Physio practices: scheduling several physiotherapists

A group physiotherapy practice can take every appointment on one Book page: give each physiotherapist their own services, such as "Follow-up session with Claire", open their slots on the days they work, and let patients book the physio who already treats them. Separate first assessments from follow-ups, keep shared rooms and equipment in mind when you open slots, and move patients to a colleague when someone is away. The practice pays €5/month in total, however many physios use the page.

Book gives one booking page per business. Each service has a name, a price and an optional description shown on the page, and each slot belongs to one service, sits within one day and has its own number of places. There's no staff field, so the physiotherapist's name goes in the service name. Patients who are already in a course of treatment pick their own physio's service; new patients can pick whoever has the first free assessment.

Lengths are examples: set your own, in line with the rules that apply to your practice. Each service can also carry a price if you want it shown; leave the field empty to hide it.

A first assessment takes longer than a follow-up and needs a free room with time to take a history. Keeping it as its own service gives it the right length; say in each follow-up description that it's for patients already seen, and move a new patient who books one by mistake into an assessment slot. Say in the assessment description what to bring, such as a referral or recent imaging reports if you work with them, and to wear clothes that leave the area to be treated accessible.

Book doesn't stop slots of different services from overlapping, which is what lets two physios see patients at the same time. It also means Book won't warn you if two physios are booked into the only gym or the only room with a particular machine. Plan around it when you open slots: give each physio fixed rooms on fixed days, or stagger the slots that need the shared equipment. If one piece of equipment is the bottleneck, a separate service for sessions that need it, with its slots opened only at times the equipment is free, keeps the timetable honest.

Open each physio's slots only on the days and hours they work. Slots repeat each week on the weekdays you choose until an end date, so a full-timer, a part-timer on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and a colleague who only does home visits on Friday each get their own series. When someone's hours change, delete the remaining slots of the old series and create a new one.

If one physio does home visits, give them a home visit service with longer slots that include travel, opened on their round days, and say in the description which areas you cover. Patients book that service; the desk can also book it from the calendar after a phone call.

At the end of each session, the physio or the desk books the next one from the calendar into the same physio's follow-up slots. First and last name are required, email and phone optional; with an email entered, the patient gets a confirmation with a calendar file. Book sends no reminders, so that calendar entry is what reminds the patient.

The booking form takes first name, last name, email and phone, plus an optional note. The note reaches the practice in the new booking email and also appears in the patient's calendar file. Ask patients not to put health details there; keep clinical information in your patient records.

Patients can't move or cancel online; the practice does it from the bookings list. Rescheduling works across services, so Claire's follow-ups can move into Tom's free follow-up slots, or to Claire's return. Book doesn't email patients about changes, so call or message each one, then delete Claire's free slots for the days she's away. All bookings sync with the practice's Google, iPhone or Mac calendar, so the desk sees every physio's day in one place. Book doesn't take payments; say in the description how patients pay. Book costs €5/month for the practice, everything included: unlimited services and bookings, no commission, no contract.