Create Automated SMS Appointment Reminders

Create templates so that appointment reminders are automatically sent to your patients when your centre requires them to be.

Before you begin

Permissions:

Update Centre Settings
Set up and send patient SMS

About this task

Send SMS reminders at any time before an appointment starts. Send appointment reminders when an appointment is booked, at any time before an appointment or after an appointment.

Procedure

To create an automated appointment reminder:

Select user > Settings > Centre > Patient Messaging.
In the Patient Messaging panel, select Appointment reminders tab.
In the Centre field, select the centre at which you want to create an appointment reminder.
To create or manage the appointment reminder templates, activate Enable SMS for appointment reminder messages or click Enable SMS.

Note:
SMS charges apply for each SMS.
If required, from the Type list, select the sections you want to enable or for which you want to create an SMS reminder.
To create a new appointment reminder, click Appointment reminder.
In the New Appointment Reminder window, in the Name field, enter a descriptive name for the appointment reminder.
Specify the type of reminder and exactly when you want it sent:
1. From the When to send list, select the required appointments reminder type such as at the time of booking, before appointments or after appointments.select Before appointment.
2. For before and after appointment reminder types, in the time frame selector field,In the time frame selector field, enter when you want the SMS reminder sent: the time of day and the number of days, weekdays or weeks before the appointment.
  
  Note:
  You cannot configure an automated SMS reminder for rescheduled appointments here. For more information about configuring rescheduled appointment reminders, see Enable SMS for Rescheduled Appointments.
Specify who you want reminders sent for:
1. By default, reminders are sent for all upcoming appointments that meet the criteria with any practitioner. To send reminders only for particular practitioners, from the Practitioners list, select one or more practitioners.
2. By default, reminders are sent for all upcoming appointments with any appointment type. To send reminders only for particular appointment types, from the Appointment types list, select one or more appointment types.
If required, to customise the message, in the Message field:
- Select and edit the default message.
- To add appointment details or demographics fields, click + Add field, and select the required fields from the list.
- To delete an existing field from the message, click Delete.
To enable a patient to reply to an automated SMS reminder, set Patient can reply 'YES' to confirm appointment or 'NO' to decline.
Note:
- This field is only enabled for a before appointment reminder type.
- If this field is enabled and the patient's appointment has already been confirmed by the receptionist, Helix does not send an automated SMS reminder to the patient.
Note:
If this field is enabled and the patient's appointment has already been confirmed by the receptionist, Helix does not send an automated SMS reminder to the patient.
To activate the automated SMS reminder using this template, set Enabled at the top of the window.
Click Save.

Tip:
To create an additional template, repeat the steps.

Results

A new reminder template is added to the Before appointment section with the status of the template and other details. A new reminder template is added to the respective reminder types such as At time of booking, Before appointment or After appointment with the status of the template and other details.
Before appointment results

What to do next

To disable an SMS reminder for all types of reminders, toggle Enable SMS for appointment reminder messages to off.

If required, to edit a sender name, select Settings icon

Settings > Patient messaging settings > Sender name. For more information, see SMS Sender Name.

When a patient has declined an appointment and if Cancel declined appointments is:

Inactive - the declined appointment is automatically greyed out in the Appointments book. Staff should manually confirm or delete an appointment.
Active - the declined appointment is removed from the practitioner's Appointments calendar. No further action is required.

If required, to filter the templates by reminder types, from the Type list, select the required reminder types and perform the following actions:

To edit an appointment reminder, click Edit.
To delete an appointment reminder, click Delete.
Note:
After you delete a template, it cannot be recovered.
To deactivate an appointment reminder, in the tile for the reminder, click Edit and deselect Enable.
To prevent patients from replying to an automated SMS, in the tile for the reminder, click Edit and deselect Patient can reply 'YES' to confirm appointment or 'NO' to decline.
Note:
If you deselect Patient can reply 'YES' to confirm appointment or 'NO' to decline and Enable, patients cannot reply to SMS reminders and a warning is displayed in the Appointment reminders tab.