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A Privacy-Focused Guide to Managing Shared Clinic Spaces

Set up shared room booking in Bravely using Google Calendar — with built-in privacy, conflict checking, and administrative control.

Updated this week

Introduction

Bravely Connect supports clinics that manage shared physical spaces by integrating with Google Calendar in a way that protects client confidentiality.

This guide walks you through setting up and managing shared room bookings — balancing visibility and privacy using Bravely’s calendar features and Google’s sharing permissions:

Key Considerations

  • Requires a Google Workspace account

  • Ensures room availability is visible, but client details are protected

  • Supports HIPAA-compliant scheduling practices

  • Works with Bravely’s calendar conflict prevention

  • Designed for clinics with shared physical rooms and a designated admin


Part 1. Initial Calendar Setup (Google Calendar)

To manage shared room usage securely, you’ll start by creating and configuring dedicated Google Calendars — one for pending bookings, and one for each physical room in your clinic. This section walks you through that setup, with a focus on privacy and access control.

👍🏼 We recommend setting up Google Calendars and Bravely session types using the same admin account to streamline permissions.

Step 1: Create Room Calendars

  1. Log in to your Google Calendar (admin account)

  2. Click ‘+’Create new calendar

  3. Create:

    • One “Room Allocation Pending” calendar

    • One calendar per physical room (e.g. “Room A”, “Room B”)

  4. Set the timezone to match your clinic’s location

Step 2: Configure Privacy Settings

🚪 Room Calendars

For each room calendar:

  1. Go to calendar settingsAccess permissions for events

  2. ✅ Check: See only free/busy (hide details)

  3. ❌ Uncheck: Make available to public

  4. Set Default event visibility to Private

⏳ Room Allocation Pending Calendar

  • ⚠️ IMPORTANT! Disable “Decline conflicts”

  • Set custom conflict checking to Free

Step 3: Set Sharing Permissions

🚪 Room Calendars

  • Practitioners:

    • Share with practitioners:

    • Set to “See free/busy information only”

  • Admins:

    • Share with admins:

    • Set to “Make changes and manage sharing”

⏳ Room Allocation Pending Calendar

Same settings as above

  • Practitioners:

    • Add each practitioner's email

    • Set to “See free/busy information only”

  • Admins:

    • Add each admin's email

    • Set to “Make changes and manage sharing”


Part 2: Bravely Connect Integration

Once your calendars are set up in Google, you’ll connect them to Bravely to ensure appointments are scheduled without conflict and client details remain private. This section covers how to use Bravely’s advanced session type settings to do exactly that:

Step 4: Enable Custom Conflict Checking

  1. Go to AppointmentsSetupSession Types

  2. Open a session type that uses shared rooms

  3. Scroll to Advanced Settings

  4. Enable Custom Conflict Checking

  5. Add the Room Allocation Pending calendar

This prevents double-booking during pending allocation or when all rooms are full.

Step 5: Add the Pending Calendar to Bookings

In the same Advanced Settings section:

  • Add Room Allocation Pending as an additional calendar

  • This ensures all relevant sessions are temporarily reserved in that calendar until a room is manually assigned


Part 3: Booking & Room Assignment (Bravely)

With calendars connected, Bravely enables a seamless flow for practitioners to book sessions and admins to assign rooms — all while maintaining confidentiality. Here’s how the day-to-day booking and allocation process works in practice:

Step 6: Practitioner Booking Flow

  1. Practitioner books a session in Bravely

  2. Event is added to Room Allocation Pending calendar

  3. Only the booking practitioner and admins see full event details

  4. Other staff see it as blocked time (no client info)

Step 7: Admin Room Assignment

  1. Admin checks Room Allocation Pending calendar

  2. Finds an available room

  3. Moves the event to the correct room calendar

  4. Sets event visibility to Private

  5. Deletes the original from the Room Allocation Pending calendar

  6. Waits for sync to complete (may take a few minutes)

Step 8: Managing Full Capacity

  • If no room is available, keep the booking in the Room Allocation Pending calendar

  • Contact the practitioner

  • Never include client names in calendar event titles

  • Use generic names like “Session” or “Booked”


Summary Example

To see how it all comes together, here’s a real-world example of the full booking and room allocation process from practitioner to admin:

  1. Dr. Smith books a session via Bravely.

  2. The booking appears in Room Allocation Pending — only Dr. Smith and the admin can see details.

  3. Admin Sarah assigns the room by moving the event to Room A, marking it as Private, and deleting it from the pending calendar.

  4. Other practitioners simply see that Room A is in use — without client names or details.


Privacy & Best Practices

To maintain confidentiality and compliance:

  • Set “Private” as default visibility for all calendars

  • Avoid using client or practitioner names in event titles

  • Use room numbers or session type labels

  • Regularly audit calendar sharing permissions

  • Adjust notification settings to exclude event details

Need a hand? For setup assistance or questions about privacy in shared spaces, email us at [email protected].

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