Kasper's block scheduling feature enhances the efficiency of your online scheduling process by allowing you to customize appointment availability in the Kasper online scheduler to meet the specific needs of your practice. This ensures that patients can only book appointments during the time slots you designate. For instance, if you prefer to schedule new patient exams at specific times—such as early morning or immediately after lunch—block scheduling enables you to set these preferences accordingly.
How to set Block Scheduling
Step 1: Creating Blockout Types
To begin, you’ll need to create Blockout types in Open Dental. Here’s how:
Navigate to Setup and then Definitions.
In the left-hand menu, select Blockout Types.
Click +Add, assign a name to your blockout, and choose a color for it.
Note: Do not check the "Block Appointment Scheduling" box, as this will prevent any appointments from being scheduled during the blockout period.
Click Save to confirm.
Step 2: Assigning Blockouts to Appointment Types
Before proceeding, ensure you are using Open Dental version 22.4 or higher to assign Blockouts to specific appointment types.
Go to Setup > Appointments > Appointment Types.
Select the appointment type you wish to edit.
In the Allowed Blockout Types section, choose the blockout type that you want Kasper to read.
Click Save to apply the changes.
For example, you might assign a "Limited Exam" appointment to be scheduled during an "Emergency" blockout period.
Step 3: Adding Blockouts
To add Blockouts to your schedule:
Right-click on your preferred time and Operatory.
Select Add Blockout.
Customize the blockout by selecting the blockout type, the desired Operatories (you can choose more than one), and the start and stop times.
Click Save.
If the same schedule applies every day, you can use the copy feature:
Right-click, then select Blockout Cut-Copy-Paste to replicate Blockouts across multiple days or weeks.
You can also drag the cursor to select multiple Operatories.
Once your Blockouts are set up in Open Dental, go to your scheduling page. When selecting the visit reason assigned to a blockout, the system will only display availability for the specified times.