Overview
The waitlist system is fully automated, notifying patients when an appointment becomes available. This article explains how it works, how to manually trigger notifications, and what to check if a patient isn’t receiving them.
How Automated Waitlist Notifications Work
When a patient cancels or you extend your work hours, the system checks the waitlist.
Notifications are sent to patients on the waitlist in order, with a 5–10 minute delay between each.
These are only sent if:
The waitlist notifications box was left checked during cancellation or editing.
The patient has waitlist notifications enabled.
Manual Notifications
If needed, you can use the Send Notifications button to manually re-send waitlist alerts. This is useful if:
You skipped sending them earlier
You made a manual schedule change
When Notifications Won’t Be Sent Automatically
You can choose not to send waitlist notifications when:
Cancelling an appointment
Editing an appointment
Modifying your work hours
These actions show a checkbox to control whether the system should notify waitlist patients. If you uncheck it, notifications won’t go out.
What to Check If a Patient Didn’t Get a Notification
Is their Waitlist Notification setting ON?
Go to their chart > Notification Preferences to confirm.
Did you leave the “Send Waitlist Notifications” box checked?
Review the action you took (cancel/edit/extend hours) and confirm the setting.
Check the Appointment Notification History
Click on the appointment in the schedule > scroll down to see a full history of sent notifications.
Grace Period in Effect
The system has a short grace period after a change is made to allow for quick corrections before notifications are sent. If the change just happened, give it a moment.
Schedule Restrictions
Go to Settings > Schedule > Schedule Options and check if there’s a restriction like “prevent patients from scheduling within X hours of current time.” This might block patients from taking last-minute slots even if they receive the notification.