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Patient Notifications

PATIENT NOTIFICATIONS - Automatic SMS (text message), Email notifications and IVR (Interactive Voice Response) can be configured to message patients regarding appointments or recalls. For assistance setting up the Tasks/ WSDL's associated with automatic messaging and the server tasks, please contact Auditdata Client Services Department.

Subscribing to Kapow is necessary in order to send SMS notification text messages. To learn more about Kapow integration, access SMS Notifications (Kapow).

Subscribing to CallFire is necessary in order to send IVR (Interactive Voice Response) messages. (Please confirm with CallFire whether or not their service is available in your clinic area.)

To set up automatic patient notifications, click on the ellipsis button box.

There are 3 tabs. Configuration, Messages and Appointments.

Configuration tab:

The Configuration tab houses the Email, SMS and IVR set up options.

Email Configuration:

OUTGOING MAIL SERVER (SMTP) - Enter your outgoing email SMTP address.

OUTGOING MAIL SERVER PORT - Enter the server outgoing mail port.

USER NAME - Enter the user name for the account sending the emails.

PASSWORD - Enter the password for the user account sending the emails.

FROM EMAIL ADDRESS - Enter the email address to be used as the sender.

SECURITY TYPE - Choose either NONE, TLS or SSL security email platform.

SMS Configuration:

SMS USER NAME - Enter the SMS user name (provided by Kapow.)

SMS PASSWORD - Enter the SMS password (provided by Kapow.)

USE SMS FROM ID - If you have subscribed to a static phone number (virtual mobile number) to send texts from, check this box.

SMS FROM ID - If you have subscribed to a static phone number (virtual mobile number) to send SMS texts from, enter that ID here.

SMS ROUTE CODE - Your country may require your clinic to use a Route Code in order to receive SMS texts back into Manage from your patient. If your country requires, enter that SMS Route Code here.

IVR Configuration:

IVR USER NAME - Enter the IVR user name (which is your CallFire API key.)

IVR PASSWORD - Enter the IVR password (which is your CallFire API password.)

IVR FROM NUMBER - The "FROM" number is the number that gets registered to your CallFire account. "FROM" numbers can be purchased from CallFire or users can enter their own "FROM" number here.

Notification Defaults:

To turn on the notification functionality, indicate with a check box whether SMS, EMAIL or IVR will be your default method of automatic patient notification. This will be the default way your patients receive notifications, unless overridden at the patient level. It is important to note that selecting a patient notification default here will essentially activate the notification processing once the remaining set up is complete. It may be wise to leave these fields "unchecked" until the complete set up is done and your patient files have been set up correctly as per your intention or your patients' wishes.

Transmission Hours:

Select your available transmission times (both start and end times) that automatic patient notifications are allowed to be sent within. Each day of the week can have their own specified start and end times for patient notification transmissions. If a message is scheduled to be sent outside of the specified transmission hours, the message will be held until the next available start time on the next day. Check the box to the LEFT of the days to indicate that a day is one that a notification should be sent. (For example, if you do not wish to send notifications on Saturday or Sunday, ensure no check mark beside those days.)

The SMS queue will process anything that remains unsent from the day before, for today and that is scheduled to be sent on subsequent days that are marked as NON TRANSMIT days. (For example, if Friday is a transmission day but Saturday and Sunday are set as non transmission days, Friday will send messages for all 3 days.)

Please note that the start time and end time will be based on the time on the application server. If the start and end times are left blank, the system will not transmit messages at all.

Override Transmission Hours - use this setting to send SMS, email, or IVR messages to patients during a specified day and time independent of the previously configured Transmission Hours.

Ignore Notification Times: this setting will disregard notifications configured above.

Send Reminder for 1st Appointment Only: it is important to note that this parameter to only send a reminder for the first appointment of the day does not apply in any way to Telehealth reminders. Telehealth reminders will always send, no matter how many appointments there are in the same day.

SMS Confirmation Responses:

In order to enable 2 way communication via text with your patients, you must subscribe to Kapow's "RECEIVE SMS" package. Enter the values that are acceptable from patients as responses to the SMS Notifications that they receive. These values define what would be a "confirmation" of the SMS notification sent out. For example, if clinics don't want to utilize the "response id" approach, the clinic can indicate here that when the patient responds with "yes" that the appointment will be considered "confirmed."

If multiple SMS Notifications have been sent, a patient response (reply) to a notification will always be applied to the most recent notification sent out, regardless of which reply the patient responds to. For example, let's say the clinic is using SMS Confirmation Responses and not using the "response id" method. A patient may use her cell phone number as the SMS contact for 2 people,but she could receive 2 texts regarding appointments for 2 people. Any 'yes' response would confirm the last appointment only. Alternatively, if in that same scenario you used "response id's" then the second person's response id would ensure that a specific appointment was confirmed.

Click ADD to add a SMS CONFIRMATION RESPONSE and press ENTER to commit the line.

Words defined in this list must be words within the response and not just letters contained in the response. For example if the value for SMS CONFIRMATION RESPONSE is "yes", then a response from the patient of "I got that text yesterday" would not trigger a confirmed appointment response even though it contained the letters "Y E S" because "yes" was not its own word. The response may contain the word surrounded by single or double quotes and can be followed by punctuation and still trigger a confirmed appointment response.

To delete a SMS Confirmation Response, click the DELETE icon.

To edit a SMS Confirmation Response, click the CHANGE icon and then navigate to the line you wish to change.

Click the SAVE icon to save your changes.

Click the EXIT icon to exit the window and return to the previous screen.

Direct Telehealth Messages:

If your clinic subscribes to our Telehealth Digital Meeting Module and you have previously configured patient notifications as Telehealth applicable within the MESSAGES tab, then you can also set up a Direct messaging option here. Telehealth notifications configured here can be instantly sent via SMS or Email to either the Patient directly or the Specialist hosting the Telehealth meeting directly. Direct messages for Telehealth can be sent from within the Appointment in the Appointment Scheduler.

Patient Email Message - From the Telehealth configured email messages already created, choose from the drop down list which Telehealth Email message will be sent when you send a direct Telehealth message to a Patient.

Patient SMS Message - From the Telehealth configured SMS messages already created, choose from the drop down list which Telehealth SMS message will be sent when you send a direct Telehealth message to a Patient.

Specialist Email Message - From the Telehealth configured Email messages already created, choose from the drop down list which Telehealth Email message will be sent when you send a direct Telehealth message to a Specialist.

Specialist SMS Message - From the Telehealth configured SMS messages already created, choose from the drop down list which Telehealth SMS Message will be sent when you send a direct Telehealth message to Specialist.

Restrict Telehealth Appt Notifications:

When enabled, checking this field will disable any patient notifications that are NOT configured as Telehealth when the appointment is flagged as Telehealth. (This will prevent your patient or lead from getting regular non-Telehealth notifications on the same appointment that they are getting Telehealth notifications on. This prevents unnecessary or confusing extra notifications from being sent to a patient or lead.)

Max Retries:

Select how many SMS retries can be attempted before a non successful SMS notification will stop attempting to send.

Messages tab:

The Messages tab houses the available messages that can be sent to patients.

Click the ADD button to add a new message. Give the message a name or description. Select a TYPE of either EMAIL MESSAGE or SHORT MESSAGE SERVICE (SMS) or IVR MESSAGE. Within the ellipsis button window, the contents of the message can be designed.

An Auditdata Support Rep will need to create a server task to process any of the Patient Notification types in order for the messages to be processed. Please contact Auditdata to schedule the back end task creation.

If choosing the Short Message Service (SMS) notification, the details button launches the NOTIFICATION MESSAGES window. The body of your SMS message can be entered. When entering the SMS message, the SELECT TAG button can be used to insert various pieces of information into the SMS text as required. The tag <<SMS RESPONSE ID>> can be used if you have purchased response utilization from your Message Service Provider. A message such as "Please confirm this appointment by text to <<SMS RESPONSE ID>>" can be used, and when confirmation is received by your Message Service Provider prior to the actual appointment date and time, the WSDL will automatically update the appointment status within Manage Appointment Schedule as confirmed. When finished entering the message and selecting any data tags, press the CONTINUE button to save any changes.

Checking the DIRECT SMS flag indicates that this message template can be selected and sent to a patient directly from the PATIENT INFORMATION screen within the NOTIFICATIONS icon as Direct SMS text.

Checking the TELEHEALTH flag indicates that this message template can utilized for appointments configured as Telehealth appointments. (Clinics must be already configured for Telehealth functionality prior to being able to check this field. Contact your Auditdata representative if you are interested in learning more about our Telehealth digital meeting module.) Even if the clinic has been configured to utilize Telehealth, the Telehealth functionality will not be operational until as least one message within this tab is marked as Telehealth here. The tag <<Telehealth Web Link>> is an available DATA TAG can be used to populate the digital meeting id into either a SMS Text message or a Email message notification that can be configured to send to the patient or lead.

Note that SMS text messages can only contain 160 characters per message. If your SMS message is longer then 160 characters, it will use additional messages to complete the full transmission of the message.

If choosing the Email Message notification, the details button launches the EMAIL CONTENT TEMPLATE window. Choose a static EMAIL SUBJECT. This is the subject line that will appear on automatic email notifications to patients. Browse to select the EMAIL CONTENT TEMPLATE. The email content template is created by someone with HTML language skills and usually is created with the clinics branding with the file extension ".HTML". Once the email content template has been created and the path identified here, the TEST button will run the email test and send the email to the user with the subject/template as entered. The system will grab a current appointment to provide the logged in user with a populated email. This email will not be saved or logged anywhere as it is only a test. (For this to work, the user must have a defined email address in their APPLICATION USERS settings. If the logged in user doesn't have an email address in APPLICATION USERS, then this test button will be disabled.) When finished entering the message and selecting any data tags, press the CONTINUE button to save any changes.

If choosing the IVR Message notification, the details button launches the NOTIFICATION MESSAGES window. It is advised that CallFire customers use the IVR XML BUILDER on the CallFire website to take full advantage of all the IVR message options. The IVR XML message is created on the CallFire website, and can then be copied and pasted into this IVR Message window. The CONTINUE button will save any changes.

Appointment Confirmations tab:

The Appointment Confirmations tab houses the available messages that can be sent to patients based on the CREATED TIME of the appointment.

Click the ADD button to add a new message. Give the message a name or description. Select a TYPE of either EMAIL MESSAGE or SHORT MESSAGE SERVICE (SMS) or IVR MESSAGE. Within the window, the contents of the message can be designed. The frequency and interval of the message are based on the CREATED TIME of the appointment. For example, you could create an appointment confirmation that 2 hours after an appointment the SMS text message "Thank you booking an appointment with us. We look forward to seeing you on 01/29/19." after an appointment is created on the scheduler for a patient.

An Auditdata Support Rep will need to create a server task to process any of the Patient Notification types in order for the messages to be processed. Please contact Manage Software to schedule the back end task creation.

Checking the DIRECT SMS flag indicates that this message template can be selected and sent to a patient directly from the PATIENT INFORMATION screen within the NOTIFICATIONS icon as Direct SMS text.

Appointment Reminders tab:

The Appointments tab houses frequency and interval information on when the automatic messages are to be sent based on appointments.

Click the ADD button to add the frequency and interval information for each type of message. For example, to set up an automatic message to be sent 1 day prior to an appointment, select FREQUENCY "1" and INTERVAL would be "DAYS" from the drop down list. If a notification is to be sent after an appointment, select a frequency with a negative amount. For example, to set up an automatic message to be sent 1 day after an appointment, select FREQUENCY "-1" and INTERVAL would be "DAYS". Select the MESSAGE from the drop down list this frequency and interval applies to. Check the INACTIVE box to disable this automatic message. If a message type is marked as INACTIVE while there are notifications for that same message type in the queue to be sent, those messages will still be submitted. TYPE displays either EMAIL MESSAGE, IVR or SHORT MESSAGE SERVICE (SMS), whichever applies. Use the CHANGE button to edit parameters on an existing message and use the DELETE button to remove appointment frequency/interval information from a message completely.

Recalls tab:

The Recalls tab houses frequency and interval information regarding when automatic messages are to be sent based on recalls. (The only messages unable to be sent automatically based on recalls are Telehealth messages.)

Click the ADD button to add the frequency and interval information for each type of message to be sent regarding a recall. For example, to set up an automatic message to be sent 1 day prior to a recall, select FREQUENCY "1". INTERVAL would be "DAYS" from the drop down list. If a notification is to be sent after a recall, select a frequency with a negative amount. For example, to set up an automatic message to be sent 1 day after a recall, select FREQUENCY "-1". INTERVAL would be "DAYS". Select the MESSAGE from the drop down list to which this frequency and interval apply. Check the INACTIVE box to disable this automatic message. If a message type is marked as INACTIVE while there are notifications for that same message, type in the queue to be sent. Those messages will still be submitted. TYPE displays either EMAIL MESSAGE, IVR or SHORT MESSAGE SERVICE (SMS); whichever applies. Use the CHANGE button to edit parameters on an existing message and use the DELETE button to remove the recall frequency/interval information from a message completely.

Managing Patient Notifications:

Within Patient Information , the PATIENT INFORMATION window on the main screen can specify whether each patient is to receive THE SYSTEM DEFAULT (or whichever the default notifications are set to within the CONFIGURATION tab of this screen), EMAIL, SMS or IVR.

Patients that are set up to receive SMS notifications must have a mobile number on the patient file. If the patient has a preferred contact (IE: a guardian or a caregiver), that preferred contact must have a mobile number stored, since the preferred contact would get a text message instead of the patient.

Patients that are set up to receive IVR notifications must have at least one telephone number that is marked as the preferred number. If the patient has a preferred contact (IE: a guardian or a caregiver), then the preferred contact's mobile number will be used for IVR if populated. If the preferred contact has no mobile number, yet has a home number, the home number will be used for IVR.

When a new patient is added, they will automatically be set to notifications via the SYSTEM DEFAULT. Users can edit this setting to individually select EMAIL, SMS or IVR within the MARKETING window of the PATIENT INFORMATION screen.

Notifications can be turned off for:

A) Specific specialists within Specialists.

B) Specific appointment reasons within Appointment Reasons.

C) Specific appointment status codes within Appointment Status Codes.

D) Specific locations within Location Information.

It is important to remember that appointments and recalls that have been added to a patient prior to PATIENT NOTIFICATIONS set up will not be added to the queue of notifications to be sent until they are edited and re-saved. (Run an Appointment Booking Report for all locations, all specialists, all appointment types to see a list of all future dated appointments to see a list of appointments that will not be sent patient notifications because they were created prior to patient notification configuration.)Appointments created after the notifications are set up will be placed in the cue for notifications as soon as they are added. Appointments with an appointment status of CANCELED will be added to the notification queue and ignored during processing to ensure the notification will not be sent.