Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Reminder Calls

For those who do reminder calls by actually calling, I would like to know what systems are being used. For instance, right now we call the day before. We call some, and they may still no show or cancel, but for the most part, they show.

Does anyone call on a Monday for Tuesday and Wednesday, and then on Tuesday for Wednesday (for those not reached) and Thursday so that you have two chances? I find it can be helpful to call the entire patient list in the AM and you either confirm them, leave a message, no answer or their number doesn't work. (If that is the case, noting that in a popup will help you to go out of your way to check next time. You then call in the afternoon, and those who didn't answer or you left a VM (if they pick up great), but you don't leave another message. Even if you reach four more people, the chance of the reminder is better and, even if they didn't remember, you can schedule them then.

Obviously, the 12 month well child checks are the most likely to no show. We always have the dilemma of allowing a patient to schedule for their five year at their four year visit. If you allow them to call and make the appointment in 11.5 months, they may forget. But, 12 months is a long time to remember. At least if the appointment is made, you have someone to call.

Does anyone keep a list of patients who would have been due for a well child and call them? I suppose there are letters, but it is more work. Many of our patients chance living arrangements and cell phone numbers every six months.

Does anyone have any ideas as to how they do reminder calls or get more patient appointments?

We have several ways of finding reminders.
I have several saved searches that are looking at:
10 month olds not seen in 5 months (thus missing 6 month)
Patients whose birthdays are coming up in the next month
16 month olds not seen in 5 months (thus missing 12 and 15 month visits)
and so on.
There are about 7 searches my staff is SUPPOSED to do every month (it may only happen about 1/2 the time) and call to follow up.
There is a way of tracking missed preventive measures but I have not found it as useful.
We also have lists generated through our PHO tracking system that covers about 90 % of my patients, but it is not as reliable either

Thanks Wendell,

You hit the nail right on the head. They are SUPPOSED to do it. Hell, they should devise these things themselves.

I believe in systems and not trying to change behaviors. Like your first one. Do this every Monday. Calls on Tuesday through Friday. Just one bad link in the chain and forget it.

Here's what we do: We always go ahead and make the next appointment, even if it's 6 months away. Two (business) days before the appointment, we send a text message. If they reply to the text, then the appointment is confirmed and noted in the AC scheduler. The day before, anyone not confirmed gets a phone call. If they don't pick up, a voicemail is left, if possible. These are noted as LM or NA on the visit reason line. Then these people are sent another text message to reply yes or no.

Of course we still get no shows. But the amount has been greatly reduced once we started to text rather just rely on the phone call. A lot of people do not check their voicemail and they may not recognize our number to call back.

True. And, people are really into checking their texts. Which they can see is not spam usually. Given you are using AC as the scheduler, have you thought of using their reminder program?

Since using Updox secure text, my nurse is transitioning to texting instead of calling the day before but with her templated reminder, she asks them to text to confirm, so this is working quite well. but we have generally called the day before, and if she gets a person on the phone rare no shows, if a voicemail message left, higher likelihood of no shows.

I didn't know AC has a reminder text program? I'm on 10.0.2 though. Is it a newer version?

We use Updox to text but we do it manually. Meaning, there's a template for texting 2 days before and another template for texting 1 day before. We have to manually create each text message and change the date/time on the template. I tried the automated version where Updox will text everyone on the schedule for you, but our problem was it could only text the "cell phone" number on the patient chart. We put whatever phone number the pt says is their best number in the first box, which most of the time is the cell number, but Updox wasn't able to use that number for automated texting.

Also, we text other things along with the appt reminder, such as, call us to update insurance (if what we have is inactive) or show up early for new patients. So it's nice to be able to add those things for the patients that need that info.

We use AC Reminders. We have it set to call the patient at the home number several days in advance and to text them either 48 or 36 hours in advance. Or, if the appointment is put in for the next day they get one within 10 minutes of booking the appointment. If they are set up with email, they get one the day it is booked, even if the appointment is months in advance. We don't have to call anyone to confirm appointments anymore, unless they don't respond to the automated system. If they do confirm via phone or text, it pushes the confirmation to the schedule and makes their name BOLD, so I know they got the message and are confirming.
It has saved me countless hours of trying to reach people. We've been using it for almost 2 years, I think.

Serene and Trista.... would you mind sharing the cost of these features?

We would love to switch to automated text reminders (as opposed to our current manual phone call system).

Jon, it's not automated. We manually send the texts. (We're a small office, max 30 patients per day.) We use the templates feature of Updox and change the name, date and time of the appointments. Our Updox is $69/month.