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Patient Reminders FAQ

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What are some examples of commonly used Patient Reminders templates?

For resources on how to craft your patient messaging templates, refer to our blog posts: Ocean Tips: Best Practices For Effective Messages & Reminders, Ocean Tips: Creating Effective Appointment Reminders.

Reminder email template with appointment date and time

Subject: Reminder for your appointment at [clinic name]

Email body:

This is a reminder that you have an appointment at our clinic:
@apptDate at @apptTime
[clinic address]

Please click on the link below to confirm your appointment and complete your forms:
[weblink]

If you need to cancel your appointment, please call [clinic phone number] during regular clinic hours as soon as possible (at least 24 hours in advance). Please note that there is a fee for missed appointments and late cancellations.

Note: This is an outgoing email only. Please do not reply to this email. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the office in the usual manner.

Reminder email template with appointment date, time and schedule name

Subject: Reminder for your appointment at [clinic name]

Email body:

This is a reminder that you have an appointment at our clinic:
@apptDate at @apptTime with @providerName
[clinic address]

Please click on the link below to confirm your appointment and complete your forms:
[weblink]

If you need to cancel your appointment, please call [clinic phone number] during regular clinic hours as soon as possible (at least 24 hours in advance). Please note that there is a fee for missed appointments and late cancellations.

Note: This is an outgoing email only. Please do not reply to this email. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the office in the usual manner.

Can I run a report listing the reminders sent and which patients have confirmed their appointments?

Ocean offers several 'canned' reports that can give you insight into how many patients are receiving reminders and confirming appointments. They provide record level data that can be exported for analysis.  You can access them by logging into the Ocean Portal, clicking on the "Menu" button in the top left corner and selecting "Admin". In the left side bar, click "Reports"

Reports available for Patient Reminders:

  • Reminder sent - Patients that received a reminder email (whether or not the appointment confirmation feature was enabled)

  • Reminder appointment confirmed - Patients that confirmed an appointment (only applicable if the reminder rule(s) have the 'appointment confirmation' feature enabled) 

Can I send automated reminders to patients with overdue responses (i.e. when the appointment is not confirmed)?

Ocean Reminders cannot be set up against an overdue status of a email/questionnaire or when an appointment is not confirmed. Presently, reminders can only be scoped to appointment-based information -- provider, type, reason, etc. -- as well as certain demographics -- age, gender, etc. To learn more about creating these types of reminder rules, please review Reminder Rules - Using Javascript Conditions.

 

If a patient has two appointments on the same day, how many reminders will be sent?

If a patient meets the criteria for multiple reminder rules, Ocean will send the reminders for each of these rules. Therefore, if two appointments are booked for the patient that day and the clinic has configured a reminder rule for each appointment, the patient will receive two reminders. 

Including the reason for visit, appointment date and time (@appDate, @appTime) and provider name (@providerName) in the email template will assist the patient to distinguish between the two reminders. 

Ocean Reminders can't combine multiple appointment reminders in one email for appointments that fall on the same day.

Is it possible to set a single reminder rule to be sent out at different intervals before the appointment (e.g. 7, 3 and 1 day prior)?

You can create a different reminder rule for each reminder schedule (e.g. 7, 3 and 1 day before the appointment). This can be helpful for clinics that need to send different reminder email templates (and eForms) a number of days before the patient's appointment. 

To review how to create/configure a reminder, please refer to Creating / Configuring Patient Reminders.

Will patients receive multiple reminders?

Patients will receive all reminders, regardless of whether they have confirmed their appointment. Following the example above, if a patient confirms their appointment at the 7-day reminder, they will still receive the 3-day and 1-day reminder emails.

How can patients opt out of receiving text messages from Ocean?

Text messages sent by Ocean will include the option: "Text END to opt out." 

  • If a patient texts END to opt out, they will receive the following message: "You have opted out of receiving text messages from any clinic that uses the Ocean Platform. Text START to opt in. Message & Data rates may apply."
  • If a patient texts START to opt back in, they will receive the following message: "You have opted in to receiving text messages from any clinic that uses the Ocean Platform. Text HELP for help. Text END to opt out. Message & Data rates may apply."
  • If a patient texts HELP, they will receive the following message: "Visit https://www.oceanhealth.ca/ for more information. Text END to opt out from receiving text message reminders from the Ocean Platform. Message & Data rates may apply."

If a patient opts out of receiving text messages through Ocean, their mobile number will automatically be added to a global opt out list. Immediately after opt out, patient's will also have the ability to opt back in. 

Please be aware that Ocean will apply all patient opt-outs globally for text message reminders. This means that a patient who opts out of receiving text message reminders from one clinic using Ocean will not receive text message reminders from any other clinics using Ocean. 

Can I get a report of my Patient Reminders?

Patient Reminders logs contain a history of every reminder sent to your patients within the past 2 weeks. 

Note: You must be an Ocean Administrative User to access Patient Reminder logs.

  • Login to the Ocean Portal. Click the "Menu" button in the top left corner and select "Patient Reminders".
  • Under your Sent Reminders History, click the "Download Log" button. A .csv file of your Patient Reminders sent history will be downloaded to your device.

A Sent status means that Ocean successfully sent the reminder to the email host or SMS text messaging provider. Please note that a sent status doesn't necessarily mean that your patient has received the reminder. There may be delays/issues with the email host/SMS text message provider which may result in patients not receiving their reminder. 

An Aborted status means that Ocean was not able to send the reminder off to the email host or SMS text messaging provider. See the Description column for details.

Reminders log statuses and descriptions

Phone number failed validation
The number listed in the patient's chart failed our validation for legitimate phone numbers.
Phone number opted out for SMS
The patient opted out of receiving SMS text messages from the Ocean Platform.
Maximum SMS character length exceeded with siteName length of ... and providerName length of...
Your organization name/ site name and provider name have exceeded the character limit for SMS. Shorten your organization name.
Message body contains invalid SMS characters
Please check your organization name/site name and provider name for any non-GSM-7 characters. You can edit your organization name in Ocean and you can edit your schedule name directly in your EMR.
SMS message was aborted due to being in Test Mode
SMS text message reminders are not sent while the site's Patient Reminders are in Test Mode.
Unable to create SMS message in Twilio
An error occurred when sending the SMS text message through our SMS text message service provider.