The reminder template reduces phone calls by automating appointment confirmations and cancelations. It automatically sends necessary forms to your patients, lowering your no-show rate and speeding up patient intake, while providing vital information to patients about their care.
For use with NexHealth Templates and Communications - Reminders
Reminders do not send outside of the set hours - reminders that would have been sent during those hours do not queue until a suitable time, they just do not go out.
For example, if…
…a patient has a 7am appointment
…and your template sending hours are configured to not send before 6am
…and your Reminder is set to send 2 hours in advance (in this case, it would be 5am!)
…then the Reminder would be blocked from sending.
To change the default sending times for your Reminders, go to Settings -> Template configurations to adjust the time that templates will send.
Overview
Option 1: Configure a closer send time for Reminders.
Option 3: Plan 2 send times for Reminders.
Option 1: Configure a closer send time for Reminders.
You can change the send time for the Reminder to be 1 hour before the appointment.
Downside: this means that all appointments will receive their Reminders only 1 hour before the appointment.
Option 2: Adjust your template send time hours to start 2 hours before your first appointment.
You can also adjust your send times to start 2 hours before your first appointment slot.
Downside: this means that all templates will send as early as 2 hours before your first appointment slot.
Option 3: Plan 2 send times for Reminders.
Another solution is to plan 2 send times for Reminders.
One timing to send to patients in the earliest time slot by sending the evening prior.
One timing to send to patients in normal hours.
For the following examples, assume send hours of 6am-6pm.
1. Set the normal Reminder time for 14 hours prior (if send window is 12 hours long).
This will send a Reminder to only early-morning patients the night before.
For example,
a 4pm appointment would have the reminder blocked, because it would be scheduled (at 2am!) outside of 6am-6pm sending hours.
a 7am appointment will receive a reminder at 5pm the previous day.
2. Set the extra Reminder time to send 2 hours prior.
Add the second reminder set and set the timing to 2 hours prior. This will send a Reminder for most patients 2 hours prior.
For example,
a 4pm appointment will receive a reminder at 2pm.
a 7am appointment would have the reminder blocked, because it would be scheduled (at 5am!) outside of 6am-6pm sending hours.
Doing the math for your practice
So one of your reminders will be sent 2 hours prior, but the early send time requires a little bit more math. What’s the formula? Let’s go through it step-by-step. It’s time to show our work.
(Difference between {prior evening end of send times} and {earliest appt time slot} ) +2 hr
Example: your earliest appointment is 8am, but your send times are 7am to 9pm
(Difference between {9pm} and {8am} ) +2 hr
(11 hr) +2 hr
Set for 13 hours prior.