How Does TrackStat Manage Missed Appointment Notifications and How Can They Be Customized?
Missed appointment notifications are a vital feature of TrackStat's appointment management system, providing timely updates when patients miss their scheduled visits. This article outlines how notifications work, how the timing can be customized, and troubleshooting tips for common issues.
Overview of Missed Appointment Notifications
Missed appointment texts are automatically sent to patients who have not checked in for their scheduled appointment by a predetermined time. These notifications are meant to alert the patient about their missed visit and can often prompt them to reschedule or clarify their own attendance. Missed-appointment messages in TrackStat are controlled by the 'future' status of the appointment when the appointment time is in the past. No manual action like marking a no-show or canceling an appointment is required to trigger these messages.
Customizing Notification Timing
TrackStat offers flexibility in setting when missed appointment messages are sent relative to the scheduled appointment time. Users can configure a specific delay for "Today", such as 15, 20, 25, 30 minutes past the appointment start time, to trigger these notifications. This ensures notifications are appropriately sent based on clinic workflows and patient punctuality. Configuring this delay can help clinics better align the messages with internal processes and avoid premature missed visit alerts. For instance, clinics may opt to set a delay of 15 minutes after an appointment's scheduled time before the missed appointment text is sent. However, the exact delay duration is fully configurable within the system settings. Another important consideration is the use of filtered versus unfiltered drips. Unfiltered drips may send no-show messages to patients with future appointments. To prevent this, users can enable the filtered missed-appointment drip, which ensures no-show messages are sent only to patients without a future appointment already scheduled.
Configuration Steps
Navigate to Marketing Campaigns (megaphone icon) > Drip Campaigns > + Add campaign (yellow button in upper right corner)
Name the drip campaign something like "Missed Appointment"
Step 2- In the Audience Filter section select 'Missed An Appointment' from the drop down. Then select "Today". Then select one of the following settings:
15 minutes after appointment time
20 minutes after appointment time
25 minutes after appointment time
30 minutes after appointment time
1 hour after appointment time
2 hours after appointment time
Select additional filters such as "Has Future Appointment" and check only the "No" box (uncheck the "Yes" box). Select "Tags" filter. In the Default tags section, click the box next to the "not qualified" box until a red minus sign "-" is displayed indicating that patients with a "not qualified" tag will be excluded from this drip campaign. Patients with a "not qualified" tag will NOT be sent the automated message.
Step 3 Message/Schedule - add a message (text or email). Select from the list of master messages or create your own message. Click the blue + Add Message button. Use the search function to search by message name or click the folders to see additional messages.
Preview the message and send yourself the preview message to review it on a mobile device and approve it.
Review and finalize the campaign settings. Click Exit button and make sure to save your changes.
Troubleshooting Common Issues
Issue: Patient Receives Missed Appointment Notification Despite Checking In
In some cases, patients might receive a missed appointment text even if they have checked in for their visit. This typically occurs due to a timing mismatch between the system's messaging schedule and the status update of the appointment. For example:
If a staff member in the office is delayed in checking in the patient for their appointment, then TrackStat still sees the appointment with a "future" status even though the patient is physically present in the office. This may result in a missed appointment message being sent. Make sure to check patient appointments in in a timely manner in your EHR.
Recommended Resolutions
Periodically review campaign and drip configurations to maintain accurate and targeted messaging.
Verify System Timing: Ensure that the timing configuration for the missed appointment message allows enough time for check-in or status updates to be recorded. 30 minutes to check in a patient is safer than 15 minutes.