Client Appointment Reminders

Want to remind clients of their upcoming appointments? Want to ask clients to confirm they're coming to the appointment?

Ensure a higher client attendance rate by sending them a reminder a day or so before their appointment! Read on to find out how to set up reminders, and the various reminder types.

In this Article:

• Configure Reminder Defaults
• When Creating a Client
• Enable Client Appointment Reminders
• Manage / Edit Reminder Settings
• Reminder Preview
• Reminder History
• Reminder Not Sent? Troubleshooting
• Reminder Confirmations
  • Displayed Confirmations (staff view)

Default reminder behavior is managed on a per provider basis

• This is the amount of days before a reminder is sent by default, options are 1-5 days
• This means providers can have different values if desired
  • Client reminder intervals & types can always be individually changed after creating a client
  • Discussed here: Manage or Edit Reminder Settings)

Depending on your roles, you can do this either way:

To access your profile:

• From any screen click your name (top right):

Are you an Owner or Manager?

You'll also notice an additional ribbon near the top, allowing you to quickly switch between other staff member profiles. Click the dropdown shown here:

When you or your staff are creating a new client in the system, when entering a phone number or email address we automatically check off the reminders option, but you are free to uncheck them after entry.

This uses the therapist's defaults set in the above section.

To enable reminders that will be sent to an already established client, navigate to:

You should then see all the client's added phone numbers and email addresses aggregated all in one location here.

The section below each phone number and email will show the reminder status for that contact type.

Shown:

Reminder options:

• Number of days sent in advance: 1 - 5 days
• Request confirmation: adds a button in the email to click & confirm

• Reminder Types:
  • Text
  • Phone call
• Number of days sent in advance: 1 - 5 days
• Request confirmation:
  • Text: adds "Please reply YES to confirm" to the end of the text reminder
  • Phone: press 1 to confirm for the phone call

Need to send reminders to someone other than the client?

If treating couples, families, or children/minors and you want appointment reminders to be sent to additional phone numbers or email addresses, simply add those phone and email addresses into the client's profile.

Can I change or configure the reminder text or email?

We try to hold client privacy above all else at TherapyAppointment, and per our security and policy team's recommendations we have taken HIPAA's recommendations of reminder communications.

We've opted to include the minimal amount of information to convey the reminder message to the client, so customization beyond the basics (reminder type, number of days advance, as well as confirmations) is not possible.

Customization with reminders such as custom text, or your group or business name or additional information is not currently supported.

Can a client reply to reminders?

• Clients can only text yes to confirm
• Outside of that, we don't allow clients to reply to reminders, and don't log that information sent
• Texting is not inherently secure. Instead, we suggest your clients use our secure HIPAA compliant messaging

If a client replies in any other way to the reminder text, we send them back the following non-configurable auto-reply: We don't understand. Reply "Yes" to confirm or call the office with appointment concerns.

Text reminders follow this formula:

Base Appointment Reminder:

If a Practice Phone Number Exists:

If Confirmations Are Enabled:

Text Reminder Previews (variations):

• A normal appointment
• With a practice phone number
• With confirmations enabled:

• Without confirmations
• For an integrated telehealth appointment
• Without a practice phone number:

• With confirmations
• For an integrated telehealth appointment
• With a practice phone number:

To view the reminder history for a particular client, go to their profile.

On the right-hand menu, click the button Reminder History   > shown here:

From there you'll see the following information:

• Appointment date & time
• Reminder type (text or email)
• Sent to (actual email or phone #)
• Reminder delivery date & time

Make sure you have the reminder settings correct:

• Ensure that reminders are configured properly and set to the right client and date
• Ensure there are no typos (ex: @mgail.com instead of @gmail.com )
• Confirm with the client that the phone number and email address on file are correct

Ensure the appointment is on the schedule in time:

The appointment must be on the schedule before midnight the day the reminder is set to go out.

If entered after, no reminder will go out.

For example:

The appointment reminder status only lists attempts to send a reminder:

Although our reminder delivery rate is above 99%, there are circumstances where messages will not be successfully delivered (ex: if clients are on the phone, out of service, or a client carrier marks it as delivered but it wasn't, etc). If the email goes to the Spam folder, or the text message is deleted unread, the system cannot track these problems.

Likewise, if a patient feigns not receiving a reminder in hopes of avoiding a no-show fee, we certainly cannot track this.

It is the client's responsibility to record and keep any appointments that have been made, as we cannot guarantee you they will successfully receive a reminder every time.

Ask your client to add the appointment on their phone calendar:

Adding an appointment to your own calendar can be an excellent way to avoid no shows and clients forgetting their appointment.

It also doesn't rely on external reminders, and clients can customize more reminder intervals.

Confirmation types (click to bring you to the section):

1. Text
2. Email
3. Within the Client Portal

Once an appointment is scheduled and reminders configured, a reminder is automatically sent to the client in advance of their appointment based on type.

Additionally, see how the Displayed Confirmations look from the staff view.

Email Confirmations

Enabling email reminders allows the client to confirm the appointment by clicking the blue Confirm Appointment button within the email reminder shown here:

Note: System reminders are hardcoded with certain information to include the least amount of identifiable information as possible per HIPAA recommendations for client privacy, and cannot be altered.

Additionally:

• Reminder email replies are not delivered to TherapyAppointment (or the Provider).
• Clients should contact you using our free Messaging feature
• If enabled, clients can cancel and reschedule appointments from their client portal

Displayed Confirmations

In the system, we display confirmations in a variety of areas.

Removed from Unconfirmed Appointments on Dashboard:

• On the dashboard, we remove the appointment from this list:
• Information about that can be found in our article: Home → Unconfirmed Appointments

From the Appointment Pop Up:

From the Appointment Summary: Timeline