If you are a receiving site that accepts eReferrals, you may want to enable the eReferral Appointment Reminders feature within your site.
Ocean Sites that receive eReferrals can send automated appointment reminders to patients regarding their upcoming appointments.
Note: This is an an optional step in setting up your Ocean Site to receive eReferrals.
This article walks through the configuration required to send reminders to patients based on the booked appointment information stored within your Ocean eReferrals.
Alternatively, if your Ocean Site is integrated with your EMR (e.g., PS Suite, Med Access, Accuro, OSCAR Pro), Ocean can use your EMR schedule as the source of appointment reminder information. Please refer to the Patient Reminders Setup Guide for detailed instructions on this alternative configuration option.
Prerequisites
- You must have Site Admin access on your Ocean Site.
- Ocean Cloud Connect must be set up and enabled for your Ocean Site.
Ocean Site Configuration
- After logging in to the Ocean Portal, open the 'Menu' and click 'Patient Reminders'.
- Click the 'Settings' button in the top right corner.
- Click the 'Edit Configuration' button to modify the universal reminder settings for your Ocean Site.
- Set the 'Appointment Source' to 'eReferrals'.
- Set the 'Daily Run Time' to your preferred time of day. Ocean will start processing reminders at the selected time.
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Click 'Save'.
Note: Text Message Reminders are not currently available when the 'Appointment Source' is set to 'eReferrals'.
Reminder Rule Creation
Once the configuration above is completed, you can create your Reminder Rule(s). Reminder Rules allow you to define how far in advance of an appointment a reminder should be sent.
You can create any number of Reminder Rules to send multiple email notifications to the patient in advance of their appointment. For example, you can configure a rule to send 1 month in advance of the appointment, a second rule to send 1 week in advance of the appointment, and then another rule to send the day before the appointment.
- From Patient Reminders Settings area, click 'Add Reminder Rule'.
- Enter a 'Rule Name'. This name is never visible to patients. It's recommended that you provide a recognizable or descriptive name for your rule.
- Specify the number of days before the appointment that the reminder should be sent.
- Optionally enable the checkbox to include an iCal file in the reminder email.
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Click the 'Save' button to save your Reminder Rule in it's current state. For brand new rules, this saves the rule in a disabled state.
Alternatively, click the 'Save & Enable Rule' button to save your Reminder Rule in an enabled state.
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Your Reminder Rule(s) will appear in the main Patient Reminders Settings page, where you can disable, enable, edit existing, and create new rules.
Existing rules can be deleted by editing the rule and then clicking the 'Delete Rule' button
You're all set! At the time of day specified in your Ocean Site's reminder configuration, Ocean Cloud Connect will send appointment reminder emails to any patients with booked referrals that meet any enabled reminder rule criteria and that have consented to email notifications.
- The appointment reminder email contains the same information that was provided to the patient in the initial booking email notification, including any booking comments, attachments, and the ability to confirm the appointment (if it hasn't been confirmed already).
How appointment confirmation appears in the Ocean eReferral
- The 'Confirmed' checkbox within the eReferral becomes enabled.
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- This automatically moves from referral from the 'Booked Unconfirmed' status folder to the 'Booked Confirmed' status folder.
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How appointment confirmations appear in the EMR
If your Ocean Site is integrated with your EMR, Ocean will also attempt to update the confirmation status on the appointment booked in your EMR schedule.
- When a patient confirms their appointment, the status for their appointment will changed to 'Confirmed' in PS Suite. This is denoted by a green circle icon by default.
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Note: The existing appointment status in PS Suite must be the default 'No Status' value for Ocean to successfully update it to 'Confirmed'.
- When a patient confirms their appointment, the status for their appointment will changed to 'Confirmed' in Med Access.
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Note: The existing appointment status in Med Access must be 'Booked' in order for Ocean to successfully update it to 'Confirmed'.
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When a patient confirms their appointment, the appointment will be updated to include the 'Confirmed' status in Accuro.
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- The specific icon displayed for the 'Confirmed' status can be customized by an Accuro EMR administrator within the 'Manage Priorities, Reasons and Statuses' Accuro EMR settings area.
Note
- Ocean will always attempt to update the appointment status to 'Confirmed' regardless of any existing Accuro appointment status.
- In the rare case that an appointment is not associated with an Accuro Office ID (generally a result of a data migration issue within the EMR), Ocean will not update the appointment status to 'Confirmed'.
In the Patient Reminder settings area, OSCAR Pro clinics can customize the status value that Ocean will update the appointment to when a patient confirms their appointments by adjusting the 'Appointment Status for Appointment Confirmations' setting. When a patient confirms their appointment, the status of the appointment will be updated.
- In the example image to the right, the 'Appointment Status for Appointment Confirmations' setting has been configured to update the appointment to status code 'h' (the default 'Confirmed' status in OSCAR Pro).
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Note: Ocean will attempt to update the appointment status upon confirmation when there is no existing status code for the appointment, or when the existing status code is code 't' (the default 'To Do' status value in OSCAR Pro), or when the existing status code is the status chosen for the 'Appointment Status for Sent Ocean Reminders' setting within the Ocean Site's Patient Reminder settings area.