Appointment reminders by e-mail
How the Healthcare pack reminds patients by e-mail two days before a visit, why there is no SMS or WhatsApp, and what to check before you switch it on.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Healthcare businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Launching soon. The Industry CRM add-on described in this article is launching soon. This article describes it as it will work at launch.
An empty chair costs a practice twice. The practitioner's time is lost, and so is the slot a waiting patient could have used. Many missed appointments are not refusals at all: the patient simply forgot, or remembered the wrong day.
A reminder shortly before the visit catches most of those. The Healthcare & clinics pack in Achekam's Industry CRM sends one, by e-mail, two days before each appointment. This article explains how that reminder behaves, why it is e-mail only, and the privacy questions worth settling before it goes to a single patient.
The reminder, two days out
The pack keeps each visit as an Appointment record linked to the patient's file. Two days before the appointment, the patient is sent a reminder by e-mail.
Two days is a useful distance. It is close enough that the patient has not yet forgotten again, and far enough ahead that a patient who cannot come has time to tell you, so the slot can go to someone else. A practice with a waiting list gets the most from it: every cancellation that arrives early is a slot that can be filled. For the wider evidence, a systematic review and meta-analysis in BMC Health Services Research gathers what is known about reducing missed health care appointments, including the measured effects of reminders by SMS, phone or mail and of other nudges.
The reminder is separate from the booking confirmation the appointment workflow sends when the visit is booked. One tells the patient the visit exists; the other brings it back to mind just before it happens.
E-mail only: no SMS or WhatsApp
Reminders in the Industry CRM go by e-mail and in-app only. There is no SMS and no WhatsApp, and patient reminders in the Healthcare pack go by e-mail.
That has practical consequences for some practices, and it is better to plan for them than to discover them:
- Patients without e-mail. Some patients, often older ones, have no e-mail address or never check it. They will not get the reminder. Keep a short list and phone them the day before, as many practices already do.
- Out-of-date addresses. An e-mail reminder is only as good as the address on file. Confirm it at each visit.
- Patients who prefer messages on their phone. Tell them at registration that reminders come by e-mail, so they know where to look.
What a reminder does not replace
An automatic reminder is a prompt, not a conversation. Some visits still need a person:
- Visits that need preparation, such as fasting before a test or stopping a medicine, are better explained by phone or in writing at booking, by someone who can answer questions.
- First visits for anxious patients often go better with a short personal call.
- Long or costly procedures deserve a call to confirm, so a late cancellation does not leave a theatre slot or a specialist idle.
Nothing goes out until an administrator says so
Each customer reminder starts switched off. A workspace administrator has to switch it on deliberately. That is a sensible default for a practice: no patient receives an automatic e-mail from you until someone has decided that they should.
Use that time. Before switching the reminder on, settle the points in the next two sections and plan the first-day check at the end of this article.
Sent once, within a daily cap
Each reminder is sent at most once for its appointment. A patient does not get a string of repeats.
Reminders are also limited by a daily cap. Find out what that cap is for your workspace and compare it with your busiest day's bookings two days ahead. If a single day in your diary regularly holds more appointments than the cap, talk to your administrator before you rely on the reminder for every patient.
Respecting patient privacy
An appointment reminder is about as harmless as practice e-mail gets, but it still deserves care. The address it goes to may not be private to the patient.
- Shared inboxes. A family that shares one e-mail address will all see the reminder. For most visits that does not matter. For some, it does.
- Children and dependants. For a child, the reminder should reach the parent or guardian responsible for the account, which means their address belongs on the child's file.
- Sensitive services. If your practice offers services a patient might not want others in the household to know about, think about which address you hold and whether the patient has agreed to e-mail contact. Ask at registration; it is a short question.
A good rule: the reminder should tell the patient when and where, not why. Keep anything clinical out of patient e-mail entirely.
A first-day check
Switching the reminder on applies to every patient, so make the first day a checked one, using a colleague as the first patient:
- Make sure the colleague has a patient file with their own e-mail address.
- Book them an appointment two days ahead, among the real bookings for that day.
- Ask an administrator to switch the reminder on.
- Check that the colleague's reminder arrives, and read it as a patient would: is the practice clearly named, is the date right, does it say anything it should not?
- Cancel the test appointment once you are satisfied.
If anything in the e-mail would worry you in a shared family inbox, raise it with your administrator straight away.
Fewer empty chairs
Once the first day's reminders look right, keep a phone list for patients without e-mail, and watch the next month's missed visits. To make the most of it, pair the reminder with a firm attendance routine, covered in from booking confirmation to attended visit, and with recall invitations that bring patients back in the first place. Capturing a correct e-mail address at registration is what makes all three work.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
