Family Message Confirmation

Summary

Family Message Confirmation messages are the vehicle by which the guarantor of multiple patients having appointments on the same day will confirm all the scheduled appointments at once.  A Family Message confirmation request is only sent when multiple patients having appointments on the same day are unconfirmed.  Go to Settings>Family Message Settings>Confirmations.

Patient Communicator reads the confirmation status in the practice management software (PMS) and, in most cases depending on the PMS, will send confirmation replies received by Patient Communicator to the PMS where the patient's status will be seen as confirmed. 

Viewing Schedule Breakdown in Patient Communicator will always show the current confirmation status and, if the appointment is confirmed, how the appointment was confirmed.

Confirmation Status

Enable a Family Message Confirmation notification

1. Message delivery method: Choose any combination of Email, SMS, or Voice (where available) by toggling the buttons to the ON (green) position.

2. Enable: Turn on the notification by toggling the button ON (green).Enable Confirmation Toggles

3. Days Before:/Send out at: Select how many days before the appointment date to send the Email and/or SMS Confirmation and the time of day to send out.  In the example below, the first request for confirmation will be sent 5 days before the date of appointment.  If the patient is not yet confirmed 3 days prior to the appointment, another Email and/or SMS will be sent.  If the first confirmation request was replied to by the patient as confirmed, the second request will not be sent.                    Send Email/SMS Time

4. Voice Confirmations: A request to confirm an upcoming appointment can be made to the patient’s home phone.  To enable an automated voice call:

• Call at: Set the time of day to make the call

• Days Before: Set the number of days before the appointment to call

• Speaker: English is always default. You may choose Spanish, Mexico for a voice message in Spanish if Alice is chosen as Speaker. Choosing Spanish, Spain enables Conchita.

• Language: English is always default. You may choose Spanish, Mexico for a voice message in Spanish if Alice is chosen as Speaker

• Call when: Choose what contact information (or lack of) triggers a call

• Option to call Office: Will the patient be able to press a button to call the office telephone

• Office Number: Displays what phone number the patient will reach when Option to call Office is enabledVoice Call Settings

5. Advanced Settings: A practice may decide to send a voice call request on a day other than scheduled.  In the example above, a voice confirmation request for a Monday appointment will be delivered on Saturday (2 days before the appointment date).  In the example below, the voice confirmation calls scheduled for Saturday and Sunday (left column) have been changed to the Friday before (right column).                        Voice Advanced Settings

6. Templates: 

Each notification will preload with a default template when the message delivery method is turned on. Email and Voice templates will have 2 options.  Templates names with 1 will include the names of all patients scheduled that day and the earliest appointment time only.

Template names with 2 will include every patient with an appointment that day list the appointment time for each individual patient.  

• To view the current enabled template, click the template tab in the notification for the enabled delivery method.  To change or edit the current template, click Edit Template.  View Template

• To change templates, choose a different template from the drop down menu in the Message Template screen.  When done, click SAVE & CLOSE  Select Template