Online Booking V2: What's New and How It Works
Online Booking V2 is a redesigned patient-facing booking portal. Patients can book, view, reschedule, and cancel appointments online through a modern, mobile-friendly interface. This article covers what has changed from the original Online Booking and how the new portal works.
What's new in V2
V2 replaces the original Online Booking interface. Alongside the refreshed design, several new capabilities are available.
| Capability | Original | V2 |
|---|---|---|
| Book new appointments | Yes | Yes |
| View existing appointments | No | Yes |
| Reschedule appointments | No | Yes |
| Cancel appointments | No | Yes |
| Task notifications to practice staff | No | Yes |
| Skip practitioner selection for tests | No | Yes |
| Configurable cancellation and reschedule cutoffs | No | Yes |
| Mobile-friendly responsive design | Limited | Yes |
How patients access the portal
Each practice has a unique URL in the format:
https://book.healthtrackcloud.com.au/{site_id}/v2/home
This URL is accessible from the Online Services Registration. Place this URL on your practice website, in emails, or in SMS messages. No app download or patient account is required. Patients verify their identity using their mobile number and date of birth via a one-time SMS code.
Enabling V2 replaces the original booking interface. The old URL does not redirect to the new one. Update any published links on your website or in patient communications.
Book an appointment
Patients follow a guided step-by-step process:
- Select appointment type: Choose from the types your practice has made available (for example, Initial Consult, Follow-up, Echocardiogram).
- Select location: Choose from available practice locations. If your practice has one location, this step is skipped.
- Select practitioner: Choose a specific practitioner or select "Any Practitioner" if your practice allows it. For appointment types configured to skip practitioner selection (such as pathology tests), this step does not appear.
- Select date and time: Browse available slots. The times offered come from your practice diary.
- Enter patient details: Provide name, date of birth, contact details, and optionally upload a referral document.
- Verify mobile number: A one-time SMS code confirms the patient's identity.
- Confirm and submit: Review all details and confirm the booking.
The booking is placed directly into your HealthTrack diary.
View existing appointments
Patients can view their upcoming and past appointments by verifying their identity:
- Enter their mobile number and date of birth.
- Enter the SMS verification code.
- View a list of appointments, including type, date, time, location, and practitioner.
Reschedule an appointment
From their appointment list, patients can reschedule upcoming appointments:
- Select a new date and time from available slots.
- Optionally change the practitioner (the appointment type and location stay the same).
- Confirm the changes.
The rescheduled appointment is updated directly in your HealthTrack diary.
Reschedule cutoff:
Your practice can set a cutoff period (for example, 24 hours before the appointment). If a patient tries to reschedule within this window, they will see a message directing them to contact the practice.
Cancel an appointment
Patients can cancel upcoming appointments from their appointment list:
- Select the appointment to cancel.
- Confirm the cancellation.
Cancellation cutoff:
The same cutoff logic applies. If cancellation is not allowed within the configured window, the patient is directed to contact the practice.
Task notifications
When a patient books, reschedules, or cancels through the portal, HealthTrack can create a task to notify your staff. Each event type (new booking, cancellation, reschedule) can be turned on or off independently. Task priority (High, Normal, or Low) is also configurable.
Configuration options
All settings are managed within HealthTrack, either by your practice or with support assistance. You can find the configuration menu for Online Bookings via Admin > Maintenance > Online Services Registration.
There are various configuration options available for the online booking system:
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Available appointment types | Which appointment types patients can book online. |
| Available practitioners | Which practitioners appear in the portal. |
| Available locations | Which practice locations are bookable online. |
| Skip practitioner selection | Per-appointment-type setting to hide the practitioner step (for example, for pathology or imaging). |
| Booking cutoff hours | How far in advance a slot must be to appear as available. Default: 24 hours. |
| Cancellation cutoff hours | How close to an appointment cancellation is blocked. Default: 24 hours. |
| Reschedule cutoff hours | How close to an appointment rescheduling is blocked. Default: 24 hours. |
| Task notifications | Create tasks for new bookings, cancellations, and reschedules. Default: off. |
| Task priority | Priority for created tasks: High, Normal, or Low. Default: Normal. |
| Custom CSS styling | Apply your practice branding and colour scheme to the portal. |
| Up-front advisory message | Display a custom message to patients before they begin booking. |
How the portal stays in sync with HealthTrack
The booking portal is a cloud service that HealthTrack runs for your practice. It does not hold your appointments itself. When a patient books, reschedules, or cancels, the portal asks your HealthTrack to make the change, and your HealthTrack diary stays the single source of truth. Bookings, reschedules, and cancellations made in the portal appear in your diary automatically.
Your online configuration (the appointment types, practitioners, and locations you have enabled, along with your settings) is sent to the portal by a full re-sync. A full re-sync runs automatically in these situations:
- Every night at 1 AM.
- When you first enable Online Booking.
- When you save your settings on the Online Services Registration screen.
Through the day, changes you make are sent to the portal as you save them. There is no separate sync button: saving your configuration is what sends it, and it sends your whole configuration rather than only the setting you changed.
A newly enabled appointment type, practitioner, or location does not appear in the portal until the change has been sent. To send it straight away, save your settings on the Online Services Registration screen. Otherwise it is picked up at the nightly 1 AM re-sync.
Appointment availability is not part of this configuration. The times offered to patients come from your HealthTrack diary, so diary changes during the day are reflected in what patients can book.
If the connection to HealthTrack is unavailable
The portal reaches your HealthTrack over your practice's cloud connection. If that connection is down, online booking stops working for your practice even though your HealthTrack itself keeps running normally. Patients see an error and are directed to contact the practice. If patients report the portal is not working but HealthTrack is running fine, contact HealthTrack Support to check the connection.
Security and privacy
- Patient identity is verified through SMS one-time codes and date of birth.
- The portal does not display sensitive patient information during verification.
- Referral documents are scanned for malware before being accepted.
- All communication between the portal and HealthTrack is encrypted.