How to enable Automated Appointment Reminders:
This feature requires the Rhinogram team to get involved. Contact the Rhinogram Success Team to learn more about how to get integrated.
What is the benefit of enabling Appointment Reminders?
With Automated Appointment Reminders, an organization will have the ability to craft personable, actionable, and content-rich messages to contacts. Because Rhinogram is true two-way texting, patients can respond with questions or concerns, rather than only codified responses.
Allow Rhinogram to help automate the process and stop calling, emailing or manually texting patients.
What kinds of Automated Appointment Text Messages does Rhinogram offer?
There are two different kinds of automated appointment messages:
Created Messages and Reminder Messages (2)
Appointment Created Messages
Created Messages are sent when a new appointment is created for a given contact. This eliminates the paper cards sometimes used in an office to remind the patient they made an appointment.
These messages are optional and turned off by default.
Use the toggle to enable Appointment Created messages. The message template can be crafted using any of the available variables: first name, last name, preferred name (if no preferred name is available, we will utilize first name), appointment date/time, office address, office name, provider name (if no provider name is available, we will utilize "the provider"), and type
There is also the capability to add a RhinoForm or other attachment to the Created Message by clicking Add Files.
Appointment Reminder Messages
Reminder Messages are messages to remind the patient about an upcoming appointment.
These messages are also optional and turned off by default. Use the toggle to enable Appointment Reminder messages. There is also the option to turn on an Additional Reminder Message. This can be sent down to 1 hour before the appointment. Keep in mind the quiet hours (when we will not send reminders) between the hours of 6pm and 8am in your time zone.
Use the toggle to enable Appointment Reminder messages. The message template can be crafted using any of the available variables: first name, last name, preferred name, appointment date/time, office address, office name, provider name, Reply 1 to confirm, Reply 2 to cancel, and type.
Customize delivery setting down to the hour. The minimum amount being 1 hour before the scheduled appointment. The message template can be crafted using any/all of the available variables: first name, last name, appointment date/time, appointment location.
There is also the capability to add a RhinoForm or other attachment to either or both Appointment Reminders by clicking Add Files. Each RhinoForm can only be attached to one appointment message per campaign. The existing rules for Form expiration apply. Sending the same form in a new link will cause the previous link to expire.
Note: Location information is only available with some Integrations. Please check with the Rhinogram Success Team to see if an integration offers location details.
New Feature
Practices will now have the ability to select which Offices are associated with each specific appointment reminder campaign. When new offices are added, they can be added to an existing campaign, or have new campaigns created just for those locations.
When will a patient receive an Appointment Created text message?
When an appointment is scheduled for a patient in an organizations PMS/EHR, a customized text message will be sent to the patient from Rhinogram. How quickly the message is delivered is dependent upon the PMS/EHR.
How many Appointment Reminder Messages can an organization send?
Rhinogram currently supports the option to send up to 2 appointment reminder messages for a given appointment.
Can a contact opt-out of appointment reminders?
If a contact asks not to be reminded of appointments via text message, any member within the organization may edit the contact’s profile and turn off appointment reminders for the given contact.
Will the appointment reminder resend if the initial one fails?
Yes, both appointment created and reminder messages will attempt to resend 1 time if the initial message fails.
Which phone numbers will the Appointment Creation or Appointment Reminder Message be sent to if a contact has more than one on their profile?
The Appointment Reminder will be sent to all numbers listed on the contact's profile summary who is scheduled for an appointment, regardless of Phone Ownership or Connected Parties.
If the contact has a landline (home) and textable (cell phone) number, then the message will attempt to send to both - resulting in 2 separate reminders showing up in the conversation thread. The landline message will not be delivered. The message will be visible on the thread of the owner of the phone number. If the contact who has been selected for Appointment Creation or Appointment Reminder Message does not own the phone number, to view the message go to the owner of the phone number(s).
If a Contact has a duplicate phone number i.e. identical textable numbers (one may be listed as Cell, the other as Home), only one Appointment Creation or Appointment Reminder Message message will be sent to that number. If multiple contacts are associated with one phone number, the Appointment Creation and/or Appointment Reminder Message message will display on the owner of the phone number.
For example, if Child has an appointment in 6 weeks, and Mom own's the phone number, the Appointment Creation and/or Appointment Reminder Message will display on Mom's message thread but be for Child's scheduled appointment time.
What phone number will the Automated Appointment Reminders be sent from?
Organizations leveraging an Integration with their PMS/EHR will be able to select what outbound phone number will be associated with both automated appointment messages and what the default phone number will be used when no location is available.
Some PMS/ERH send Rhinogram office location information for each appointment. In those cases, the organization be able to select the preferred phone number to use for the Appointment Created message and Reminder for each location. For example, if an organization has different phone numbers for Location A and Location B, then Rhinogram will use the corresponding number for each location to send the reminder.
Not all integrated systems send Rhinogram location information. If office location information is not available for the appointment, Rhinogram will use one phone number to send out the Appointment Reminders. An organization can decide which channel this is by setting the Default Channel.
To determine whether or not a PMS/EHR will send location information to Rhinogram or whether an organization be able to send Appointment Messages for different locations from different phone numbers, please contact the Rhinogram Success Team.
What will the patient see when they get the Automated Appointment Message?
Below are 2 different examples of Rhinogram’s Appointment Reminders
If office location is available:
If office location is not available:
Can the patient create a calendar event from the Appointment Reminder?
Only iPhones/iOS devices produce clickable links based on the data pulled in from a text message. This gives contacts the ability to create calendar events for their appointments or select the given address for directions to the office.
When a message is sent out using the appointment date/time variable, the contact can click the link to trigger the phone’s native calendar application so that it can be added to the contact's calendar.
If the location variable is used, it will also produce a clickable link in the text message for the address. Clicking this link will trigger the phone’s native mapping application so that the contact can easily find directions to his/her appointment.
How to configure Appointment Reminder Messages to support a codified response?
Appointment Reminders have the ability to add codified response variables in order to update their profile in Rhinogram, the Appointment Manager, and the practice management system if applicable. These options include REPLY ‘1’ to CONFIRM and REPLY ‘2’ to CANCEL. To utilize these variables, simply select each one to be inserted into the customizable message.
How do the codified response variables work?
The status of the Appointment will be updated if the response comes from the owner of the appointment or from anyone associated with that phone number in Rhinogram.
For example: If the parent of a child with an Appointment shares the same phone number, the response "1" to confirm will confirm their child’s appointment on the profile summary and appointment manager list. If the patient replies after hours, and your organization has Availability Hours set up with an auto-response, if the patient replies with a "1" or a "2" they will not receive the auto-response.
However, it is important to remember that if a patient replies with any other verbiage such as “confirm,” it will not update automatically and the Member will need to manually update the Appointment Status in the Patient profile and/or the PMS/EHR. They will receive the auto-response if the message is sent after hours, and your organization has the availability hours and auto-response turned on.
Will the patient’s profile in Rhinogram update once an appointment is confirmed or canceled in our PMS/EHR?
Yes, the Rhinogram appointment status will update if a change has occurred to the appointment in the practice management system. (Confirmed, Canceled, Edited, Deleted). The upcoming appointment section in the profile and the Appointment Manager will display the current status of the appointment. This can be updated manually or automatically within Rhinogram if codified responses are available. Each status means:
Unconfirmed - An appointment that has not yet been confirmed. It stays unconfirmed until automatically updated by a codified response or manually updated by a member.
Confirmed - The appointment has been confirmed either by a codified response or manually adjusted. Once it is marked confirmed, it acan only change it to cancelled.
Cancelled - The appointment has been cancelled either by a codified response or manually adjusted. Once an appointment is cancelled, then the entire appointment section gets removed from the summary and the appointment manager (if that is the only appointment the contact had scheduled).
Any updates to the appointment status will have a timestamp at the bottom of the drop-down list. If the appointment has already been confirmed in the PMS/EHR before sending the data to Rhinogram, the status will display as confirmed within Rhinogram initially.
Does Rhinogram update the PMS/EHR when an appointment is confirmed?
If and organization has chosen to enable the codified variables, the patient's appointment status will update in Rhinogram along with the PMS/EHR*. The patient or family member must respond with a 1 or a 2 according to their desired action. If they do not reply with either of those options, the appointment status will need to be manually adjusted to reflect in the PMS/EHR.
*Note: Rhinogram communicating back with a PMS/EHR is only available with some integrations. Please contact the Rhinogram Success Team to check for this availability.
Where do the Reminder Messages appear within Rhinogram?
Within each patient's conversation thread, a Member will find any reminder messages. These automated outbound messages will not appear in the main inbox/group unless the patient replies. View the Appointment Manager to see patients who have confirmed.
Note: If the patient is NOT the owner of the phone number, the automated messages will appear on the phone owner's conversation thread.
How does an organization tell the difference between an Appointment Reminder Message vs a Manually sent Reminder?
Any message that is automatically sent out from an organization will have the organization's name above the message and 'RS' as the initials. RS stands for Rhinogram System. If the message was manually sent, it will be the Member's initials who sent it and have the Member's name listed.
Can a Member turn off notifications for codified Appointment Reminder responses (1 or 2)?
To prevent any notifications coming directly from codified appointment reminder responses, adjust the Member's Notification settings.
New Feature
What is a default reminder campaign, and do we need to have a default reminder campaign selected?
The default reminder campaign designates that particular campaign as the set of reminder messages that would go out in the event that a patient's appointment came into Rhinogram with a missing appointment type. Practices will now have the option to have a default campaign selected or not. If there is not a default campaign selected, a patient would receive no reminder messages if their appointment came into Rhinogram without an appointment type.