MediRecords Online Appointment Options

MediRecords offers three different ways to bring appointment bookings online: the Appointment Widget, Engage, and the Connect API. Each is built for a different level of involvement, from a ready-made booking button you can drop onto your website, through to a full patient portal, or building your own booking experience from scratch. This article compares all three so you can identify the best fit, or combination, for your practice.

Contents:

1. Appointment Widget
2. Engage
3. Connect (API)
4. Comparing Your Options

Appointment Widget A ready-made booking button for your existing website. No development required.

Engage A full patient portal: booking, payments, clinical information, and more, all in one place.

Connect (API) Build your own booking experience using MediRecords' open APIs. Best suited if you already have a developer.

Appointment Widget

The Appointment Widget is a ready-made booking button that embeds directly onto your practice website with a simple copy-and-paste of a unique HTML code, no development team required. Once live, it shows patients the next available appointment time in real time, with no delays and no risk of double bookings, and lets them choose a provider that suits them. The widget's colours and styling can be customised with CSS to match your practice branding, so it feels like a natural part of your website rather than a bolted-on tool.

What makes it different

The Appointment Widget is the fastest way to get an online booking button live. MediRecords hosts and maintains the booking workflow behind it, you only need to add the code snippet to your website and keep your availability up to date. It suits practices who want online booking without building or maintaining anything themselves.

Learn more about the Appointment Widget

Engage

Engage is MediRecords' full patient portal, and appointment booking is only one part of what it offers. Alongside letting patients book appointments online, Engage gives them a self-service home for their care: viewing correspondence and medications published by the practice, managing To Dos (Clinical Actions), viewing test results, and handling consent, all from one login. For appointments specifically, Engage can also collect payment upfront at the time of booking through Stripe, which helps reduce no-shows and secures revenue before the appointment takes place.

Engage can also be white-labelled to your practice: your logo, primary colour, and primary contrast/text colour can all be set to match your branding, and MediRecords branding can be removed entirely. This means patients experience Engage as your practice's own booking and patient portal, rather than a MediRecords-branded product.

What makes it different

Where the Appointment Widget is booking-only, Engage is a broader patient engagement platform. Appointments sit alongside clinical information sharing, To Dos, and payments in a single patient-facing portal. It suits practices who want an ongoing digital relationship with patients, not just a booking button.

Learn more about Engage

Connect (API)

Connect is MediRecords' set of open REST and FHIR APIs. Rather than using a MediRecords-built booking tool, Connect lets your practice, or a developer working on your behalf, build your own digital front door and appointment booking workflow from the ground up, integrated however you need it with your own website, app, or third-party platform.

What makes it different

Connect is the most flexible option, and the one that requires the most work. MediRecords provides the API access and documentation, but building, developing, and maintaining the integration is the customer's, or their developer's, responsibility. It suits practices with development resources who want full control over the booking experience, or who are integrating appointments into an existing digital product.

Learn more about Connect

Comparing Your Options

Not sure yet? As a general guide:

• If you want a fast, ready-to-go booking button for your existing website, start with the Appointment Widget.
• If you want a broader patient portal covering appointments plus clinical information, To Dos, and payments, look at Engage.
• If you have development resources and want full control over the booking experience, explore Connect.

These options aren't mutually exclusive; for example, a practice can run Engage for its patient portal while also using Connect for other data integrations. If you're still not sure which fits your practice, your Customer Success Manager can talk through the options with you.

Further Reading

• Appointment Widget Configuration
• Customising the MediRecords Appointment Widget
• Engage: Appointment Configuration
• Engage: Stripe Payments
• Assisting Patients with Engage
• MediRecords Connect: Getting Started with Connect & FHIR APIs
• MediRecords Connect: A Simple Introduction to APIs & Integration