Set Up Patient Reminders

Introducing Patient Reminders

Prerequisites

Patient Reminders are supported for the following EMRs: QHR Accuro, TELUS PS Suite, TELUS Med Access, and OSCAR Pro.
Your EMR Schedule(s) must be activated for use with Ocean Patient Reminders under an Ocean Licence. To do this, please refer to the following article: Adding Ocean Licences.

What are Patient Reminders?

Patient Reminders are automated messages that are scheduled to send before or after a patient's booked appointment. You can notify patients of their upcoming appointments, request confirmation, include secure messages/PHI, and invite them to complete forms and questionnaires online, without the risks of traditional email. With Ocean’s EMR integration, patient records are seamlessly updated without any scanning, typing, or manual staff involvement.

Key Benefits

Easy for Patients - Patients are not required to create an account or log into a patient portal in order to confirm their appointment and/or complete Ocean eForms.
EMR-integrated - Ocean automatically checks the EMR schedule to identify which appointments match the trigger criteria for each reminder rule and sends a message accordingly. When a patient confirms an appointment, the status is automatically updated in the EMR, along with any completed Ocean eForms.
- The Ocean Platform also supports dedicated Referral Reminders for clinics receiving Ocean eReferrals. Ocean Sites can trigger Patient Reminders from eReferrals or their EMR schedule, but not both. To learn more about Referral Reminders, please refer to: Set Up Automated Referral Appointment Reminders.
Customizable - You can customize the reminder rule criteria (e.g. by provider, appointment type and/or reason, age) to define the patients that should receive a given reminder.
Email and text- Ocean allows you to send text messages in addition to email, enabling your clinic to collect appointment confirmations from patients without an email address.

How it works for patients:

Patient Reminders via Email
- Patient receives an email from Ocean.
  You are able to customize the email subject and body to convey important pre-visit information. You can optionally include an calendar file (.ics) for patients to include in their calendar app of choice. If you choose to include a secure message, eForm, or have appointment confirmation enabled, the patient should be directed to click on the hyperlink.
- Patient validates their identity.
  The hyperlink in the email will take the patient to the Ocean Health Messenger, where they will be required to validate their identity before proceeding. By default, Ocean will ask for the date of birth but you can enable other questions for additional security like health number, EMR ID, or a pre-determined access password. Ocean will use this information to check against the chart and ensure this patient is the correct recipient.
- Patient confirms their appointment.
  The relevant appointment details will be displayed, and the patient can click the 'Confirm My Appointment' button. Once clicked, the appointment status in your EMR will be automatically updated to 'confirmed'.
- Patient views secure message & completes eForms.
  If you included a secure message and/or eForms in the email template, the patient can now access the message and complete any forms.
Patient Reminders via Text Message
- Patients receive a text message from Ocean. The text message is a set message that includes your Organization name, date and time of the appointment, the provider name and instructions on how to opt out of receiving text message reminders in the future. Ocean will send text messages to the mobile phone listed in the patient's chart.
  
  If the reminder is configured to include eForms and appointment confirmation, the patient will be instructed to check their email.
  
  If the patient doesn't have an email address on file, they can confirm their appointment via secure link in the text message.
- Patient confirms their appointment. Once the patient clicks the link, they will be notified that their appointment has been confirmed.
  
  The appointment status will be updated to 'confirmed' in your EMR.

To learn more about setting up your reminder rules, please refer to "Creating / Configuring Patient Reminders".

To learn more about Text Messaging for Patient Reminders, please refer to "Sending Patient Reminders via SMS Text Message".

Patient Reminders Dashboard

The Patient Reminders Dashboard allows you to view the status of your current Patient Reminders configuration, as well as the history of reminders that have been sent from your Ocean Site. To access the Patient Reminders Dashboard:

Login to the Ocean Portal.
Open the 'Menu' and click 'Patient Reminders.'

A description of each area in the dashboard is provided below.

Reminders Status Bar: The status bar provides a summary of your Patient Reminders configuration. When at least one Reminder Rule is enabled, the status bar will be green. When no Reminder Rules are enabled, the status bar will be red.; The status bar also indicates the 'Daily Run Time' that you have configured for your Ocean Site, as well as the number of licensed EMR schedules that Reminder Rules can be run against.
Sent Reminders History: A summary of Ocean Reminders sent in the past 7 days will be displayed here.; Ocean Site Admins can click the 'Download Log' button to download a more detailed log of reminders sent in the past 14 days.

Patient Reminders Settings

Note: You must be an Ocean Site Admin to access Patient Reminders settings.

From the Patient Reminders Dashboard, click Settings in the top right corner.

You will be taken to the Patient Reminders Settings page. Read below for a description of each section of this page.

Activation Requirements

A list of prerequisites for Patient Reminders. When all prerequisites have been met, proceed to editing your reminder settings.

Reminders Configuration

A summary of your global settings will appear on the Patient Reminders Settings page.

Click Configure to change these settings.

PS Suite, Med Access or Accuro OSCAR PRO

Appointment Source

Reminders can run from your EMR Schedule, or from Ocean eReferrals. To learn more about Ocean Reminders for eReferrals, refer to: Set Up Automated Referral Appointment Reminders.

Daily Run Time

The time of day Ocean will start processing your reminder rule(s). Patients will receive reminder emails shortly after this time. If you have multiple reminder rules, Ocean will take some time to send out your patient reminders.

Note for Accuro users with more than 3 rules: Due to a unique configuration between Ocean and Accuro, we recommend setting the 'Reminder Time of Day' for early in the morning (e.g. 6 AM) if you have more than 3 reminders. If you have more than 10 reminders, it is recommended that you set all reminders to be sent at least 2 days in advance.

Text Message Reminders

Clinics who would like to send text message reminders must acknowledge the additional fee per text message reminder and consider collecting text message consent. Learn more about text message reminders: Sending Patient Reminders via SMS Text Message.

Save or Cancel

Click the Save button to save your changes. Click the Cancel button to cancel your changes.

Appointment Source

Reminders can run from your EMR Schedule, or from Ocean eReferrals. To learn more about Ocean Reminders for eReferrals, refer to: Set Up Automated Referral Appointment Reminders.

Appointment Status for Sent Ocean Reminders

Ocean has the ability to change the appointment status in OSCAR Pro when a reminder is sent to a patient. By default, this will not be enabled. If you have configured a specific code in your EMR to reflect when reminders are sent, you can select it here by clicking the dropdown.

Appointment Status for Appointment Confirmations

Ocean can change the appointment status in OSCAR Pro when a patient has confirmed their appointment through an Ocean reminder. Click the dropdown here to select the code that will represent a confirmed appointment. To learn more about setting up appointment confirmation through Patient Reminders, please refer to Enabling Appointment Confirmation from Patient Reminders.

Daily Run Time

The time of day Ocean will start processing your reminder rule(s). Patients will receive reminder emails shortly after this time. If you have multiple reminder rules, Ocean will take some time to send out your patient reminders.

Note for Accuro users with more than 3 rules: Due to a unique configuration between Ocean and Accuro, we recommend setting the 'Reminder Time of Day' for early in the morning (e.g. 6 AM) if you have more than 3 reminders. If you have more than 10 reminders, it is recommended that you set all reminders to be sent at least 2 days in advance.

Text Message Reminders

Clinics who would like to send text message reminders must acknowledge the additional fee per text message reminder and consider collecting text message consent. Learn more about text message reminders: Sending Patient Reminders via SMS Text Message.

Save or Cancel

Click the Save button to save your changes. Click the Cancel button to cancel your changes.
Reminder Rules
On the Reminders Settings page, a summary of Reminder Rules will appear under the Reminder Rules heading.
Add Reminder Rule

Click this button to add a new reminder rule.

Force Send All Reminders

Triggers a send for all of your enabled reminder rules.

Note: Forced sent reminder rules may take time to process and send. During this time, reminder rules cannot be edited.

Reminder Rule

A summary of each reminder rule for your site.

Force Send

Triggers a send for this enabled reminder rule.

Note: A forced sent reminder rule may take time to process and send. During this time, the reminder rule cannot be edited.

Enable/Disable

This allows you to enable or disable your reminder rule. An enabled rule will run at the configured reminder time of day. A disabled rule will not run (useful if you are still in the process of setting up your reminders).

Edit

This allows you to edit an existing reminder.

Edit Reminder Rules

Note: You must be an Ocean Site Admin to access Patient Reminders settings.

From the Patient Reminders Dashboard, click Settings in the top right corner.

On the Patient Reminders Settings page, click Add Reminder Rule or Edit on a reminder rule and you will be taken to the Edit Reminder Rule Page.

1. Rule Name

Rule Name: Name your reminder rule. The rule name is never visible to patients. It's recommended that you provide a recognizable or descriptive name for your rule.

2. Reminder Options

When should the reminder be sent?: Set the schedule for your reminder rule. Enter the number of days to send the reminder before/after the appointment.

Note: To send a reminder for appointments taking place on the same day, set this value to 0 days before the appointment. Please note that Ocean cannot collect appointment confirmations for reminders configured for same day appointments.
How should the reminder be sent?: Set how the reminder should be sent (Email or Email & Text Message).
Include iCal calendar event file in email reminder: If enabled, an iCal calendar event file will be included in the email reminder. For more information, please refer to: How are iCal files used with Patient Reminders?

Appointment Confirmation

If enabled, patients can confirm their upcoming appointments through the secure message area of their reminders. For more info see: Enabling Appointment Confirmation from Patient Reminders

Messaging Template

Select the template that will be used to email the patient. The template has full support for Ocean Keywords.

The [weblink] or [weblink_french] keyword represents the hyperlink that the patient can click to confirm their appointment (if appointment confirmation is enabled), view any secure messages and/or complete any eForms attached to the template.

3. Message Preview

Once you have configured your Reminder Options, a Message Preview will appear in the right half of your screen.

Text Message Preview: A preview of the text message the patient will receive. Please note that the text message is not editable. The text message generated for the patient will depend on your reminder rule settings and whether the patient has an email on file. To change the preview, use the drop down menu next to "If the patient has:"; Ocean will send the text message in either English or French, depending on the patient's preferred language as specified in the EMR. If the patient's preferred language is unspecified in the EMR or is an unsupported language, the text message will be sent in English by default.
Messaging Template Preview: A preview of the email template selected in Reminder Options. Please note that you cannot edit your messaging templates here. To edit your messaging templates, please refer to Patient Messaging Templates.

Note: If you have set notifications on the email template (e.g. 'Notify me when viewed'), these email notifications will go to your site's Clinical Administrator / Ocean Support Contact (set in the Admin view, Site Account tab).

4. Rule Conditions

Select the condition which you would like your reminder rule to be based on. For more information about appointment types and reasons in your EMR, please refer to: Managing Appointment Type / Reason for Visit for Reminders.

Note: All Rule Conditions only apply to patients with appointments in licensed EMR schedules.

Appointment Type:

Available for PS Suite, Med Access, Accuro and OSCAR PRO EMRs. Setting this condition will trigger reminders for appointments booked containing an Appointment Type in your EMR.

Reason:

Available for Accuro and OSCAR PRO EMRs only. Setting this condition will trigger reminders for appointments booked containing a Reason in your EMR.

For OSCAR PRO users: Ocean will map to the Reason dropdown menu by default. To trigger a reminder based on the free-text field for Reason, use the following JavaScript expression:

ScriptUtil.getKeyword('@ptReasonForVisit').includes('test')

EMR Schedule:

Available for PS Suite, Med Access, Accuro and OSCAR PRO EMRs. Setting this condition will trigger reminders for appointments booked in this schedule in your EMR. To view the list of schedules available for Patient Reminders, navigate to your Admin view, Providers page.

JavaScript:

By selecting this rule type, you can customize your reminder audience with more precision (e.g. by age or gender).

For more information and further examples, refer to the article "Reminder Rules - Using Javascript Conditions".

Each condition uses an operator (except JavaScript). This allows you to specify exactly which condition(s) must be met to trigger your reminder rule.

Is:: Reminder will match on one selected value from your EMR. A dropdown menu will appear with values from your EMR.
Is not:: Reminder will exclude one selected value from your EMR. A dropdown menu will appear with values from your EMR.
Is one of:: Reminder will match on multiple selected values from your EMR. A menu will appear allowing you to select multiple values from your EMR.
Is not one of:: Reminder will exclude multiple selected values from your EMR. A menu will appear allowing you to select multiple values from your EMR.
Contains:: Reminder will match EMR value(s) containing a certain text string. A text field will appear allowing you to enter a string of text.
Does not contain:: Reminder will exclude EMR value(s) containing a certain text string. A text field will appear allowing you to enter a string of text.

'Contains' and 'Does not contain' operators: These conditions are useful if you are using a naming convention for your appointment types, reasons or schedule names (e.g. "VV" for virtual visits, or "IP" for in-person). Ocean will find all appointments that contain this string in the title and trigger the reminder rule accordingly.

5. Save, Cancel and Delete

Save: Save your changes.
Save & Test Rule: Save your changes and test your reminder rule. This will bring you to the test rule page.
Save & Enable: Save your changes and enable the reminder rule. This option appears on newly created rules or disabled rules.
Cancel: Cancel any changes made to your reminder rule.
Save & Disable: Save your changes and disable the reminder rule. This option appears only for live Reminder Rules.
Delete Rule: Delete your reminder rule. This option appears only for saved Reminder Rules.

Managing Appointment Type / Reason for Visit for Reminders

Patient Reminders uses appointment types or reason for visit to determine who and what to send automated reminder emails to. You can customize your appointment types and reasons for visit by following the steps below.

Log in to your PS Suite EMR.
From the Dashboard window, click "Settings" and select "Preferences..." from the dropdown menu of options.

From within the Preferences window, select "Appointments". Click the "Add..." button to add a new appointment type.

The "Appointment Type" fields will show up below, where you can name the appointment type and determine what appears as the details suffix for patients booked under this appointment type.
Be sure to save your changes before you leave.
Once you've created your appointment type(s), you can select them from the "Type" dropdown list when booking patients in for appointments.

Log in to your Med Access EMR.
Look to the top right corner of the Day Sheet and click Tools. In the menu that appears, select Appointment Set Up > Appointment Type.

The Appointment Types window will open. Here you will see all appointment types in your EMR.

Double click on an appointment type to update the appointment type or copy its name.
Click New in the top right corner to create a new appointment type. Click Save when you are done.

Appointment Type
- Log in to your Accuro EMR and click on the Accuro target logo at the bottom left side of the screen, navigate to "Schedule" and select "Scheduler Management".
- Navigate to the "Types" tab and use the "Accuro Appointment Types" table on the left side to add, edit, or delete appointment types.
- Type Column:
  
  Double click on the box under this column to name your appointment type.
  
  Colour Column:
  
  Double click the box under this column to change the colour of your appointment type.
  
  Shared Column:
  
  Check off the box under this column to have this appointment type shared across all of your Accuro users.
  
  Green Plus (+) Button:
  
  Click this button to add a new appointment type (a new row in the table will be added).
  
  Red X Button:
  
  Click this button to delete an existing appointment type.
Reason for Visit
- Log in to your Accuro EMR and click on the Accuro target logo at the bottom left side of the screen, navigate to "Schedule" and select "Scheduler Management".
- Navigate to the "Priorities, Reasons and Statuses" tab and use the "Reasons" table at the bottom left to add, edit, or delete reasons.
- Reason Column:
  
  Double click on the box under this column to name your reason for visit.
  
  Provider Column:
  
  Double click the box under this column to choose the provider you want this reason for visit to be associated with (or leave it as "All" if all your providers offer the same services).
  
  Office Shared Column:
  
  Check off the box under this column to have this reason for visit shared across all of your providers.
  
  Green Plus (+) Button:
  
  Click this button to add a new reason for visit (a new row in the table will be added).
  
  Red X Button:
  
  Click this button to delete an existing reason for visit.
Using Appointment Types and/or Reasons for Visit
- Once you've created your appointment type(s) and reason(s) for visit, you can select one or both from the "Type" and "Reason" dropdown lists when booking patients in for appointments.

Appointment Type
- Log in to your OSCAR EMR and click on Administration at the top of your window. Select Schedule Management and Appointment Type List.
- Here, you can create new appointment types or copy the Name of an existing appointment type and paste it into Ocean.
Reason for Visit
- When booking an appointment for a patient, you can select a Reason from the drop down menu. Ocean will look at this value for the appointment's reason.
Using Appointment Types and/or Reasons for Visit
- Once you've created your appointment type(s) and reason(s) for visit, you can select one or both from the "Type" and "Reason" dropdown lists when booking patients in for appointments.
- Ocean can also key in on the free-text Reason field. Please refer to Reminder Rules - Using Javascript Conditions.
Appointment Status
- Status codes can be applied to booked appointments using the "Status" dropdown menu within the appointment.
- Patients booked with status code "C" (uppercase) or "C_" (where "_" is any other character, e.g., "CS") will not receive an automated reminder from Ocean, as this is the default status code for cancelled appointments.
  
  Appointment Statuses can be modified by navigating to Administration, clicking Schedule Management, and selecting the Appointment Status Setting menu.

This feature is currently only available for PS Suite, Med Access, Accuro and OSCAR users.

Testing Patient Reminders

Prerequisites

Your EMR must be integrated using Ocean Cloud Connect.
Your EMR Schedule must be activated for use with Ocean Patient Reminders under an Ocean Licence. To do this, please refer to the following article: Adding Ocean Licences.
You have created and configured a Reminder Rule.

Have an appointment booked in your EMR that matches your Reminder Rule condition(s)

When testing your reminder, you should ensure you have at least one appointment booked in your EMR that meets the conditions you chose in your Reminder Rule (e.g., matching Appointment Type and Provider). We recommend doing this with a test patient first.

Test your reminder

To directly test the reminder, click Save & Test Rule from the Edit Reminder Rule page. Ocean will process that reminder (it will search for appointments in your EMR that match your Rule Conditions) and you will be directed to the Test Reminder Rule page.

Note that Ocean will test reminder rule based on the day which you are running the test (i.e., testing a Reminder Rule set to go out 3 days before an appointment will search for matching appointments 3 days from the day you are testing).

The Test Reminder Rule page will display matching appointments. This may take a few minutes to load depending on the size of your clinic. See below for a breakdown of the test rule page and a description of each section.

1. Reminder Rule Summary

A summary of the timing and Rule Conditions outlined in your Reminder Rule.

2. Matching Appointments

This area contains information on the matching appointments that Ocean has found in your EMR based on timing and Rule Conditions you selected.

2a Filter By Provider: Use this filter to drill down on appointments for one specific provider.
2b Appointment Tiles: Use these additional filters to drill down on other appointment elements.
2c Appointment Table: Table of appointment-specific information based on the filtering applied above.

3. Messaging Template Previews

A preview of the email template and/or text message that patients will receive. A full description can be found here: Edit Reminder Rules.

Action Bar

4 Enable Rule: Enables the reminder rule. Enabled rules will run according to the reminder rule schedule and will send reminders to patients at the scheduled time of day.
5 Return to Rule Settings: This will take you back to the Edit Reminder Rule page.
6 Rerun Test: This will rerun the test of the reminder rule against your EMR. Any changes made within your EMR will be reflected on this page.

Review the Guide to Patient Reminders

Now that you have finished the set up, check out the Guide to Patient Reminders to learn how to get the most out of Patient Reminders!

Set Up Patient Reminders

Introducing Patient Reminders

Prerequisites

What are Patient Reminders?

Key Benefits

How it works for patients:

Patient Reminders via Email

Patient Reminders via Text Message

Patient Reminders Dashboard

Patient Reminders Settings

Activation Requirements

Reminders Configuration

Reminder Rules

Edit Reminder Rules

1. Rule Name

2. Reminder Options

3. Message Preview

4. Rule Conditions

5. Save, Cancel and Delete

Managing Appointment Type / Reason for Visit for Reminders

Appointment Type

Reason for Visit

Using Appointment Types and/or Reasons for Visit

Appointment Type

Reason for Visit

Using Appointment Types and/or Reasons for Visit

Appointment Status

Testing Patient Reminders

Prerequisites

Have an appointment booked in your EMR that matches your Reminder Rule condition(s)

Test your reminder

1. Reminder Rule Summary

2. Matching Appointments

3. Messaging Template Previews

Action Bar

Review the Guide to Patient Reminders