Introducing Automatic Appointment Reminders!

Posted by on 21 December 2011

Based on user demand Valant is releasing a new automated Appointment Reminder feature. This feature is meant to help minimize the amount of time spent on reminder calls while still helping to decrease no shows or late cancellations. The automated reminders can be a combination of email reminders (to both a listed Home and Work email address) and a choice of an automated voice reminder or an SMS text message. Automated Appointment Reminders will be available as an add-on product for $240/year.

Automated Appointment Reminder Features:

• HIPAA compliant automated messages to maintain confidentiality.
• Customizable schedule for reminders; 24 hours, 48 hours or 36 hours prior to appointment.
• Fax, Telephone or Text options per patient.
• Customize who receives reminders on behalf of the patients; guardians, guarantors, caregivers.
• Reporting based on message status; received, left message, human answer.

 Here is a preview of how this new feature works.

The first step in setting this up is to configure the ‘Reminders advance days notice’ threshold value on the ‘Preferences’ tab of the ‘Persons and Institutions -> Practice’ screen. That is shown below.

 Once that value is set you simply have to apply it to your patients. Let’s see how that’s done.

The first thing you have to do is verify that you have the information required to send a reminder. Remember, the choices are the two email addresses and either an automated voice reminder to a phone number or an SMS text message. You would need to have those values entered into the EHR before the system would allow you to utilize that delivery method.  Shown below is the location of the patient’s primary phone number as listed on the ‘Demographics’ tab in the Patient information screen. In our case, the patient, Rain Canterbury, has chosen to receive reminders to both her home email and as an SMS text message. We see that her primary contact number is in fact her cell phone.

She has also opted in to receiving an email sent to her Home email address, moving to the ‘Contacts’ tab we see that Rain does, in fact, have an email address listed.

The final step is to navigate to the ‘Appt. Reminders’ tab and select the appropriate choices based upon Rain’s preference. That is seen below.

As you can see, we have selected both the Home Email checkbox and the Phone checkbox. Please note the two radio buttons which follow the phone number drop-down selection. This is a modifier which allows you to select either an automated voice reminder or an SMS text message reminder.

The last thing we will discuss is the cycle which results in an Appointment Reminder. Below we see how the process works. On Wednesday at 11:59 pm your Appointment Calendar for Friday will be examined and a list created of all the patients along with their contact information who have opted to receive reminders. On Thursday, between the hours of 10:00am and 8:00pm the appropriate reminders will be sent. Note: Any changes to the appointment which occur after midnight on Wednesday will not be reflected in Thursday’s reminder.

Below we see the cycle for Monday’s appointments. The list is created at 11:59pm on Thursday and the reminders are sent on Friday. We will not transmit reminders during the weekends.

The last case we need to discuss is what happens if the appointment itself is on a Saturday or a Sunday. In both of these cases the information would be captured to the list on Thursday and the reminders themselves would be sent on Friday. That means that on Friday EVERYONE with an appointment which falls on Saturday, Sunday, or Monday will get notified of their impending appointment. The image below shows that timeline.

Valant strives to constantly improve our products and services to benefit your practice. We hope this new release and all future releases will continue to improve the operations of your practice. If you would like to take advantage of this new feature, please call our Sales Department at 888-774-0532 ext