Highlights

• Faster searching across services, patients, MRNs, and appointments
• Patient search improvements in Booking and Billing (now showing Date of Birth)
• New Appointment ID format that’s patient-friendly and clearly shows the appointment year
• New appointment reservation workflow (no comms until confirmed)
• All-day calendar notes (visible in the all-day area)
• Billing upgrades: post-visit payment requests, optional invoice status decoupling, and a refreshed Payments modal
• Integrations: New Dialpad SMS integration

🔎 Smarter service dropdown searching (by service name and code)

What’s new
All service dropdowns now support searching by both service name and service code, making it faster to locate the correct service, particularly in clinics with extensive service lists.

How to use it

• Click any service dropdown

• Type the service name or service code

• Select the service as normal

🧾 Patient search improvements using Date of Birth (DoB)

What’s new
We’ve introduced two targeted improvements to reduce selection errors and speed up patient matching:

• Billing: patient search results now display DoB, helping staff confirm they have selected the correct patient (especially where names are similar).

• Booking modal (appointment booking): you can now search for patients by DoB, making it easier to locate records when patient details are limited or names are common.

How to use it

• In Billing: search for the patient as normal and confirm using the displayed DoB.

• In the Booking modal: enter the patient’s DoB in the search field to find matching records, then select the correct patient.

🔢 MRNs are now standardised to 6 digits (with zero padding)

What’s new
Medical Record Numbers (MRNs) are now displayed in a consistent 6-digit format, using leading zeros where required (e.g., 000123). This improves consistency across screens and reduces errors when reading or manually entering MRNs.

How to use it

• No change to your workflow, MRNs will now display in the standard format automatically.

• Searching works as normal.

🗓️ New Appointment ID format (patient-friendly, year-aware, faster to search)

What’s new
Appointment IDs now follow a consistent format: X{YY}{100+n}.

This change is designed to improve patient communication and appointment identification:

• Appointment IDs are included in appointment confirmations, so when a patient quotes the ID, staff can immediately identify the year of the appointment from the prefix.

• The YY reflects the year of the appointment date (not the year it was created).
  Example: if an appointment is created in 2026 but scheduled for 2027, the ID will start with X27…, not X26….

• The XYY prefix also makes Appointment IDs instantly recognisable and supports quicker searching by narrowing database lookups.

Examples

• 1st appointment scheduled in 2026: X26101

• 2nd appointment scheduled in 2026: X26102

• 1st appointment scheduled in 2027: X27101

How to use it

• Search by Appointment ID as normal.

• When a patient calls, use the XYY prefix to confirm the appointment year immediately.

🏷️ Field label updates: “First/Last name” → “Given/Family name”

What’s new
We’ve updated name field labels to align with standard clinical terminology:

• First name → Given name

• Last name → Family name

How to use it

• No action required, this is a label change only.

💬 New SMS integration: Dialpad

What’s new
Panacea360 now supports Dialpad as an SMS provider option, offering additional flexibility for clinics managing outbound patient communications.

How to use it

• Admin users can configure Dialpad within your organisation’s messaging/integration settings.

• Once enabled, select Dialpad as your SMS provider where applicable.

Link

• Find out more about Dialpad

🕒 Appointment Reservations (Reserve now, confirm later)

What’s new
You can now reserve appointment slots without triggering patient communications. Reserved appointments:

• appear greyed out in the calendar

• show a “Reserved” banner

• do not send emails/SMS until confirmed

This is ideal for holding slots pending eligibility checks, patient confirmation, or internal review.

How to reserve a slot

1. Follow the standard booking process

2. Next to Save, select Reserve slot

3. The appointment will be saved as Reserved and no communications will be sent

How to confirm a reserved appointment

1. Open the reserved appointment in the calendar

2. Click Confirm appointment

3. Communications will then be sent as per your clinic’s standard settings and templates

📝 Calendar Notes (All-day notes)

What’s new
You can now add notes that appear in the all-day section of the calendar—ideal for operational reminders, clinician-specific notices, or clinic-wide updates.

How to add an all-day note

1. In the calendar, click the down arrow next to + Appointment

2. Select All-day note

3. Choose a clinician (or All)

4. Set start and end dates

5. Add a description

6. Click Save

How to edit or delete a note

• Click the note, make changes and click Save, or select Delete to remove it

💳 Billing improvements

What’s new
This release includes several billing enhancements designed to better support real-world clinic workflows.

Post-appointment payment requests

• A new workflow supports sending payment requests after the appointment, useful when services are finalised post-visit or payment is taken remotely.

New Admin setting: decouple Payment Method from Invoice Status

• Admin → Appointments now includes a setting to control whether payment method automatically sets invoice status:

  • Linked (current behaviour): invoices with a payment method other than On credit and online payments are treated as Paid

  • Unlinked (new option): invoices (other than On credit and online payments) default to Active, and staff manually mark them Paid when appropriate

Updated Payments modal

• The Payments modal is now faster and more user-friendly, with quicker actions to:

  • add a payment

  • issue a refund

  • print an invoice

  • email an invoice directly from the modal