The Online Booking Widget lets patients request an appointment from your own website. This guide shows how to set it up, what the patient sees, and how front-desk staff confirm the request so it becomes a normal appointment.
Open Front Desk › Online Booking. The page shows a Live badge and the buttons Save settings and Publish, above four tabs: Publish, Website security, Policy and Embed. Turn on Accept online bookings and choose your public link (here /book/demo-hospital). On Website security list your own website under Allowed website origins.
Open Policy. Tick the Departments and Doctors patients may book; none selected means all departments (and all doctors with a department) are bookable. Fill the time rules: Lead time (minutes), Booking horizon (days), Slot granularity (min), Default duration (min) and Daily cap per phone. Tick Allow video consultations if patients may choose a video visit; a secure join link is provisioned automatically.
Open Embed and choose how patients reach the form: a Floating launcher (recommended), an Inline widget inside a page, an iframe, or a plain link. Copy the snippet and paste it into your website. Add the website origin (Step 1) before publishing the snippet. Press Publish.
The patient opens your link and sees the hospital name and Choose a department. Only the departments you allowed in Policy are listed, each with its fee. Skip — show all doctors goes straight to the doctors. They then choose a doctor; one tap moves on.
The patient chooses a date (here Fri, Oct 9) and a free time under Available times (10:00 AM), then presses Continue.
The form asks for Full name, Visit type (In person or Video visit) and Phone. Email, Medical record no., Gender, Date of birth, Reason for visit, Add more detail and Attach documents are optional. A returning patient types the MR number (MR-000035): it is used with the phone number to link the booking to the existing record, so no duplicate file is created. Documents: up to 5 files, 4 MB each, PDF, JPG, PNG or WEBP. The patient presses Request appointment.
The page says Request received and shows a Reference (APT-000065, Friday, Oct 9, 10:00 AM). A private Add documents to your visit link lets the patient add reports after booking.
On Front Desk › Appointments open Pending web. The request appears linked to the same record: APT-000065, Muhammad Hamza Qureshi, Dental Doctor, Oct 9, 2026, 10:00 AM. Click Confirm: Booking confirmed. It is now a normal appointment.
| Mistake | What you see | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Website not listed under Allowed website origins | The widget cannot be embedded on that site | Add the https address in Website security |
| No departments or doctors ticked | All departments are bookable | Tick only the ones patients may book |
| Forgetting to confirm | The request stays in Pending web | Press Confirm |
| Returning patient leaves MR number out | The booking may not link to the existing record | Ask for the MR number and phone together |
| Item | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Accept online bookings | Master switch for the public booking page |
| Allowed website origins | The websites that may embed the widget |
| Lead time / Booking horizon | How soon and how far ahead patients can book |
| Daily cap per phone | Limit on bookings per phone number per day |
| Pending web | Staff queue of online requests |
Why must I list my website under Allowed website origins? Only the addresses on that list may show the widget inside a page, so nobody else can embed your booking form. Use https addresses only, without paths or wildcards.
Is an online request already an appointment? No. Until staff press Confirm in Pending web, it is only a request. After Confirm it becomes a normal appointment on the doctor's list.
How can patients reach the booking form? Open Embed and choose a Floating launcher (recommended), an Inline widget inside a page, an iframe, or a plain link. Copy the snippet into your website and press Publish.
How does a returning patient avoid a duplicate record? The patient types the MR number with the phone number. Together they link the booking to the existing record, so no duplicate file is created.
GridX HMS runs this whole workflow. See what GridX HMS does and what it costs, or browse all step-by-step guides.