What's new
We’re introducing the new Waitlist app that gives your clinic one place to keep track of everyone who's waiting to start treatment - whether they came to you through a referral, a phone call, or a walk-in. It's designed around how referral-based intake actually works today: a referral comes in, someone at your clinic accepts it, and the patient often has to wait until a therapist has capacity before their treatment can begin. Waitlist gives you a clear, shared view of that waiting group so nothing falls through the cracks between ‘referral accepted’ and ‘treatment started’.
This is currently separate from your clinic's online booking waiting list (the feature that notifies a client if an earlier time slot opens up). That feature hasn't changed and continues to work exactly as it does today - if you’ve had it active previously see “What happens to my existing Waiting list app” below.
What you can do
See one shared waitlist for your whole clinic. Everyone waiting to start treatment shows up in a single, clinic-wide list, instead of being tracked in spreadsheets, sticky notes, or someone's memory.
Add patients automatically from accepted referrals. When you accept a referral through Helsenett/NHN and choose to add the patient to the waitlist (either during import, or when you respond to the referral), they appear on the list automatically — no need to re-enter their details.
Add patients manually. If someone calls or walks in and you want to add them to the waitlist yourself, you can — just search for or create their client record first, then add them to the list with a priority, an optional deadline, and any notes you want the team to see.
Set up your own priority groups. Define the priority categories that make sense for your clinic (for example, Crisis, Serious, Ordinary, Follow-up), give each one a color, and control the order they appear in.
Sort and filter by priority. Within each priority group, patients are ordered by how long they've been waiting, so it's easy to see who's been waiting longest.
Control who can see and manage the list. Access to Waitlist follows your clinic's existing user roles and permissions, so you can decide who gets to view or manage entries.
Remove someone once they start treatment. When a patient is booked in and their treatment starts, remove them from the waitlist so the list always reflects who's actually still waiting.
What's coming very soon
We’re rolling this out now to understand your feedback yet we’re already working on the following improvements:
Assigning a waiting patient to a specific therapist from within Waitlist, with an automatic notification to that therapist.
Booking an appointment directly from a waitlist entry.
Creating or managing a treatment series from within Waitlist.
In the meantime, you'll keep assigning therapists and booking appointments the way you do today - Waitlist's job in this release is to give you visibility and prioritization while that happens, not to replace those steps.
Getting started
Once your clinic is enabled for the pilot:
Go to your Apps menu and activate Waitlist.
Open Waitlist settings and set up the priority groups your clinic wants to use (name, color, and order).
Decide, as a clinic, whether secretaries/admins or only therapists should have access to view and manage the list, and set permissions accordingly.
Start adding patients — either by accepting a Helsenett/NHN referral and choosing to add them to the waitlist, or by adding an existing client manually.
What happens to my existing Waiting list app
If your clinic already uses the Waiting list app for online-booking cancellations (the feature where a client can ask to be notified if an earlier time slot opens up), nothing changes for you. That app is being renamed “Waiting lists (Legacy)” to avoid confusion with the new Waitlist app, but it continues to work exactly as before, and you can keep using it. Clinics that haven't used it won't see it going forward.
Frequently asked questions
Will my existing desktop/ASPIT waiting list be migrated automatically?
We know this matters and we're actively scoping it. During the pilot, please don't assume historical waitlist entries will appear automatically — your Nordhealth contact will tell you exactly what to expect for your clinic before you rely on it.
Can a secretary accept or decline a referral through Waitlist?
No — that doesn't change. Accepting, declining, or forwarding a referral still happens in your existing Helsenett/NHN inbox, under the same permissions as today. Waitlist only reflects referrals after they've been accepted.
Can the same patient be on the waitlist more than once?
Yes, if that's genuinely correct — for example, a patient can legitimately be waiting for two different things at once (a new treatment series, or a different diagnosis). If you try to add someone who already has an open entry, we'll flag it and ask you to confirm rather than blocking you.
What if I remove someone from the waitlist by mistake?
You can easily re-add that patient into your waitlist even though their spot in the queue might change. If that happens please contact support.
Is patient information on the waitlist secure?
Yes. Waitlist follows the same access controls and data protection standards as the rest of the platform, and any notes you add are stored securely.