Community nurses: booking flu vaccination sessions online

Run seasonal flu vaccination sessions with slots patients book online: create a vaccination service for the season, open short slots on the days you vaccinate, and set a few places per slot if you can vaccinate several people in that time. Say in the description who the session is for, what to bring and how long to stay afterwards. Patients come at a set time instead of queuing, you know how many doses to prepare each day, and vaccination days don't crowd out your usual care.

Vaccination has its own rhythm: a few weeks in autumn, a run of short visits, then nothing until next year. On Book, each service has a name, a price and an optional description shown on your public page, and each slot belongs to one service, sits within one day and has its own capacity.

Durations and places are examples: set your own. The price field is optional; leave it empty if you don't want an amount shown.

If you can vaccinate two people in ten minutes, give each slot two places. When a slot is full, it leaves your page, so patients spread across the session and the waiting room never overflows. Set the session's start and end dates for the vaccination campaign: slots repeat each week on the weekdays you choose until an end date.

Check your bookings list before each session to prepare the right number of doses, according to the storage rules that apply to you. If a delivery is late, reduce places for the coming days rather than turning patients away at the door.

The booking form takes first name, last name, email and phone, plus an optional note that reaches you in the new booking email and appears in the patient's calendar file. Say in the description:

Since the note appears in the calendar file, ask patients not to write health details there; you'll ask the usual questions before vaccinating.

Each online booking takes one place, so a couple books two places, in the same slot if two are left. Say in the description that each person books their own place, so you prepare the right number of doses.

If you vaccinate in a community hall, a care home or a workplace, create a separate service for that address and date, with the location in the description. Your public page lists every open service, so name each one clearly with the place and say who it's for.

Patients who can't come to the practice may need you to visit. Keep a home vaccination service with one place per slot and travel time inside each slot, and group visits by area on set days. Relatives can book for them, with the patient's name in the booking.

Put the booking link on the practice door, in the waiting room, on your answering machine message and with the pharmacies nearby. Patients you see for other care can book their vaccination before they leave.

At the end of the campaign, the bookings list shows how many patients came to each session and which days filled first. Use it to plan next autumn's sessions: more places on the busy days, fewer on the quiet ones. Book doesn't send reminders, so when the next campaign opens, share the link again on the practice door, by message to your regular patients and with the pharmacies nearby.

Patients can't move or cancel bookings online: they call you, and you move them to another slot from your bookings list. If a session is cancelled, for example because vaccine stock hasn't arrived, cancel the bookings and tell each patient yourself, since Book doesn't email clients about changes. Your bookings sync with Google, iPhone or Mac calendars. Book costs €5/month, everything included: unlimited services and bookings, no commission, no contract.