Q: Why isn’t a patient receiving text or email reminders?
A: Make sure the patient has a valid cell phone number and a valid email. Using the Patient Search box, enter the patient’s first or last name or last 4 digits of cell phone number. Then, double click on the patient’s name to open the Patient Card. Click on Validate next to the cell phone number and/or email to make sure the contact information is Valid. If a patient has opted out of receiving texts and emails, the “Disable Email” and/or “Disable Text” boxes may be checked. Make sure the patient’s cell phone number is in the “Cell” field in the Patient Information screen in the EHR. Make sure the patient’s email address is in the “Email” or “Home Email” field in the Patient Information screen in the EHR. This information must be consistent in ALL of the patient’s cases.
Q: Why didn’t a patient receive an appointment reminder?
A: Possible reasons why a patient did not get an appointment reminder:
Patient does not have a cell phone number or email address.
Patient’s cell phone number or email was entered incorrectly or in the wrong location.
The appointment type may not be included in the appointment reminder .
Patient’s case type may not be included in the appointment reminder audience.
Patient’s cell phone number or email may be inconsistent across their case types (data must match across ALL case types).
Appointment time or date may have been changed on the CT Scheduler app without using the Reschedule or Cancel function and patient may have already received a reminder prior to the appointment being changed.
Appointment was added to the schedule after appointment reminders were sent out
Appointment was added to the schedule before appointment reminders were sent out, but not in time to be captured in the database sync closest to the appointment reminder send time.
Appointment was changed after one appointment reminder was already sent for the same appointment. Rescheduling avoids this issue.
There may be a communication issue with the patient’s cell phone carrier or email service.
Q: We schedule patients for multiple appointments on the same day. How do we limit appointment reminders to one per patient per day?
A: There are 2 options for limiting appointment reminder campaigns - a global or a local campaign setting.
The global setting for appointment reminder campaigns limits appointment reminders to 1 per patient per day maximum (applies to all appointment reminder campaigns).
The local setting applies to each individual appointment reminder campaign separately allows you to limit appointment reminders to 1 per patient per day.
Here is where you can find the settings:
If you are unable to see this feature, please do a hard refresh on your web browser (Ctrl F5).
Q: How do we turn off appointment reminders for specific patients?
A: For Patients: patients can reply “STOP” to text messages to stop receiving any future text messages and can click on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of emails to “unsubscribe” from emails. To start receiving text messages again, patients must reply “START”. With patient’s permission, emails can be enabled by unchecking the “Disable Emails” box on the Patient Card.
For Staff: search for patient in the Inbox, Patient Search or on any TrackStat report. Click on patient name to open the patient communication window. Click on Appointment Reminders tab. Check "Disable Email" and/or “Disable Text" boxes as appropriate. Click on blue Save button.
Q: Patient has replied “STOP” to opt out of texts, but now wants to receive text messages again.
A: Patient must text “START” to the clinic texting number to receive future texts from your office.
Q: When I send an email or text, our company information does not show.
A: Make sure you identify yourself or your clinic by adding your contact information at the bottom of the appointment reminder template. Merge fields such as Clinic Name and Clinic Phone can also be used for this purpose.
Q: How do I decrease the line spacing in emails?
A: Hit “Enter” for double spacing and hit “Shift + Enter” for single spacing.
Q: I added new appointment purposes in my EMR/EHR software. Why can’t I see them in TrackStat?
A: Appointment purposes will not be visible in TrackStat until they are used for the first time in your EMR/EHR software.
Q: Text appointment reminders - what does Queued, Sent, Delivered and Undelivered mean?
A:
Queued - message has been created
Accepted - preparing to send message
Sent - message has been sent
Delivered - message has been delivered, confirmed by cell carrier
Undelivered - message not delivered (can be due to cell carrier filtering message content or availability of the destination handset)
Failed - message could not be sent
Q: We have a few very forgetful patients! How do we send the patient an additional appointment reminder to help them remember their appointment?
A: Find the patient using the Patient Search box. Click on the patient’s name to open the Patient Card. You can also locate the patient in the Inbox using the search tool and click on the edit icon.
Under the “Reminders” tab, click on the edit icon next to the Appointment Reminder name. Next to Exceptions, click on the “+” to create another reminder to send to the patient at a specified time (example: 2 hours before scheduled appt time). Click “Save”
Q: How do we turn off appointment reminders for specific patients?
A:
For Patients: patients can reply “STOP” to text messages to stop receiving any future text messages and can click on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of emails to “unsubscribe” from emails. To start receiving text messages again, patients must reply “START”. With patient’s permission, emails can be enabled by unchecking the “Disable Emails” box on the Patient Card.
For Staff: search for patient in the Inbox, patient search or on any report. Click on patient name to open Patient Info Card. Click on Reminders tab. Check "Disable Email" and/or “Disable Text" boxes as appropriate. Click on blue Save button.
Q: I set my appointment reminders to go out 24 hours before the appointment. But I just added a new appointment that’s only 17 hours away. When will TrackStat send the reminder?
A: There are 2 options for the 24 hour and 48 hour prior drip setting within the Appointment Reminder campaigns.
"Drip no sweep" The 24 hour option will only send an appointment reminder message if the appointment was added to the schedule more than 24 hours before the appointment time. The 48 hour "Drip no sweep" option will only send an appointment reminder message if the appointment was added to the schedule more than 48 hours before the appointment time.
"Drip w/ sweep" The 24 hour option will check periodically to see if any additional appointments have been added to the schedule less than 24 hours before the appointment time and generate and send a reminder message. The 48 hour "Drip w/ sweep" option will check periodically to see if any additional appointments have been added to the schedule less than 48 hours before the appointment time and generate and send a reminder message. This ensures that appointment reminders are sent for all appointments even if they are added after the send time of the appointment reminder campaign. Keep in mind that this option works best with messages that specify the date and time of the appointment in the message verbiage. Avoid using words in the message such as "you have an appointment tomorrow" to avoid confusion by the recipient.