Kathryn Burnett commented
Yes, this would be great!!!
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Amanda Hall commented
Therapists should have more control over the appointment duration when clients are scheduling appointments. I have brand new clients scheduling intake appointments for 30 minutes - It's ridiculous. Allowing clients to self-schedule should make things more convenient, not less.
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Michelle Mora commented
yes! and then they get emails that they appt changed when ir really didn't
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Molly McKitrick commented
When clients are self-scheduling a 30 minute session, or 45 minute session, to have the appointment automatically populate that time, rather than a 60 minute slot.
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Jami Genson commented
Right now the default appointment length is 60 minutes, but most of my sessions are 30 minutes. It would be helpful to be able to set the default appointment length to whatever increment you want. Thank you.
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Laura Ely commented
Absolutely agree with both having service types able to automatically fill a set amount of time on the calendar, and to be able to set automatic "buffer" times around scheduled appointments on the calendar!
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Robin Brannan commented
It would be incredibly helpful for there to be a set length of time for a given service when clients book online (e.g. 45 min for 90834). My previous EHR had the ability to set the length of time AND the buffer after it (15 min in this case) for each service, so that a client needed a 1 hour opening to book a 45 minute appt.
In the interim (or maybe always) it would be REALLY helpful for us to be able to write a welcome message/instructions to appear on the scheduling page when a new client is booking a first visit online.
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Andrew Last commented
Yes this is exactly what's needed!
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Joseph Pereira commented
I entirely agree with this and, in addition, we should be able to add default padding time before and/or after appointments. I see this being most useful in regards to the self-booking functionality, as clients could simply book themselves back to back without a break, but more-so for the ability to take additional notes after an appointment, or to review the upcoming client‘s notes, etc.
I’ve voted on this idea, but have also created a separate one for the padding time aspect: https://theranest.uservoice.com/forums/914431-theranest-app/suggestions/41466772-service-types-set-default-duration-and-padding
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Joseph Pereira commented
There should be an extra field on the “Service Types” definitions for default duration in minutes. This could help with moving the appointment end time to the default duration after the start time. This default duration would be enforced on the self-booking feature of the Client Portal, but could be overridden if scheduled internally.
Another feature that could help would be to optionally set a default padding time before/after appointments. Sometimes that time is useful to go review/add notes related to the appointment, and prepare for the next appointment, also gives the possibility to take bio-breaks between clients.
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Clarissa Gosney commented
In calendar preferences, have a "default appointment length" option. Currently, when scheduling it defaults to 1 hour. However, all our appointments are 45-minutes, and with your new feature for psychiatry, I'm looking at having my husband's company sign on with you as well. However, it can be tedious for the scheduler to go in and change every single appointment to be in 15- or 30-minute blocks. Having this as a default option (that can still be changed with exceptions) would be a GREAT feature!
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Teresa Kleffner commented
Right now, if we set our Time Scale to 30 minutes then a client can schedule a 60 minute session in a 30 minute time block. Suggestion is to allow us to enter a time amount into Service Type so that a client can only schedule that service if there is enough time.
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Miri Arie commented
Provider can determine the default length of meeting per service type.
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Dan Litov commented
The Theranest default is that a session is 60 minutes. Why? Therapists should have the option of being able to set their default session length.
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Ron Winters commented
It would be really helpful if clients scheduling online were limited to only scheduling on the hour and that the appointments were only allowed to be one hour in length.
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Lauren Pluchino commented
There should be a way to choose a default appointment length time. Right now it's an hour but all of my appointments are 50 minutes so I have to go in and change it every time I schedule an appointment.