Osteopaths: setting first consultation length in bookings

A first consultation needs time for the history, the examination and the explanation, on top of the treatment. Give new patients their own service in your booking page, with a longer slot than follow-ups, and say in the description that it's for a first visit. New patients book the right length without a phone call, returning patients keep their shorter slots, and your day doesn't overrun from the first booking.

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. Create a first consultation service and a follow-up service, each with its own slot length.

Durations are examples: set your own, according to how you work, and state your fees in each description.

Write in the first consultation description: "For patients who haven't seen us in the last twelve months." In the follow-up description: "For patients already seen at the practice." Clients read it before choosing a time, so the right service is booked from the start.

Long slots in the middle of a run of short ones leave odd gaps. Group first consultations at the start of a morning or afternoon, and follow-ups after them. Slots repeat each week on the weekdays you choose until an end date, so the pattern takes minutes to set up.

You set where each slot starts and ends, so leave five or ten minutes after a first consultation for notes and changing the couch roll. The buffer isn't offered online.

If a new patient books a follow-up slot, move the booking from your bookings list to a first consultation slot; rescheduling works across services. Tell the patient yourself, since Book doesn't email clients about changes.

The booking form takes first name, last name, email and phone, plus an optional note that appears in the patient's calendar file. Ask patients not to write health details there; you take the history at the consultation.

At the end of the first consultation, book the follow-up from your list if one is needed. If you enter the patient's email, they get a confirmation with a calendar file. Book doesn't send reminders. Book costs €5/month, everything included: unlimited services and bookings, no commission, no contract.