Managing Provider Availability

The Availability settings let you control when a provider can be booked for appointments. Availability is managed in three layers:

  1. Date-Specific Availability
  2. Appointment-Type Availability
  3. Default Availability

These are applied in that order, meaning date-specific overrides take highest priority, then appointment-type availability, then default availability. To access these settings, go to: Settings → Availability

Select a Provider

At the top of the page, select the provider whose availability you want to manage. If you are the only provider in your practice, this will typically just be your own name.

Default Availability

Default availability is your base weekly schedule. This controls when you are available for all appointment types unless something more specific overrides it.

For example, if your default availability is:

  • Tuesday: 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
  • Wednesday: 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
  • Thursday: 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM

Then you are available for any appointment type during those times.

To update this section, click Edit Default Availability.

Appointment-Type Availability

Appointment-Type Availability lets you create recurring availability rules for specific appointment types. For example, if you only want to offer telehealth appointments on Mondays and Fridays, you can create an availability set that applies only to telehealth visits on those days.

When creating an availability set, you can apply it to:

  • All appointment types
  • All telehealth appointment types
  • All in-office appointment types
  • Specific appointment types

To create one:

  1. Click Add Availability Set
  2. Enter a name
  3. Choose what appointment types it applies to
  4. Select the days and times
  5. Click Save

Important: Appointment-Type Availability is Additive

Appointment-type availability adds availability. It does not restrict or subtract from your default availability. This is the part that can be a little confusing.

For example:

If your default availability is:

  • Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM

and then you add an appointment-type availability set for:

  • Telehealth only on Monday and Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM

This does not make Monday and Friday telehealth-only, because you are still already available for all appointment types during those times through your default availability.

If you want certain days to be exclusive to a specific appointment type, you should remove those times from your default availability first.

Example

If you want:

  • Monday: Telehealth only
  • Tuesday to Thursday: All appointment types
  • Friday: Telehealth only

You would set it up like this:

Default Availability

  • Tuesday: 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
  • Wednesday: 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
  • Thursday: 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM

Appointment-Type Availability

  • Telehealth only
  • Monday: 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
  • Friday: 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM

Date-Specific Availability

Date-Specific Availability allows you to create one-off overrides for a specific date or date range. This is useful if you want to:

  • Open additional clinic days
  • Mark yourself unavailable for a holiday
  • Add special hours on a one-time basis
  • Restrict availability for a specific date

To create one:

  1. Click Add Date Override
  2. Select a start date and end date
  3. Choose whether the provider is Available or Unavailable
  4. Enter the time range
  5. Select what appointment types it applies to
  6. Click Save

You can use this for either:

  • Available: to add one-time availability
  • Unavailable: to block off time that would otherwise be bookable

Availability Priority

If multiple availability rules overlap, Akute uses the following priority:

  1. Date-Specific Availability
  2. Appointment-Type Availability
  3. Default Availability

This means a date-specific override will always take precedence over your recurring schedule.

Multi-Location Clinics

If your practice has multiple locations configured, you will see a Location dropdown when creating or editing availability (Default Availability, Appointment-Type Availability, or Date-Specific Availability). You will need to select the location that the availability applies to. Clinics with only one location will not see this option.

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