How to Set Up an Online Medical Appointment System Using WpBookingly

Do you want to set up an online medical service appointment system? But wondering how to start! Don’t worry you are in the right place to easily build your medical appointment booking system.

For this walkthrough, we will use WordPress to build the system. As this is an easy-to-follow walkthrough, WordPress is the best way to build any booking or appointment booking website.

In this walkthrough blog, you will learn which features are required to create an online medical service appointment system and which plugin will be used to build a medical service appointment booking system for WordPress. We’ll also cover staff management to assign doctors and specialists seamlessly.

What is an online medical service appointment system?

An online medical service appointment system is a digital platform that allows patients to book appointments with doctors, specialists, or clinics directly from a website or app. It simplifies the entire process by letting patients choose services like general consultations, specialist check-ups, or vaccinations, select preferred dates and times, and even make secure payments—all without calling the front desk.

This system is a game-changer for clinics and hospitals. It reduces no-shows by up to 42%, streamlines patient flow during busy seasons like flu outbreaks, and frees up your staff to focus on care instead of scheduling. Plus, with the healthcare booking market growing at 15.7% annually, going digital means more patients and less hassle for everyone.

What are the features to look for in a medical service appointment booking website?

When choosing a plugin for your online medical service appointment system, look for tools that handle sensitive patient data securely while keeping things simple. Here are the key features you need:

Booking:

A medical service appointment booking system should make it easy for patients to browse services, pick a doctor or specialist, and select an available time slot. Real-time calendar views prevent overbooking, ensuring smooth operations even in high-demand clinics.

Payment Integration:

Secure payments are non-negotiable. Integrate with trusted gateways like Stripe, PayPal, or credit cards via WooCommerce to handle copays, deposits, or full fees upfront. This builds trust and speeds up revenue collection.

Automated Notifications:

Keep everyone in the loop with email or SMS reminders 24 hours before appointments. Custom templates for confirmations, cancellations, and rescheduling cut no-shows and keep your schedule tight.

Customizable Booking Forms:

Tailor forms to your needs—add fields for medical history, allergies, or insurance details. Mobile-responsive designs ensure patients can book from anywhere, anytime.

Service and Package Management:

Organize services into categories like primary care or telehealth, with durations, prices, and descriptions. Add extras like priority slots or lab add-ons to boost revenue per visit.

Planning and making a calendar:

Sync staff calendars with Google or internal tools to manage availability, breaks, and holidays. Set capacities per slot to match exam rooms and avoid chaos during peak hours.

Customer Database:

Build a secure patient database to track history, preferences, and repeat bookings. Patients get personal dashboards to view or edit appointments effortlessly.

Reporting and Analytics:

Get insights into booking trends, revenue per service, and staff performance. Export data to CSV for easy integration with EHR systems or compliance reports.

Mobile Optimization:

With 70% of bookings on mobile, ensure your system looks great on phones—quick forms, fast loading, and intuitive navigation for busy patients.

Integrations:

Connect with tools like Zapier for EHR syncing, WPML for multilingual support, or telehealth platforms like Zoom for virtual consults.

Staff Management:

Assign doctors or nurses to specific services, set individual schedules, and let patients choose their preferred provider. Automate notifications and track performance to keep your team organized.

WpBookingly complies with most of these key features for medical service appointments. It is free to use with some great features which are usually seen in the premium booking plugins. For better staff management and advanced automation, upgrade to WpBookingly Pro.

How to create an online medical service appointment system?

Now that you know the essentials, let’s build your online medical service appointment system using WpBookingly—the best free WordPress plugin for this. Follow these steps on your dashboard.

Go to your WordPress dashboard and click Plugins -> Add New Plugin. Then type ‘Wpbookingly’ on the plugin search and you will get WpBookingly. Click the Install Now button and wait a few seconds, then click Activate.

Select the WpBookingly plugin from the search results.

If you have already installed WooCommerce, then it will show WooCommerce is already installed, click Next.

WpBookingly is a WooCommerce based service and appointment booking plugin, so WooCommerce is mandatory.

After installing WooCommerce, you will get the General tab, where you can change the label of your Booking name and slug or you can keep it as the default. Then click Next.

Your setup is finished now, so click Finish & Save.

Now you will see a new tab called Service Booking on your dashboard.

You can also learn more about WpBookingly settings from the yoga appointment booking system using WpBookingly.

Before creating a medical appointment service, go to your WordPress settings and click Permalinks.

Now, set your permalinks for clean URLs. Go to Settings -> Permalinks and select ‘Post name’, then Save Changes.

Head to Mage Health Care -> All Services. You’ll see a pre-created medical&dental service—edit it for your first medical offering, like ‘General Consultation’.

In the General tab: Update the title to ‘Medical & Dental General Consultation’, add a description like ‘Primary Care, Acute Care, Chronic Disease Management and many services. Then upload a stethoscope image. Copy the shortcode at the bottom, like [service-booking post_id=”24″].

Switch to the Date & Time tab: Choose ‘Repeated’ for daily availability. Set start/end dates, max advance booking to 10 days, and time slots in 1 hour intervals from 10 AM to 6 PM. Add capacity like 4 patients per hour.

You can change the start time, end time, and break time for each day.

In the Schedule tab: Define working hours, add breaks (e.g., lunch 12-1 PM), and mark off-days like Sundays, Saturdays, or holidays.

Pricing tab: Although there are some services created, you can create one by your own.

Click Add Category and type category name and image, then click Save & Close.

Now go to Add New Service

Select your service category and type service name, price, unit, duration, description, and image.

In this way, add your other services too.

Click Update.

Now create a new page: Pages -> Add New, title it ‘Medical Appointment’.

Paste your shortcode you copied earlier in the content, and publish.

Now set up payments in WooCommerce -> Settings -> Payments: Enable offline or online payments.

Test it! Open an incognito window, visit your new page.

Select a service and click next.

Now select the date and time and proceed to checkout.

Now provide all your details and place the order to get a confirmation for your appointment.

Now your appointment system is working fine, but you lack to check your appointment booking order list and staff management.

For that, you need to get WpBookingly Pro.

Go to MagePeople Website and purchase WpBookingly Pro.

After purchasing WpBookingly Pro, upload the zip file and install and activate the plugin.

Also, install the PDF plugin from the prompt above and activate it.

Now go to your Medical service tab and select order list option.

Now you can edit the order you received from the patient.

Now your patient can’t see who the physician is for the service, because your staff management is not configured yet.

If you want to know more about staff management using WpBookingly, check how to add staff management.

Adding Staff Management for Your Medical Team

Why does staff management matter for your medical booking site?

Managing doctor and nurse schedules can be a headache—tracking who’s available for consultations, avoiding double-books during emergencies, and letting patients choose their trusted specialist. WpBookingly Pro makes it simple, preventing overlaps and automating alerts so your clinic runs smoothly.

Why WpBookingly Pro for staff management?

It’s Pro-only, with unlimited assignments, Google Calendar sync, and performance reports—perfect for clinics where 40% of appointments are now booked online, cutting no-shows by 42%.

Follow these steps to set it up:

Go to Service Booking -> Staff Members (Pro feature—upgrade if you don’t see it).

Click Add New Staff. Enter details like name (e.g., “Dr. Shurjo”), email, bio (“Cardiologist with 10+ years experience”), and upload a professional photo to build patient trust.

Save and repeat for your team—bulk import via CSV in Pro for larger hospitals. Each staff member gets a personal dashboard to view their bookings, patient details, and schedules on their mobile.

Now assign staff to services: Go to Medical Health care service -> All Services, edit ‘Medical & Dental General Consultation’. In the settings, find the Staff Assignment dropdown (Pro-only) and select doctors like “Dr. Shurjo” for cardiology slots.

Set schedules: Edit a staff profile, define working hours (e.g., Mon-Fri 10 AM-6 PM), breaks, and off-days. Sync with Google Calendar to flag conflicts like surgery days—auto-disable slots when full.

Automate and track: In Service Booking -> Settings -> Emails, enable notifications for new bookings—staff get instant alerts with patient info. Use Pro reports to see trends like most-booked specialists or revenue per doctor; export to CSV for EHR integration.

Test: Place a booking, select a doctor, and check the staff dashboard for updates. Pro tip: Let patients pick their preferred doc during checkout for better satisfaction.

Wow, you just created your online medical service appointment system frontend with full staff management.

Patients can now book seamlessly, and your team stays organized!

You can also check the WpBookingly medical service appointment premium features at https://wpbookingly.com/ for analytics, PDF invoices, and unlimited staff.

Also, check the benefits of WordPress Service Booking Plugins to Schedule Appointments.

Wrapping Up

Great, you just created an online medical service appointment system with staff management. Isn’t it easy?

It didn’t take much time right?

You learned which important features a medical service appointment booking website requires.

Based on that, we chose the best booking plugin for medical appointments from the WordPress directory. Then you learned how to use the WpBookingly plugin and create an online medical service appointment system for WordPress.

The plugin handles everything using the WooCommerce feature, including assigning doctors to keep your clinic efficient. If you still have problems understanding WpBookingly settings, you can get help from the support team at WpBookingly.

Frequently Asked Questions