Not every patient needs the same access to available appointments. Some arrange sessions well in advance, while others need to book around changing shifts, caring responsibilities or an irregular schedule. Additional appointments may be offered only after discussion with the practice. When everyone is given the same self-booking rules, a small number of flexible appointments can be taken quickly or individual days can become more heavily booked than intended.
Booking groups help a practice distribute its daily online-booking capacity more deliberately. They are an administrative setting: patients are assigned to a group, and the practice decides how many bookings that group may make on a given day. The group does not describe a diagnosis, level of need or judgement about the patient. Its purpose is limited to appointment organisation.
Why one booking rule may not fit everyone
A psychotherapy practice may need to support several booking patterns at the same time:
- Patients with a mostly regular schedule may only occasionally need an alternative appointment.
- People working shifts or managing caring responsibilities may need to choose from more flexible times.
- A small amount of capacity may be reserved for additional or short-notice sessions.
- Some patients may continue to receive appointments only by direct arrangement with the practice.
A completely open self-booking system treats these situations in the same way. It is simple, but it may not reflect the way the practice actually works. At the other extreme, maintaining a separate rule for every person becomes unnecessarily time-consuming.
Booking groups provide a middle layer. Several patients can share the same administrative rule, while the practice limits daily bookings and retains the option to manage an individual patient differently.
What booking groups are — and what they are not
A booking group is an internal assignment used for appointment administration. In Theravo, a practice can assign patients to groups, rename those groups to match its own terminology and set a daily booking limit for each one. Several restricted groups can also share a combined daily limit. Groups that do not need a restriction can remain unlimited.
Booking groups do not create appointment availability. The practice still creates appointment types and releases specific times. The group rule is an additional capacity check: when a patient books, Theravo checks whether capacity remains for that group on the selected day.
Booking groups are also different from the distinction between new and existing patients. Access for those audiences is configured on the appointment type itself. An initial consultation may be public only for new patients, while follow-up appointments are available only to patients already in therapy.
How daily group limits work
A practice can set a maximum number of bookings per day for each booking group. This is useful when several groups can access the same released follow-up appointments but should not be able to use all of the day’s capacity.
A combined limit can also be applied across several restricted groups. This prevents a collection of small individual allowances from adding up to more bookings than the practice intended.
Example: six released follow-up appointments
A practice releases six follow-up appointments on Thursday and uses three internal booking groups:
Scroll sideways to read all columns.
| Booking group | Administrative purpose | Daily limit |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | Regular self-booking | Unlimited |
| Flexible booking | Patients with changing availability | 2 |
| Additional sessions | Limited capacity for supplementary sessions | 1 |
The two restricted groups share a combined daily limit of two bookings. This could mean two bookings from “Flexible booking”, or one booking from each restricted group. The remaining released times stay available to other eligible patients or for manual allocation by the practice.
These figures are illustrative. Appropriate limits depend on the practice’s appointment types, working pattern and actual demand.
Booking-group models that may be useful
Group names should describe the administrative rule, not the patient. Two or three groups are usually easier to maintain than a complex classification system.
Standard
This group can be used for patients who may book the practice’s regular released follow-up appointments without an additional daily restriction. It can remain unlimited where no further control is required.
Flexible booking
This group may help patients whose work, caring responsibilities or other practical circumstances make a fixed time difficult. A daily limit prevents a small pool of flexible appointments from being used up by one group on the same day.
Additional sessions
A tightly limited group may be useful for supplementary sessions or capacity released at short notice. The group controls only the booking route. Whether an additional session is clinically appropriate remains a professional decision outside automatic scheduling.
Temporary arrangement
A restriction may sometimes be needed only during a change in the practice schedule. In that case, the group assignment should be reviewed on a defined date rather than becoming permanent by default.
Neutral labels support clear professional boundaries
Labels such as “unreliable”, “difficult” or diagnosis-based group names do not belong in appointment administration. They are unnecessary for the scheduling purpose, may be experienced as judgemental and blur the boundary between administrative planning and clinical understanding.
Better labels include:
- Standard
- Flexible booking
- Limited allocation
- Additional sessions
- Temporary arrangement
The purpose of each group should be explainable in one internal sentence, for example:
A short definition makes later review and reassignment easier.
How to set up booking groups in Theravo
1. Identify the practical constraint
Start with the problem, not the group name. Are you protecting a small pool of flexible appointments? Limiting supplementary capacity? Or arranging appointments manually for a particular patient?
2. Use as few groups as possible
Every additional group requires maintenance. For many solo practices, one standard group and one restricted group will be enough.
3. Choose neutral names
Theravo allows groups to be renamed. Use labels that describe the booking arrangement and will still make sense when the settings are reviewed later.
4. Assign patients deliberately
Only assign patients to a restricted group where that administrative rule is genuinely needed. Group membership should remain changeable and be reviewed regularly.
5. Set realistic daily limits
Choose a maximum that matches the amount of availability actually released. A very high limit has little effect; a very low one may create avoidable enquiries and manual work.
6. Add a combined limit where needed
Where several groups are restricted, a combined daily limit can stop their separate allowances from consuming too much of the same capacity.
7. Leave groups unlimited where appropriate
Not every group requires a cap. A standard group can remain unlimited when the released availability and appointment-type rules already provide enough control.
8. Test the patient journey
Use test accounts to check a day with capacity and a day on which the group limit has been reached. The patient-facing journey should remain clear and should not unnecessarily reveal internal group labels or allocation logic.
When an individual rule is better
Not every exception needs another group.
Where only one patient should not book independently, Theravo can disable online booking for that person. The practice can continue to arrange appointments manually without deleting the patient or their appointment history.
The distinction between initial and follow-up appointments should also be configured on the appointment type, not through booking groups. Appointment types can be made available to new patients, existing patients, both audiences or manual booking only. An individual or manual process is also more appropriate where appointment allocation requires professional judgement. Booking groups can manage capacity, but they cannot perform clinical prioritisation.
Review groups regularly
A group should not remain in place indefinitely simply because it already exists in the system. Review periodically:
- Is the original administrative purpose still relevant?
- Does the daily limit match the availability now being released?
- Are the right patients assigned?
- Is the rule creating unnecessary enquiries or manual changes?
- Could a simpler arrangement achieve the same purpose?
Booking arrangements should evolve with the practice rather than fixing patients into a permanent administrative category.
Practice example: protecting flexible appointments
A therapist works mainly with regular weekly sessions and also releases a small number of follow-up appointments for patients who cannot use the same time each week because of changing work schedules.
Without a group rule, several of these patients could book on the same day and use all of the flexible capacity. The therapist therefore creates a “Flexible booking” group with a limit of two bookings per day. The standard group remains unlimited. For individual patients whose appointments still need to be discussed directly, self-booking is disabled at patient level.
The released availability remains straightforward for eligible patients, while the practice controls in the background how much daily capacity the flexible group can use.
Checklist
- Every group has a purpose that can be explained in one sentence.
- Group names are neutral and administrative.
- Diagnoses and judgements about patients are not used as labels.
- Appointment availability is managed separately from group limits.
- Every restricted group has a realistic daily limit.
- A combined limit is used where several restricted groups share the same capacity.
- Groups that do not need a restriction remain unlimited.
- Individual exceptions do not automatically become new groups.
- Self-booking can be disabled for one patient where needed.
- Membership and limits are reviewed regularly.
- The journey has been tested with patient test accounts.
Frequently asked questions
Can patients see their booking group?
Booking groups are intended for internal administrative capacity control. Internal labels and allocation rules are not clinical descriptions of the patient. Patients only need clear information about which appointments they can currently book.
Does a booking group create its own appointments?
No. Availability is created through appointment types and times released by the practice. The booking group adds a limit on how much of the day’s capacity the group may use.
Can every group have its own daily limit?
Yes. Different daily limits can be set for different groups, while groups that do not require a restriction can remain unlimited.
Can several groups share one combined limit?
Yes. In addition to individual limits, several restricted groups can share a combined daily maximum.
Can I disable self-booking for only one patient?
Yes. Theravo can disable online booking for an individual patient without deleting the patient or their appointment history.
Are booking groups the same as new and existing patient access?
No. New-patient and existing-patient access is configured on the appointment type. Booking groups add a separate daily capacity rule for patients assigned to them.
Can booking groups be used for clinical prioritisation?
No. They are intended for administrative booking rules. Urgency, treatment indication and other clinical decisions must remain with the practice.
Are booking groups related to group therapy?
No. A booking group brings together patients who share the same administrative booking rule. It is not a therapy group and does not manage attendance in a shared session.