SMS Appointment Reminders

SMS Appointment Reminders

Introduction

Impulse now includes functionality to send appointment reminders to your patients by SMS.

Practices are able to fully customize the SMS Message sent from Impulse.

SMS Messages are available as 1 way & 2 way SMS with all delivery confirmations and responses delivered and recorded into your appointment book.

Please ensure that you have a mobile number listed in patient details with the check box ticked.

Access

  From the Main Menu, select Wait/App | SMS Management 

  Once the MedComms box appears, select SMS tab

 



Working with Appointments SMS Manager

To send SMS Appointment reminders, click Create. This will load the Appointment SMS Manager window.


Take a minute or so to familiarize yourself with the look and feel of the Appointment SMS Manager screen. What you will see:

  • Low SMS Counter – this is customized by you to schedule an automatic email be sent when SMS credits fall below your nominated credit value
  • Available SMS Credits – displays remaining SMS credits available
  • Admin Email – this is the nominated email address for the practice for low balance notifications
  • Check for SMS response updates – allow you to customize how often you check for 2 way SMS responses, if applicable
  • Create SMS Tab – used to select the appointments to send the reminder to and the template to use
  • Unsent SMS Tab – lists all SMS appointment reminders which have not been sent
  • Standard SMS Text List Tab – allows creation of SMS appointment reminders templates with a range of available merge fields.

Creating Standard SMS Appointment Reminder Template

Before using SMS appointment reminders for the first time, you will need to setup your standard SMS appointment reminder template.


  • Select the Standard SMS Text List Tab
  • Select the + button to add a new template
  • Using the required merge fields, type your SMS appointment reminder message
  • Select to save the record
  • To save a SMS appointment reminder as the default, ensure that you click on the required message the click the Use “current” record as default Msg Text.

Selecting appointments to send SMS appointment reminders


  • Select the Create SMS Tab
  • Select the date range of the appointment book for which you want to send SMS appointment reminders
  • To send for all locations, ensure that the ALL checkbox is ticked, otherwise select the required locations
  • To send for all providers, ensure that the ALL checkbox is ticked, otherwise select the required providers
  • Click on the Find Appts W/out SMS button
  • To select to send SMS appointment reminders to all patients, click on the Select All button, otherwise double click the checkbox next to the required appointments
  • Ensure that the correct SMS appointment reminder template is selected. If incorrect, click the Get SMS Text for new Msgs button and select the correct template
  • Click Create SMS’s button. The selected appointments will disappear from the list

Sending SMS Appointment Reminders


  • Select the Unsent SMSs Tab
  • Confirm details are correct
  • To send SMS appointment reminder to all patients, click on the Select All button, otherwise double click the checkbox next to the required SMS
  • Click the Send Now button
  • All sent SMS appointment reminders will disappear from this list

Checking status of SMS patient appointment reminders


  1. From the Main Menu, select Wait/App | SMS Management
  1. Once the MedComms box appears, select SMS tab
  1. Select Manage
  1. This will load the Appointments SMS Viewer window.
  1. Select the appropriate date range for your query.
  1. Select the appropriate by Staus option.
  1. Click the “Refresh List” button.
  1. The results of your selection and search will be displayed in the list below.
  1. If you click the “Get Updates” button, this will refresh your list with the latest status information for SMS patient appointment reminders from the server.
  1. Edit, send or delete as required.
  1. Click “Close” button to exit.

Working with SMS appointment reminders in the Appointment Book

From the appointment book, you are able to easily view the status of the SMS appointment reminder by scrolling across the screen.


To access the appointment book

From the Main Screen, select Appointments button

From the Main Menu, select Wait/App | Appointment

From Patient Details, select System | Appointment

From Waiting Room, select Patient | Appointment




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