Patient Communications

Introduction

The Appointment Reminders and Confirmations Feature (Patient Communications) gives you and your team the ability to send out reminders X days or hours before an appointment is scheduled to begin. You have the option to customize the email and message(s) based on location, and the default templates come with your contact information and a Google map link to your location. Additionally, you can configure the reminders to exclude surgeries that are outsourced to a different location.

Intended Audience
This guide is for staff responsible for setting up and maintaining Appointment Reminders and/or Confirmations.

How it Works

In this section, we will discuss the options that are available to you and the life cycle of an Appointment Confirmation. An automated communication can be one of the following communications that are sent out by our system:

Initial Notification
Rescheduled Notification
Canceled Notification
Reminders Only
Reminders with Patient Confirmation

MyMedLeads can customize all email appointment notifications that are sent by our system. The customization may include simple branding or edits to the verbiage on our existing email templates. *Currently, you are not able to alter the text message reminder.

Initial Notification
When an appointment is first detected or created within the MyMedLeads Platform an email will be generated and sent to the Lead/Patient informing them of the recently scheduled appointment. The Patient/Lead will not receive an email if the appointment is within the next 24 hours. The email will be sent from the Rep who scheduled the Appointment, this is normally the assigned Rep. This message also gives the patient the ability to add the appointment to his or her personal calendar. The email will normally be sent within minutes of scheduling the Appointment.

Please note: This notification is sent for EVERY appointment scheduled. So, if a patient schedules multiple treatments on different days at the same time, they will receive this notification for each appointment at the time it is scheduled.

Email Message
{Image screenshot]

Text Message
Currently, not supported.

Rescheduled Notification
When an appointment is first detected as a rescheduled appointment within the MyMedLeads Platform an email will be generated and sent to the Lead/Patient. The Patient/Lead will not receive an email if the Appointment is within the next 24 hours. The email will be sent from the Rep who scheduled the Appointment, this is normally the Assigned Rep. This message also gives the patient the ability to add the appointment to his or her personal calendar. The email will normally be sent within minutes of rescheduling the appointment.

Email Message
[screen shot]

Text Message
Currently, not supported.

Canceled Notification
When an appointment is first detects a cancellation of an appointment within the MyMedLeads Platform an email will be generated and sent to the Lead/Patient. The Patient/Lead will not receive an email if the Appointment is within the next 24 hours. The email will be sent from the Rep who scheduled the Appointment, this is normally the Assigned Rep. The email will normally be sent within minutes of canceled the appointment.

Please note: If the appointment is canceled after the appointment date/time has passed, no cancelation email will be sent. The cancelation email is only sent if the appointment is still pending for a future date.

Email Message
[image screen shot]

Text Message
Currently, not supported.

Reminders Only
Close to the date of the Appointment our system can trigger an email, text, or voice to the Lead/Patient to remind the Patient/Lead about their up coming appointment. The Patient/Lead will not receive a communication if the Appointment is scheduled for a time within the next 24 hours. The email will be sent from the Rep who scheduled the Appointment, this is normally the Assigned Rep. The reminder message includes the appointment details, and the email version provides an additional Google map link to your office. You can specify whether reminders will be delivered via text, email, or both.

Configuring Reminder Scheduling Details
If you have chosen to turn on appointment reminders, you can configure when these reminder messages will be delivered to patients.

You can specify appointment reminder scheduling for both text and email communications.

Selecting Fixed Time allows you to specify one set time in the day when all appointment reminder messages will be delivered. For instance, you may want all appointment reminders to be sent out to patients at 9:00 a.m. the day before their appointment.
Choosing Fluctuating Time means appointment reminders will be sent out at varying times based on the patient. For example, you may always want patients to receive a reminder notification 2 hours before their appointment. For patients with early morning appointments, you can specify a time on the previous day to send their text message appointment reminders.

Email Message
[screen shot]

Text Message – Currently, you are not able to alter the text message reminder
Appointment Reminder: You have an appt. with {Practice/Doctor Name} on {Date} at {Time}.

Voice Message
This is an appointment reminder call from {{Practice Name}} for your appointment on {{StartTime}}. Please press ‘1’ to confirm your appointment. Please press ‘2’ to request a reschedule.

Reminders with Patient Confirmation
Close to the date of the Appointment our system can trigger an email, text, or voice to the Lead/Patient to ask him/her to confirm that they are still available at the designated time or if the Patient/Lead needs to request a reschedule. The Patient/Lead will not receive a communication if the Appointment is scheduled for a time within the next 24 hours. The email will be sent from the Rep who scheduled the Appointment, this is normally the Assigned Rep. Patients will receive an appointment reminder message before their appointment AND will also be given the ability to confirm their appointment. Patients will be able to confirm their appointments by replying to the appointment reminder text they receive, or by clicking a confirm button in their appointment reminder email. You can specify whether reminders will be delivered via text, email, or both.

Configuring Reminder Scheduling Details
If you have chosen to turn on appointment reminders, you can configure when these reminder messages will be delivered to patients.

You can specify appointment reminder scheduling for both text and email communications.

Selecting Fixed Time allows you to specify one set time in the day when all appointment reminder messages will be delivered. For instance, you may want all appointment reminders to be sent out to patients at 9:00 a.m. the day before their appointment.
Choosing Fluctuating Time means appointment reminders will be sent out at varying times based on the patient. For example, you may always want patients to receive a reminder notification 2 hours before their appointment. For patients with early morning appointments, you can specify a time on the previous day to send their text message appointment reminders.

Email Message
[screen shot]

Text Message – Currently, you are not able to alter the text message reminder
Appointment Reminder: You have an appt. with {Practice/Doctor Name} on {Date} at {Time}. Reply with ‘c’ to Confirm and ‘r’ to Reschedule.

Confirmation and Reschedule Request
The patient will have the option to confirm or reschedule their appointment when they receive the Reminder with Patient Confirmation email or text. Their selection will immediately update the Appointment Confirmation, reflecting the patient’s choice.

If text reminders are enabled for the account to send after the email, the patient will later receive a simple appointment reminder text instead of a ‘Press C or R’ text.

User Notifications
Users have the options to receive email notifications when a patient requests to reschedule an appointment through the confirmation email or text. So, when the patient replies with R, the staff is notified via email that the appointment requires rescheduling, and the Appointment Confirmation Report is promptly updated.

EMR Integrated Accounts

Confirmations: If the Account is integrated with an EMR, including (PatientNOW, DrChrono, Symplast) the Confirmation will NOT be communicated to your EMR and you and/or your staff will have to manage this setting within the EMR.

Unsubscribes: MyMedLeads checks the Lead Email/Text Preference and Opt Out Screen Preferences before sending communication. MyMedleads will not be notified of the communication preferences of patients and leads within the EMR. This means that if a patient or lead unsubscribes from receiving communications, MyMedleads will not be informed of this preference. Additionally, MyMedleads does not communicate these preferences to the EMR and does not receive this information from the EMR.

Additional Configurations and Applicable Preferences

Turn Off Confirmations for Surgeries
You can optionally disable appointment confirmations for surgical appointments when the exact time is unknown, such as when utilizing a remote surgery center. To do this, have the doctor log in to MyMedLeads and navigate to Preferences -> Account Preferences. Uncheck the “Send Confirmations for Surgeries” box to turn off confirmations for surgical appointments. With this box unchecked, confirmations will go out for all appointments except surgeries. Don’t forget to click Save after making any changes.
Please note that this setting ONLY applies to the “Reminders Only” and “Reminders with Patient Confirmation”

*see Account Preferences

Do Not Send on Weekends
It is possible to adjust the settings for Appointment Confirmations/Reminders in a way that they are not sent during the weekends. If the Confirmation is scheduled for a Saturday or Sunday, it will be sent on Friday instead. Additionally, you have the option to set the preference for Emails or Text/SMS Confirmations individually. This means that Emails can still be sent during weekends, while Texts will not.

As an example: if your practice setup Appointment Confirmations to go out 1 day in advance of Appointments. For Monday’s appointments, they would be scheduled for Sunday, thus this would be scheduled for Friday.

Another example: If you have your Confirmations set up for three days in advance, and you schedule a Lead for Tuesday, then the scheduled communication will be calculated to be sent on Saturday. If they Do Not Send On Weekends preference is ON, then the logic will reschedule the communication for Friday (not Thursday). To be clear, while the preferences may state three days before, it is not necessarily saying three business days before, rather it is simply three days before and if that lands on a weekend, then that communication will go out on the previous Friday.