Reminders can be used to remind your patients about their upcoming appointments. Reminders can be set up in two ways in DrChrono: in the appointment window or with reminder profiles. We will look at adding reminders at the appointment level in this article.
DrChrono offers 3 types of reminders email, text, and phone calls.
Setting Reminders in the Appointment Window
1. Go to Schedule > Calendar.
2. Open an appointment window and select the Appointment tab. Check the View Active Reminders box and then click +New 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 in relation to the rest of the settings.
Select a unit of time from the dropdown. This will determine when the reminder goes out in relation to the appointment.
5. Select when you would like the reminder to go out in relation to the scheduled appointment, either before or after.
In this example, we are sending out an email 1 day before the appointment.
6. To set more reminders, click +New Reminder and follow the same process. When finished click Save & Close or Save.
Below are examples of the standard text, email, and voice reminders.
Text reminders include the option for patients to opt out of receiving text reminders.
Adding Additional Messaging to Email and Text Reminders
1. Enter the text you would like to add to the email message in the text box.
2. Click Preview to see the message.
Text will be inserted between the end of the message and the closing of an email
With a text message, the additional text will be added to the end of the message.
To edit or make changes to individual reminders select the appointment and follow the steps above and save your changes.
Notes on Adding Additional Text to Reminders
Standard text reminders - has set default verbiage.
Customized text reminders - users can add customized text reminders, but the count cannot exceed more than 140 characters (the character count limit ONLY applies to the customized text ).
Email reminders - 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>. 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.
Users can view SMS usage via Reports > Reminder Reports. The usage in the reminder report is displayed in sms segments.
A text message segment is made up of 160 characters. Messages that exceed 160 characters are delivered in multiple segments. Each segment counts toward your total SMS usage for your billing cycle
In addition, if the standard reminder is pushed over 140 characters due to the provider or practice group's name being too long, two (2) messages will be charged.