Work Hours Overview

Comprehensive guide to clinic and provider work hours management

What Are Work Hours?

Work hours define the availability windows for your clinic and providers. They control when appointments can be booked in your system.

The work hours system supports two levels:

1. Clinic Hours: Define when your clinic is operational
2. Provider Hours: Define when individual providers are available (must intersect with clinic hours)

New Feature (2025-11-21): Multiple non-contiguous time periods per day are now supported. You can configure split shifts like 09:00-13:00 + 15:00-19:00 with lunch breaks.

Hierarchy: Clinic Hours → Provider Hours

The system uses an intersection-based hierarchy:

Clinic Hours:    08:00 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 20:00
Provider A:            09:00 ━━━━━ 13:00
Provider B:                             15:00 ━━━━━ 19:00
Provider C:            09:00 ━━━━━ 13:00 + 15:00 ━━━━━ 19:00

Available Slots:
  - Provider A: 09:00-13:00 ✅
  - Provider B: 15:00-19:00 ✅
  - Provider C: 09:00-13:00 + 15:00-19:00 ✅

If the clinic is closed on a day (no clinic-level work hours configured), NO appointments can be booked that day, regardless of provider availability.

Weekday Numbering

The system uses numeric weekday identifiers:

Number	Day
1	Monday (Lunes)
2	Tuesday (Martes)
3	Wednesday (Miércoles)
4	Thursday (Jueves)
5	Friday (Viernes)
6	Saturday (Sábado)
7	Sunday (Domingo)

Multiple Periods Per Day

You can configure multiple non-contiguous time periods for the same day:

Example: Split Shift

Monday (1):
  Period 1: 09:00-13:00 (Morning)
  Period 2: 15:00-19:00 (Afternoon)
  Gap: 13:00-15:00 (Lunch break - NO appointments)

The system generates slots only within configured periods, not in gaps. This ensures professional scheduling aligned with your actual availability.

Overlap Validation

The system prevents overlapping time periods for the same clinic/provider/weekday:

• Overlap Formula: A_start < B_end AND B_start < A_end
• Contiguous Periods: Allowed when A_end == B_start (e.g., 09:00-13:00 and 13:00-17:00)
• Validation: Performed at application level before saving

Examples:

✅ Valid: 09:00-13:00 + 15:00-19:00 (gap 13:00-15:00)

✅ Valid: 09:00-13:00 + 13:00-17:00 (contiguous)

❌ Invalid: 09:00-14:00 + 13:00-17:00 (overlap 13:00-14:00)

Quick Start Guides

Configure Clinic Hours

Set up your clinic’s operational hours for each day of the week

Multiple Periods Per Day

Configure split shifts and non-contiguous time periods

Provider Hours

Set individual availability for each provider

Edit & Delete Hours

Modify or remove existing work hour configurations

Best Practices

Start with clinic hours first

Always configure clinic-level hours before setting provider hours. Provider hours are validated against clinic hours.

Use multiple periods for split shifts

Instead of one long period with manual blocking, use multiple periods (e.g., 09:00-13:00 + 15:00-19:00) for automatic gap handling.

Review overlap validation errors

If you get overlap errors, check the formula: A_start < B_end AND B_start < A_end. Adjust times to create a gap or make periods contiguous.

Use closures for one-time changes

For holidays or exceptional days, use the Closures feature instead of deleting work hours. Work hours define your regular weekly schedule.

Cache invalidation is automatic

When you create, update, or delete work hours, the system automatically clears availability caches. No manual action needed.

How Work Hours Affect Availability

The availability system follows this logic:

1. Fetch clinic work hours for the requested weekday
2. Fetch provider work hours for the same weekday
3. Calculate intersection of clinic and provider hours
4. Generate slots within intersected periods (e.g., every 30 minutes)
5. Filter conflicts (existing appointments, closures, external calendars)

Example:

Request: Availability for Monday (1), 30-minute service

Clinic Hours (Monday): 08:00-20:00
Provider Hours (Monday): 09:00-13:00 + 15:00-19:00

Intersection: 09:00-13:00 + 15:00-19:00

Generated Slots:
  09:00, 09:30, 10:00, 10:30, 11:00, 11:30, 12:00, 12:30
  15:00, 15:30, 16:00, 16:30, 17:00, 17:30, 18:00, 18:30

NO slots generated: 08:00-09:00, 13:00-15:00, 19:00-20:00

Next Steps

Configure Clinic Hours

Set up your clinic’s operational schedule

Multiple Periods

Learn how to configure split shifts