Physiotherapy booking system: clinic, treatment courses, home visits
Physio sells a course of 5–10 visits and a table, not “a free hour”. Patients vanish after the third session; home visits scramble the diary. A calendar with courses, rooms and travel plus SMS — instead of two Google Calendars and a WhatsApp group.
Physio mixes a clinic diary with field service: a table in rooms or a bag in a car after a hip replacement. An 8-visit course should sit on fixed days. If the patient “forgets” after the third, you lose the rest of the pack and a slot you cannot fill in the evening like a haircut. Medical no-show benchmarks sit near 18%; a 45–60 minute slot plus a sheet change does not squeeze. At home you add 15–30 min travel, a lift with no signal and parking — without that the diary lies.
The market has Asysto, Reservio, Bookit, zyko, zarezerwuj.pl, Proassist, Booksy Med. Some are a generic calendar with a “physio” skin; some promise records. Fine for one person, one room, no travel. They break when three therapists share two tables and a back-class room, and after lunch someone drives across town. We do not promise a full public-payer integration “in the calendar price”. We build a private clinic and small centres: slots, series, travel, payment. A public contract sits beside it; we do not fake settlement with the payer.
What a physio calendar must do
A resource is not “a free hour in Google”. It is a table, a room, a therapist and — on the road — a travel window. Two treatments cannot share a table even if the physio “will make it”. A series is one reception gesture, not eight manual entries that drift at the first reschedule.
- A resource: room / table / therapist — a table clash is harder than a person clash.
- A series: “Tue and Fri at 5 pm × 8” with one package payment and a shift of the rest when someone is ill.
- A home visit: travel inside the slot, a zone, an app with navigation, status and an offline note in a block of flats.
- An exercise room / back class — a cap like a gym class.
- SMS 24 h and 2 h, a deposit on the first visit, a waitlist for 5 pm after work.
- A card: body area, patient-reported contraindications, posture photos (consent), home advice, visits left in the pack.
- Insurer / sports card / visit cap — if the process is clear; full EDI only with an API and volume.
Home visits — beauty calendars are not enough
Booksy and Asysto will run a table in a room. Travel is another geometry: 45 min treatment + 20 min drive as a zone rule, not a note “remember the traffic”. The system does not put the next patient on those 20 min. The day order is like a field engineer: nearest pin, window, “I’m 10 min away”. LTE dies in the lift — the note and presence confirmation must go offline. The patient only needs “cancel / move” on a phone page; they do not install your app to cancel a massage. You — Android on the same API as the panel.
Travel pricing: free within X km, a flat zone fee, or “Wednesdays only in that district”. Not a whim — the only way a home series does not eat the afternoon in clinic. A card flag: stairs, a dog, gated parking. The physio sees it before leaving, not under the stairwell.
Treatment courses and no-shows
After an injury the patient is motivated for three visits, then “it’s better” and a hole. An 8–10 pack paid up front plus SMS plus an easy reschedule (not a cancel in DM) holds the course. A deposit on the first visit filters Google window-shoppers. A waitlist on popular hours pays when someone frees Tuesday 17:00. Numbers: empty hour. We do not moralise — we count the table.
Who books a series? A check and a relaxation massage — the patient can. A course after intake is usually “repeat weekly” in one click by you. A public widget with no rules ends with eight visits with eight different people or a double on the table. This is not hair.
Public payer, private, sports packs — no pretending
We do not promise full integration with NFZ, eligibility checks or “records compliant with every ordinance in the calendar price”. That is another league, another API if it exists, another budget. Private clinic: slots, series, travel, payment, a card with what the patient reported and what you wrote as advice. If you have a public contract, the private system sits beside it. Booksy Med and Proassist lean into documentation — check whether you need it or you are paying for a module you will not fill after the 20th visit of the day.
A ready calendar or custom
One person, one room, no travel — Asysto / Reservio / Bookit / zyko will take the phone off you. Custom when you have several therapists, a room plus home visits, a field app, sports-club packs, white-label patients, or data on your side. Wider frame: SaaS or custom. A dietitian in the same centre can sit on a separate module with one patient login.
- MVP: resource calendar (table + person) + series + SMS + deposit.
- A card with area, photo consent, home advice (text / link).
- Travel: zones, drive time in the slot, a day list on Android.
- A group room and a pass. A sports-club pack with a visit cap.
- An insurer bridge — only with a spec and volume.
Describe table count, home visits, how a course looks and whether public-payer work sits beside private. MVP: series calendar + SMS. Travel and Android when the route starts eating the day, not when “an app would look good in the offer”.
Table, room, home, group — four geometries of time
A 45–60 min table with a sheet change and a note is another beat than a 75 min massage, another than an 8-person 50 min class, another than a home visit 45+20 travel. Beauty calendars know one geometry: person + service. Physio knows four. A table clash is harder than a therapist clash: two physios cannot dry-needle on one table even if the second “is free”. A group room has a cap like a gym class: 8 places, a 9th on the waitlist, SMS when someone frees. Home: zone, parking, stairs, a dog on the card, offline in the lift. Stuffing home visits into Booksy with no travel time ends with 16:00 in clinic overlapping 15:40 at a patient across town.
A sports-club pack (10 visits / quarter, card check) and an insurer (a cap, a claim number) are other rules than a private 8× paid up front. The system can watch the cap and the card number. Full EDI — only with a spec. Public payer: another world, we do not promise it in the MVP. If you mix, the private diary does not fake settlement with the payer; it sits beside it. Proassist and Booksy Med promise records — check whether after the 18th patient of the day anyone fills them, or you pay for empty fields.
Card, consent, home advice — without pretending to be a hospital
The card holds area, goal, reported contraindications, a posture photo (consent), visit count, home advice (text, PDF, a video link you pin). That is not a hospital EHR and not a medical device. The patient sees dates, advice and “4 left in the pack”. Your clinical notes stay inside. An exercise library as a product (an app with 200 videos and AI) is another budget — not in the series-calendar price. GDPR: patient-reported health, image, SMS. Roles: therapist / reception / patient. Reception does not need the full dry-needling note.
One person, one table: Asysto / zyko / Bookit in an afternoon. Several physios, homes, a room: count custom or a travel layer on what you already run. We do not throw out Booksy if the in-room table works — we add Android on the route. How many tables, how many field pins a day.
Team diary, cover, the 6 pm room
Three physios, two tables, a 6 pm back class: a puzzle Google Calendar will not deliver. Holiday, sick leave, series cover (the patient stays on the table and date, the person changes — or not, if the series is named). Reception must click that in one place, not in three cells. 16:00–20:00 is a peak like Saturday at the hairdresser; a waitlist and a 2 h SMS are worth more here than a pretty widget. Home visits after 20:00: another tariff, another GPS consent, another on-call report — a cousin of towing in miniature, without pretending it is the same product. A pack “8 private + 4 on a sports card” has two counters on one card, or someone burns the club cap on a relaxation massage.
Rollout: a week parallel with the old diary, a list of exceptions (home + table the same day, class + massage). Then we cut WhatsApp. If the team returns to the notebook, the screen is guilty, not “resistance to novelty”. The MVP does not contain a 200-video library — it contains a series that returns.
Table money: pack, sports card, travel, an empty 17:00
A 45 min table at 17:00 in a private room is 120–220 PLN. An 18% no-show without SMS and a deposit eats a week. An 8× pack up front locks cash flow and the course. A sports card has a cap — two counters. Travel: a zone fee plus time in the slot, or 17:00 at home kills 17:40 in clinic. Report: table occupancy, % of finished series, field pins, sources (Google, a doctor, a club). After a month you know whether Android on the route is needed or Asysto in the room is enough. Do not buy records you will not fill after the twentieth patient.
A 100% mobile physio (homes only) is field service with a bag: day list, zones, offline, a presence protocol. Clinic + 30% travel is a hybrid, the most common in PL and the worst for two Google Calendars. One resource engine. Home-exercise video — phase two, pinned by you, not “AI physio”. Public payer beside, not inside.
SMS, deposit, waitlist — mechanics, not an appeal to conscience
After the third session the patient feels better and vanishes. That is not malice, it is statistics. A 24 h SMS with a reschedule link (not a cancel in DM), a deposit on the first visit, a pack paid up front, a waitlist for 17:00. TheFork showed in restaurants that a card guarantee cuts no-shows by about 65%; the physio analogue is money and an easy move. Numbers: empty hour. A clinic that moralises instead of taking a deposit counts empty tables. Custom is not needed to turn on SMS — Asysto and zyko have it. Custom is needed when SMS must leave your domain and a series must know travel and the room at once.
A patient app with 5 min evening exercises makes sense when the series actually returns and someone watches those films. At the start a cancel page on the phone. Android for the therapist in the field — when pins are daily, not “because the competitor has an app”. We do not certify a device. We do not join the public payer in the calendar price. Tables, pins, packs — stay on Asysto, or we add the route.
A home visit: 45 min treatment + 20 min travel
Booksy and Asysto will run a table in a room. Travel is another geometry: drive time as a zone rule, not a note “remember the traffic”. The system does not put 16:00 in clinic on 15:40 at a patient across town. LTE dies in the lift — the note and presence confirmation go offline. A card flag: stairs, a dog, parking. Pricing: free within X km, a zone fee, “Wednesdays only in that district”. A cousin of field service, not beauty.
- Resource table / room / therapist — two physios cannot needle on one table.
- A series “Tue and Fri 17:00 × 8” in one gesture, shifting the rest when someone is ill.
- A group room with a cap like a gym class.
- Two counters on the card: a private pack and a sports-card cap.
Public payer beside, not inside the MVP diary
We do not promise eligibility checks or payer settlement in the calendar price. Private clinic: slots, series, travel, payment, a card with what the patient reported. A public contract sits beside it. Proassist and Booksy Med lean into records — check whether after the 18th patient of the day anyone fills them. We do not certify a device and we do not build “AI physio”. A video library is material you pin, phase two.
Notes you will still fill after the twentieth patient
The card: area, goal, reported contraindications, a posture photo with consent, visits left in the pack, home advice (text / PDF / a link you pin). Reception does not need the needling note. Not a full EHR and not a medical device. If Booksy Med or Proassist promises records nobody will fill after the 18th visit of the day — do not pay for empty fields. The MVP is series + SMS + table; travel and Android when pins are daily.
Frequently asked questions
- Can the patient book a whole course themselves?
- Checks and massage — yes. A course after intake is usually “repeat weekly” in one click by you. A widget without that rule messes the table.
- Is travel inside the slot?
- Yes — 45 min treatment + 20 min travel as a zone rule. The system will not put the next patient on those 20 min and will show the physio pin order.
- Home-exercise videos?
- A library of links / files on the card — phase two. We do not build TikTok or “AI physio” on day one. You pin the material to the advice.
- Insurers / sports cards?
- Visit caps and a card number if the process is clear. Full EDI only with an API and volume. We do not promise NFZ “in the calendar price”.
- Is this a medical device / full EHR?
- No. It organises the clinic, the course and messaging. The notes you keep remain your duty. We do not certify a device or replace public-payer systems.
- Is Asysto / Booksy Med enough?
- For one table in a room, often yes. Custom for travel, several therapists on two tables, a group room, a field app or white label. We do not throw out a working calendar for ideology.
- A patient app?
- Not at the start. A cancel / move page on the phone. A therapist app in the field — yes when there are homes. Native for the patient when you want “5 min exercises in the evening” push and you actually use it.
- How long to start?
- Series + SMS + table: weeks. Travel with zones and offline Android: the next iteration when pins repeat. Insurer integration — after numbers, not on a sales slide.
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