Physio practices: booking supervised gym session places

Open the practice gym for supervised sessions that patients book online: each patient follows the exercise programme a physiotherapist wrote for them, while a physiotherapy assistant supervises, corrects technique and adjusts loads within the programme. Create one service for the supervised gym, set places to the number of stations, and say in the description who can book and what to bring. Patients keep up their exercises between individual appointments, the gym never holds more people than the assistant can watch, and the physiotherapists see progress at the next review.

A supervised gym session isn't a class: everyone works on their own programme at the same time. 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, and state the practice's fees in the description of each service.

Count the stations, such as the bike, the treadmill, the cable machine, mats and the parallel bars, and the number of people the assistant can supervise safely. Set each slot's places to the lower of the two. When a slot is full, it leaves your page, so patients choose another time instead of waiting for a machine.

Supervised gym slots can run at times when the physiotherapists are busy with individual patients, or early and late for patients who work. Slots repeat each week on the weekdays you choose until an end date, so a regular timetable takes a few minutes to set up. Slots of different services can overlap, so if classes use the same room, give them separate times.

Each patient arrives with a programme the physiotherapist has written and explained. Say in the description that the supervised gym is for patients with a programme from the practice, so people outside the practice don't book. The assistant follows the programme and reports back to the physiotherapist if something doesn't go as planned, according to how the practice works.

A patient doing two sessions a week for six weeks needs twelve bookings. After the first session, the assistant or reception can book the following ones from the calendar; first and last name are required, email and phone optional, and the patient receives a confirmation with a calendar file if you enter their email. Book doesn't send reminders, so the calendar file helps patients keep track of their sessions.

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; the programme sheet holds what the assistant needs.

Leave a few minutes between slots to wipe down equipment, put away weights and open a window. A short gap also lets the assistant note anything worth passing to the physiotherapist before the next group arrives.

Book has one booking page per business and no staff field. If two assistants share the gym timetable, give each their own supervised gym service, so the bookings list shows who supervises which session and who to contact about a patient.

Print the booking link on the programme sheet and put a QR code by the gym door. Patients can book their next session before they leave, while the timetable is in front of them.

Patients can't move or cancel bookings online: they call reception, and you move them to another slot from your bookings list. If the gym has to close, cancel the bookings and tell each patient yourself, since Book doesn't email clients about changes. Bookings sync with Google, iPhone or Mac calendars. Book costs €5/month, everything included: unlimited services and bookings, no commission, no contract.