Letting patients change their own appointments
Cancel and reschedule links, the cutoff before they stop working, and when to turn them off.
Confirmation and reminder emails can carry a link that lets the patient cancel or move their own visit. Both are on by default, on the view that a patient who can cancel at 11pm is a patient who cancels rather than not turning up.
| Setting | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Cancel | On | The patient can cancel their own appointment. |
| Reschedule | On | The patient can move it to another free slot. |
| Cutoff | 24 hours | How close to the appointment the links keep working. Inside it, the patient is asked to call you instead. |
| Reschedule window | 30 days | How far ahead they may move it, so nobody lands in a schedule you have not published. |
| Reason required | Off | Whether cancelling asks why. Reasons show up as a statistic in Operations. |
How the links stay safe
Each link is signed and specific to one appointment. There is no login, because asking a patient to create an account to cancel is how you get a no-show instead — and a signed single-purpose link gives away nothing beyond the visit it belongs to.
Choosing a cutoff
The cutoff is the point where you would rather hear a voice. Twenty-four hours suits most clinics: it is enough notice to refill the slot from the waitlist, and inside it the patient gets a phone number rather than a dead link.
Example
A 24-hour cutoff in practice
- Appointment — Thursday 15:00.
- Wednesday 14:00 — links work. The patient moves it themselves.
- Wednesday 16:00 — links show your number and ask them to call.
- Either way you find out. Only one of them costs staff time.
When to turn it off
If every change genuinely has to pass through your front desk — because a slot needs a deposit moved, or because a treatment sequence has to stay in order — turn the toggles off and the links stop appearing. That is a real workflow, not a failure to modernise.
Turning on "reason required" is the cheapest way to find out why your no-shows happen. It costs the patient one tap and gives you a statistic you cannot otherwise get.
Common questions
- Can a patient move a visit onto a doctor who is fully booked?
- No. Self-service reschedules go through the same collision and rule checks as any other booking.
- Does cancelling free the slot immediately?
- Yes, and it becomes bookable at once — which is why the waitlist is worth checking after a cancellation email lands.
- What if the patient loses the email?
- They call. The links are convenience, not the only route, and the cutoff copy gives them your number.