Configuring Reminders Settings
The first step to configuring Reminders is setting up rules in Reminders Settings. Within Settings, you can:
- Choose how you want to deliver reminders (text messages, emails, or phone calls) and how often
- Select the time of day when you do not want reminders to be sent to patients
- Configure other settings for multiple appointments within a time frame, question call back number, etc.
What do I need to do first?
Before you begin configuring your Settings, take the following items into consideration:
Consider your patient population
The demographics of your patient population can impact your decisions. For example, if you primarily treat older patients, they may appreciate receiving reminders via phone calls. Or, you may need to consider reminders delivered in multiple languages.
The flexibility built into Settings lets you design reminders based on your practice needs.
Think about these questions
Take the time to answer these questions before starting:
- Will you remind patients with texts, emails, or phone calls? NOTE: If you choose texts, make sure you have cell phone numbers for your patients.
- How many times do you want to remind patients?
- Do you want patients to receive reminders on nights and weekends?
How do I set up a Reminders schedule?
From the Inbox, go to the Reminders app and select the Settings tab. This is where you will define all reminders-related schedules and settings.
Select Edit Schedule and determine how many reminders to send for each appointment. You can send up to 3 reminders per appointment.
Select a method from the drop-down menu to use for each reminder
NOTE: Methods set here will always be used unless the patient has specified a different preference.
Determine when to send reminders in relation to the appointment time by choosing an option from the drop-down menu
NOTE: Reminders will start sending to your patients immediately when the switches beside each reminder are flipped on. It is best practice to leave the switch next to each reminder off until all settings are configured and you are ready to go live.
If you want to send the patient reminders after a confirmation has been received for the appointment, select the checkbox.
If you want to restrict reminder delivery times to avoid interrupting patients’ weekends and evenings, then select the delivery restriction start time (when reminders will stop for the evening) and the delivery restricted end time (when reminders will resume in the morning).
Check the box next to Restriction delivery on weekends to only send reminders between Monday and Friday.
In the example below, reminders will not be delivered to your patients between 8 p.m. and 6:30 a.m. or on weekends.
To add a phone number to the reminder message for patients to call the office if they have questions, enter a phone number under Appointment Contact Telephone Number.
NOTE: If you have multiple locations, each with a different phone number, enter those here.
If you want patients to call your office to cancel instead of doing it directly from the reminder message they receive, uncheck Allow patients to cancel an appointment from the reminder in the Scheduling section.
If you want to allow patients to call the office directly from the reminder message, check Allow patient to call the office from the reminder.
NOTES:
- For text reminders, the phone number displays as a link.
- The phone number entered in Appointment Contact Telephone No. is the number that will be used.
If you would like to avoid sending multiple reminder messages for patients with multiple appointments in the same day, select the Turn on appointment filtering for patients who have multiple appointments check box. Then choose how close together the appointments should be before grouping them together.
For example, a patient might have an appointment to see the provider, another appointment for the lab, and a third appointment for an x-ray. If all of these appointments are close to each other, you would want to group them together and only send one reminder.
Configure the human voice you want to use in your phone call recording. 
NOTES:
- Set the voice as Spanish only if your patient population is largely Spanish speaking.
- Variables you might include in a reminder such as the provider name or a location will be spoken by an English speaking computer voice.