Time Zones, Appointments, & Daylight Savings

Australia spans multiple different time zones, and when daylight savings is applied, this can sometimes create confusion in appointment scheduling. To ensure clarity, MediRecords manages time zone settings differently depending on whether you are using the Appointment Widget, Patient Mobile App, or the MediRecords Care application.

This article provides answers to frequently asked questions about how time zones impact appointments, calendars, reminders, and communications. By understanding how time is displayed at each level, for practices, providers, and patients, you can reduce scheduling errors and ensure a smooth experience for both staff and patients.

Contents:

1. Appointment Settings
2. Online Appointment Widget
3. Patient Mobile App 
4. MediRecords Care Platform
5. MediRecords Engage Platform
6. SMS Appointment Reminders
7. Email Reminders

Appointment Settings

• Sessions: Always align with the provider’s time zone. What you see in the session view is based on the provider, not the viewer.

• Appointment Book: Automatically converts to the viewer’s local time zone, so each user sees bookings in their own time.

• Calendar: Shows practice hours according to the primary user’s time zone.

• Patients (via the Patient Mobile App): Patients see appointments in their local time zone. These are then converted back to the provider’s time zone in MediRecords.

• Online Appointment Widget: Follows the primary user’s time zone settings.

Online Appointment Widget

The time zone for the Appointment Widget is dictated by the primary users' time zone. 

When a patient books an appointment through the Online Appointment Widget, they have the option to adjust their time zone for the booking. The patient time zone will be shown to the patient but when a MediRecords user views the booking within the Care application, they will see the appointment in the primary user's time zone.

Patient Mobile App 

Patients can change their preferred time zone through the Patient Mobile App, and the appointment times displayed to patients through the app uses this configured time zone. The appointments that they book will be converted to the appointment provider's time zone. 

MediRecords Care Platform

Appointment Sessions are set by the provider's time zone. When looking at sessions directly it will show in the assigned providers' time zone, NOT the viewer's time zone.

The appointment book gets converted over to the viewers' time zone. The calendar shows practice hours which are based on the primary user's time zone.

Three levels of time to note - 

1. The calendar is set in the primary users' time zone.
2. Sessions are set in the provider's time zone.
3. Appointments are set in the time zone of the user that created the appointments. 

MediRecords Engage Platform

Patients are able to set their preferred time zone through the Settings page within Engage.

When a patient books an appointment via Engage, the appointment time displayed within the Care application will be converted to the time zone of the viewing user (ie provider or receptionist). 

When a Care user books an appointment into Care and the patient uses Engage, the appointment within Care will appear according to the user's time zone, but the patient will see the appointment converted to their own time zone within Engage.

SMS Appointment Reminders

The specific mail merge field (24-hour mail merge field) will map to the patient's mobile account time zone. 

If not using the 24-hour mail merge field, it will map to the Provider's time.

If the patient has no mobile account, it will map to the provider's time zone.

Email Reminders

If the patient uses the Patient Mobile App, the email will include both the patient's time zone and the provider's time zone. Otherwise it will include the provider's time zone as seen below: