Enable SMS for Rescheduled Appointments

Enable a rescheduled appointment template for your centre so that you can manually send SMS reminders to patients.Configure your centre so that you can manually send SMS reminders for rescheduled appointments to patients.

Before you begin

Permissions:

Update Centre Settings
Set up and send patient SMS

About this task

Enable manual SMS reminders for rescheduled appointments in the Patient Messaging window from the Settings menu.

Procedure

To enable manual SMS reminders for rescheduled appointments:

Select user > Settings.
Select Centre > Centre Settings .
In the Centre Management window, hover your mouse over the required centre and select Edit > SMS tab.
Toggle Enable SMS for appointment reminders to on.
Select user > Settings > Centre > Patient Messaging.
In the Centre field, select the centre at which you want to create a rescheduled 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 for which you want to enable an SMS reminder for rescheduled appointments.
In the Appointment status section, hover your mouse over the Rescheduled appointment template and click Edit.
In the Rescheduled appointment window, to enable a manual SMS reminder for rescheduled appointments, set Enabled.
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 reply to an SMS reminder, set Patient can reply 'YES' to confirm appointment or 'NO' to decline.
Click Save.

Results

After it has been enabled, the Send rescheduled SMS reminder field is displayed in the Appointments details section. For more information about sending a rescheduled appointment SMS reminder manually, see Reschedule an Appointment Time or Date.

What to do next

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

To deactivate a rescheduled appointment SMS 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.

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.