Availability settings
Set office hours, appointment duration, slot interval, buffers, minimum notice, date range and time zones.
3 min read
Availability settings decide which times a patient sees on your booking page. The right settings give your team breathing space during the day, prevent last-minute bookings, and make sure patients abroad understand the time correctly.
The availability screen
Settings are per calendar: Settings → Calendars → the calendar's name → Availability.
- Open the calendar and go to the Availability step in the left menu.
- Enter your weekly working hours. Untick the days you don't work. You can add more than one range per day (e.g. 09:00–12:30 and 13:30–18:00 for a lunch break). For exceptions such as public holidays or conferences, set date-specific hours.
- Choose the Duration and Slot interval.
- Use Pre-buffer and Post-buffer to add free time before/after appointments.
- Set the scheduling rules: minimum notice, date range and maximum bookings per day.
- Click Save in the top right.
What the settings mean
| Setting | Meaning | Suggested for video pre-consultations |
|---|---|---|
| Duration | How long one appointment lasts. | 20 min |
| Slot interval | How often start times are offered. 30 min → 09:00, 09:30, 10:00… | 30 min |
| Pre-buffer / Post-buffer | Time blocked before/after an appointment — for notes, preparation or room cleaning. | 0 / 10 min |
| Minimum scheduling notice | How far in advance a patient must book. | 2–4 hours |
| Date range | How far into the future a patient can book. | 60 days |
| Max bookings per day | The maximum number of appointments per day. | 10–12 per coordinator |
| Appointments per slot | How many bookings one slot can take (for group sessions). | 1 |
Tip
A 20-minute duration, 30-minute interval and 10-minute buffer gives the coordinator time after each call to write notes in the CRM and start the treatment plan.
For operation calendars
Operations are long and need preparation. For implant surgery, for example: duration 120 min, slot interval 60 min, pre-buffer 30 min (sterilisation), minimum notice 72 hours (the patient's flights and tests), max 3 per day.
Time zones and international patients
Time differences are the most common source of confusion in medical tourism. MedicalGrow handles them like this:
- Calendar (and team member) time zone: your working hours are defined in this zone, e.g. Europe/Istanbul.
- Patient's time zone: the booking page shows times in the time zone of the patient's device, and the patient can change it from a drop-down.
For example, a 12:00 slot in Istanbul shows as 10:00 to a patient in London (during British Summer Time). Confirmation and reminder messages also show the time in the patient's time zone.
Important
Make sure the account time zone in Settings → Business Profile and the time zone in each user's profile are correct. A wrong time zone shifts the whole calendar. See Business profile and My profile.
Tip
When discussing times on WhatsApp, always write both: "10:00 London time (12:00 Istanbul)". It all but eliminates misunderstandings.
Per-user availability
In Round Robin and team calendars, each team member's own working hours are taken into account too. If coordinator Can doesn't work Saturdays, Saturday bookings only go to the other team members. See Team calendars.
Troubleshooting
A patient says there are no free times. Check in this order: are working hours set → is the minimum notice too long → has the daily maximum been reached → is there an all-day "busy" event in a connected Google/Outlook calendar?
Times look shifted by one hour. A daylight saving change or a wrong time zone in the user profile. Check the profile and business time zones.
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