This article describes the work flow for your staff when we have enabled the cancellation alert system on your account at www.1800notify.com. If you want to get this special feature enabled on your account, please contact us at 1-800-939-1853 or email us at support@1800notify.com.
BENEFITS TO YOUR CLINIC
- Get early notification when a patient wants to cancel an appointment (by email alerts).
- Your staff is able to cancel the patient in your system and work to quickly re-fill that newly opened appointment slot resulting in a fuller schedule.
- Fewer no-shows, especially in cases where the patient no-showed because they were too busy to call you to cancel. (With this system patients can cancel by text reply or simply pressing 2 when they receive the phone call reminder).
How the system looks and works for your patients
TEXT REMINDERS
Clinic name reminder
<name> has an appt. on Wed Nov 21 at 3:30 PM
Reply Yes to confirm
Reply No to cancel
Call <your_clinic_phone> to reschedule
Reply STOP to opt-out
HOW TEXT REPLIES ARE HANDLED
Patient replies "No" then the system replies back with "We have noted your cancellation request"
Patient replies with "Yes" then system replies back with "Thank you for confirming your appointment"
Patient replies with "wrong number" then the system replies with "Thank you for letting us know. Our staff will work to get the phone number updated."
Patient replies with anything except "Yes," "No," or "Wrong number" then the system replies: "We are sorry, but we didn't understand your reply. Please reply Yes to confirm, or reply No to cancel."
WHAT YOUR STAFF SEES WHEN A PATIENT REPLIES "NO" TO A TEXT
In the secure web portal, you will see "Cancelled (NO)" in the Results column.
In the Cancel alert email, you will see "Cancelled (NO)" in the Results column.
CALL REMINDERS
Hello this is (clinic name) with an appointment reminder for (patient first name). Your appointment is scheduled on <appt_day> <appt_date> at <appt_time> Please remember to bring your (other prep instructions here customized for your location).
Press 1 to confirm your appointment, press 2 to cancel, press 3 to talk to our staff to reschedule or press 4 to repeat. Thank you.
WHEN A PATIENT PRESSES 2 TO CANCEL
If the patient presses 2 on the call, the system says: "Are you sure you wish to cancel this appointment? Press 1 to confirm that you do want to cancel this appointment or press 2 if you do NOT wish to cancel this appointment." If press 1, then say "We have noted your cancellation request." (END CALL) Status = "Cancel requested" If press 2, then say "Your appointment is not cancelled, we will restart the message now" (RESTART MESSAGE)
WHAT YOU SEE:
In the secure web portal, you will see "Cancel request" in the Results column.
In the Cancel alert email, you will see "Cancel request" in the Results column.
CANCEL ALERT EMAIL
Every hour when a patient has cancelled or replied to a text with anything except "Yes" in the previous hour, or replied to a text in the previous night, everyone who is on the email list for your specific clinic location's message in 1800 Notify will receive an email alert that looks like the one below:
STEP 1: Complete the Cancellation of the Appointment in your Scheduling System
1. Patients need to be cancelled in your scheduling system. Go into your system, locate the patient's appointment and cancel it.
2. If you cannot identify the patient from the Cancel Alert Email, then look at the results inside the secure portal:
2.1 Log into www.1800notify.com secure portal.
2.2 Locate the reminder message for your clinic for the day in question.
2.3 Click on the message name in the Job List.
2.4 Click the Results button.
STEP 2: Work to get a new patient scheduled in the newly opened appointment slot.
Using whatever means you normally use to find a new patient to offer into this newly opened appointment slot, work to get that new patient scheduled.
The process you use here depends on your clinic's practices.
Some clinics have a waiting list that you work down.
You might have a list of patients who are scheduled in the coming days/weeks that you can contact to offer this slot.
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