Articles on: Patient Communication

How do I set up a confirmation of a recurring appointment?

By setting up a communication trigger using the trigger event 'Booking - Recurring', your patients will be sent a confirmation of a recurring appointment.

There is a predefined template within WriteUpp, called "New recurring appointment", which can be used alongside the trigger event for this purpose. You can modify this to customise it to your requirements, or you could create a custom template to use instead.

Recurring appointment confirmations will only contain the date of the first in the series of the appointments. It is not designed to send a confirmation individually for each session to prevent patients from receiving multiple confirmations at the same time. We suggest that you also utilise appointment reminders to ensure that patients also receive a message prior to each appointment in the series. You do not need separate reminders for recurring appointments, the appointment reminder trigger will pick these appointments up too.

Top Tip: You could add the ##RECURRINGSERIES## variable to your template for recurring appointment confirmations, which would list the date and time of all the appointments in the series!

We would recommend that if you create a custom template, or modify the default template, that you include a line to make your patients aware that this is a recurring appointment for the agreed length of time.

Please note that in order to receive appointment communications, patients must have been opted in to receive these on the Patient tab of the Patient Summary.

If you signed up after April 2019, 'New Recurring Appointment' is one of the predefined communications within WriteUpp:

Under Settings -> Scheduling -> Appointment Communications, you can edit or delete any of the predefined communications using the 3 dot menu at the end of the row. There will be options to edit the trigger and/or the associated template:

If you don't see this present in your current list and you would like to set it up, just follow the steps below:

Go to Main Menu -> Settings -> Scheduling -> Appointment Communication

Click on the New Trigger button:

Use the following dropdown boxes to create your communication trigger:

Method - Would you like to inform them via SMS or email?
Message template - What message would you like to send them to confirm their recurring appointment? Use the 'Manage Templates' link next to the dropdown to add and edit message templates for communications.
Trigger event - Select 'Booking - Recurring'
If type is - Would you like the message to be sent for only a particular appointment type?

Press Save and the new communication trigger will be added to the list!

Once this is set up, when you book patient related recurring appointments within WriteUpp, the specified message will be sent

Patient communications can be a little daunting in the beginning but we are always here to help. Struggling with setting up a recurring appointment trigger? Chat with us using the Live Chat icon at the bottom of the screen - we'll be happy to help!

Updated on: 05/09/2024

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