A follow-up reminder reminds patients to make appointments on a recommended date that you decide. Follow-up reminders can be set up in advance in a way that works best for reminding your patients to make appointments on the date that you recommend.
Setting Follow-Up Reminders
1. Go to Schedule > Follow-Up Reminders.
2. In the Follow-Up Reminder Settings, click +Add New Reminder to add a new reminder type (email, text, or phone call) or you can make changes to an existing reminder.
3. Select the type of reminder from the dropdown. DrChrono offers one-way email, text, and phone calls.
4. Enter a number in the field between the reminder type and unit of time drop-down menus. This number will determine when the reminder goes out with the rest of the settings.
5. Select a unit of time from the dropdown. This will determine when the reminder goes out with the follow-up date selected.
6. Select when you would like the reminder to go out with the date selected, either before or after.
In the example we have set, we are sending out an email 7 days before the date we will select.
7. Clicking the Edit next to an email or text reminder allows you to enter additional information to your email and text reminders.
Notes:
Standard text reminders are limited to 140 characters. Customizing your text reminders may cause this limit to be exceeded, resulting in multiple text messages toward your monthly limit.
There is no text limit when adding additional text to email reminders. However, the editor for email reminders uses HTML. This means that if you would like to have your custom message rendered on different lines or in multiple paragraphs, you need to use a little bit of code with <br> (HTML line break). Otherwise, the message will be delivered in one paragraph.
Example 1: No use of <be>.
Example 2: Use of <br> for a new line.
Example 3: Use of <br> for a new paragraph.
8. Clicking Preview allows you to see the message.
9. Once you have set your Follow-Up Reminders, click Update Reminders.
Scheduling Follow-Up Reminders
1. From the Schedule Appointment window, select the Appointment tab.
2. Check the Arrange a Follow-Up Reminder box.
3. Select a Follow-Up Date.
4. Enter a Follow-Up Reason.
5. Click Save & Close or Save.
With the example created in this article, the patient will receive their Follow-Up Reminders on the following schedule:
- An email reminder will go out 7 days before 2/25/2021
- An SMS text message will be delivered 5 days before 2/25/2021
- A phone reminder will go out 3 days before 2/25/2021
Scheduling Follow-Up Reminders from the Patient's Chart
1. From the patient's chart select the Demographics section (left side list).
2. Once in the Demographics, click the Important tab.
3. Scroll down to Follow-Up Date.
3. Select a Follow-Up Date.
4. Enter a Follow-Up Reason.
5. Click Save Demographics.