Articles on: Patient Communication

How do I set up an appointment reminder?

By setting up a communication trigger using the trigger event 'Reminder' , your patients will be sent a reminder prior to an appointment.

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

Please note that in order to receive appointment communications, patients must be opted in to patient communications on the Patient Summary.

If you signed up after April 2019, this is one of the predefined communications within WriteUpp, both 7 days and 1 day prior to an appointment. You can edit any of these using the 3 dot menu at the end of the row (under Settings -> Scheduling -> Appointment Communication). There will be options to edit the trigger and to edit the message template:

If you do not 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 at the bottom of the screen

Use the following dropdown boxes to create your communication trigger:

Method - Would you like to inform them via SMS or email? If you would like appointment reminders to be sent via both email and SMS, just create two separate 'Reminder' triggers for each!
Message template - What message would you like to send as a reminder of the appointment? You can select a predefined one or use the 'Manage templates' link to edit a template or create a new
Event - Select 'Reminder'
If type is (optional) - Would you like the message to be sent for only a particular Appointment Type?
When? - choose from 7 days, 5 days 3 days, 2 days, 1 day, 2 hours or 1 hour prior to an appointment

Make sure you set the Event dropdown to 'Reminder', in order to see the options for when to send your reminder. You won't see the 'When?' options for any events other than reminders.

Press Save

Once this is set up, patients will receive a reminder prior to their appointment.

You can set up multiple reminders prior to an appointment. For example, you might want to send an email reminder 7 days prior to an appointment and an SMS reminder 1 or 2 days beforehand. To do this, simply follow the above steps to create two separate entries for the reminders you'd like to send.

You should also be aware that reminders are saved against the appointment at the time it is booked . If you set up a new reminder, any appointments already in the diary will not be sent that reminder. They will only be sent communications that were present at the time of booking, and if they are opted in on the Patient Summary to receive communications.

Updated on: 04/11/2024

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