Create a new Appointment Reminder Campaign
Click on Marketing Campaigns (megaphone icon) in lower left corner of screen.
Select Appointment Reminders
Scroll to the far right side of the screen and click on the green plus "+" icon
Type the desired name for the Appointment Reminder Campaign
Click blue Save button
Schedule
In the Schedule tab, select your desired send timing.
Blast style = all messages are sent at one specified time.
Options to send messages:
Before Scheduled Appt Time (most common)
After Scheduled Appt Time
We recommend scheduling a blast style appointment reminder to send in the afternoon a few hours before closing time in order to capture all of the changes that have been made to the schedule throughout the day. This is also a very efficient way to handle responses from patients as all of the outgoing messages are sent at the same time so many of the patients will respond at similar times allowing the team to handle them at the same time rather than constantly checking the Inbox throughout the day. This method also mirrors traditional phone call reminder timing where the reminder calls were often made near the end of the day for the appointments on the next day.
Drip no sweep style = Messages are generated and sent throughout the day. Options to send messages:
At Appointment Datetime
Immediately (after next sync)
Before Scheduled Appt Time (most common)
After Appt Check In Time
Example: The "24 hours (1 Day)" option sent "Before Scheduled Appt Time" will generate and send the appointment reminder message (email or text) approximately 24 hours prior to the appointment date and time. This setting will only generate and send an appointment reminder message if the appointment was added to the schedule more than 24 hours before the appointment date and time.
Example: The send "Immediately (after next sync)" option generates and sends an appointment reminder message (email or text) as soon as TrackStat is able to see that a new appointment has been added to the schedule.
"Drip w/ sweep" style = Messages are generated and sent throughout the day. This setting is built to capture appointments that are added to the schedule after the original send time ensuring that almost every patient is sent a reminder message for their appointment even if they schedule last minute. Options to send messages:
Before Scheduled Appt Time
Example: The "24 hours (1 Day)" 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. Similarly, the 48 hours (2 Days) "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 to the schedule after the send time of the appointment reminder campaign. Keep in mind that the "Drip w/ sweep" options work best with messages that specify the date and time of the appointment in the message verbiage. Avoid using phrases in the appointment reminder message such as "you have an appointment tomorrow" to avoid confusion by the recipient.
Audience
Select the filter criteria in the Audience tab to determine the group of patients you want to send an appointment reminder message to. The patients can be filtered by the following options:
Case Types
Tags
Appointment Purposes (most common)
Visits
Appointment providers (common with multiple locations on the same database or for those wishing to send a custom or unique message depending on the provider)
Click on the filter button to select options.
Example for new patient specific appointment reminder messages:
Click Appointment Purposes filter button
Click yellow Unselect All button at bottom of modal
Scroll to find desired appointment type such as "New Patient"
Check box next to "New Patient" appointment type to select it
Click blue Ok button to save changes
The Tags filter can be used in Appointment Reminder campaigns to include patients (green plus "+") with specific tags or exclude patients (red minus "-") with specific tags. Tags are often used to separate appointment reminders by language such as English and Spanish. Tags can also be used to exclude patients who do not want to receive appointment reminder messages from a specific appointment reminder campaign. Clinics may create a "no reminders" tag for this purpose. Another use case for the tag filter in appointment reminder campaigns is to help gather new insurance information and confirm patient contact information and address at the beginning of each calendar year.
Message
Select the Message tab to create or add a previously created text or email message
To create a new Message click the green plus "+" icon to the right of the "Choose Message" drop down.
Type the desired message Name
Select Text or Email from the drop down for the Type of message
Select the desired Folder from the dropdown to keep your messages organized! Add a new folder here if you wish.
Type your desired message in the body section.
Use merge fields such as those below to customize the messages:
Patient first name = {{PatientFirstName}}
Appt Time = {{AppointmentTime}}
Appt date = {{AppointmentDate}}
Office name = {{OfficeName}}
Office phone = {{OfficePhone}}
Office form links = {{OfficeFormLink}}
Office directions link = {{OfficeDirectionsLink}}
Click the blue Save button at the bottom of the window when done.
To select an existing or previously created Message click the Choose Folder drop down and then the Choose Message dropdown to locate the desired message (email or text/SMS). Use the Search function to quickly find the message or click the Edit Date column header to sort the list of messages in ascending or descending order.
Backup
If the main message in your appointment reminder campaign is a text message, then you may want to add a "backup" email message in case the text message does not reach the patient or has a status of failed. If a text message fails to send then an email will be sent as well. Select the folder and message.
Settings
None = the appointment reminder message will be sent to all appointments meeting the Audience filter criteria
Limit appointment reminder to one per patient per day (applies to this appointment reminder campaign only) = If a patient has multiple appointments on the same day, an appointment reminder message will only be sent to the first appointment or the appointment with the earliest time. Keep in mind that appointments can be scheduled on the same day or date, but MUST have a different appointment TIME.
Limit appointment reminder to one per phone number or email per day (applies to this appointment reminder campaign only) = If 2 patients share the same phone number or email and both have appointments on the same day, only one appointment reminder message will be generated and sent. This is commonly used in clinics that treat a lot of families where a parent and their children may have the same cell phone number and have appointments on the same day.
When all tabs have been completed, click the green Enable button to activate the appointment reminder campaign. Once the campaign is enabled it will start to generate and send messages based on the selected Schedule.
Then click the blue Save button.
Click the black x button to exit the campaign.
Enabled campaigns will display a green bell meaning they are active.
To disable a specific appointment reminder, you’ll need to turn it off directly from the Marketing Campaigns section.
Instructions
Go to the Marketing Campaigns tab.
Select Appointment Reminders.
Click the name of the reminder you want to disable (for example, the 1-hour reminder).
Click Disable in the top-right corner.
Click Save to apply the change.
Once disabled, that reminder will no longer be sent for future appointments.
Global Settings
Global Settings function like the items in the Settings tab, but apply to all appointment reminder campaigns. Options as are follows:
None = the appointment reminder campaign messages will be sent to all appointments meeting the Audience filter criteria in each campaign
Limit appointment reminder to one per patient per day (applies to ALL appointment reminder campaigns) = If a patient has multiple appointments on the same day, an appointment reminder message will only be sent to the first appointment or the appointment with the earliest time. Keep in mind that appointments can be scheduled on the same day or date, but MUST have a different appointment TIME. This feature is only effective when all appointment reminder campaigns use the same Schedule timing.
Limit appointment reminder to one per phone number or email per day (applies to ALL appointment reminder campaigns) = If 2 patients share the same phone number or email and both have appointments on the same day, only one appointment reminder message will be generated and sent. This is commonly used in clinics that treat a lot of families where a parent and their children may have the same cell phone number and have appointments on the same day. This feature is only effective when all appointment reminder campaigns use the same Schedule timing.
We recommend using the individual appointment reminder campaign Settings rather than the Global Settings for best results.
Note that Marketing Campaigns such as Appointment Reminders can only be viewed and edited by users with the "User Plus", "Manager" or "Administrator" role. Users with "User" permissions will not be able to access the Marketing Campaign section.
Keep in mind that sending accurate and timely appointment reminder messages is dependent on TrackStat being able to communicate with your EHR software to see any changes or additions to the schedule. For ChiroTouch Classic (server) customers this requires the server to be powered on and connected to the internet as well as maintaining an active connection to TrackStat.
Q: I configured my appointment reminder campaign for all patients to go out 24 hours before the appointment, but I just added a new appointment to the schedule that’s only 17 hours away from the appointment date and time. Will TrackStat still send the patient an appointment reminder message?
A: There are 2 options for the 24 hours (1 Day) prior drip setting within the Appointment Reminder campaigns.
"Drip no sweep" The 24 hours (1 Day) option will only send an appointment reminder message if the appointment was added to the schedule more than 24 hours before the appointment time. In this case an appointment reminder will NOT be generated and sent to the patient.
"Drip w/ sweep" The 24 hours (1 Day) 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 an appointment 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.