Private Practice Management System. Patient Recalls.

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Branden Hill
5 years ago
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1 Private Practice Management System Patient Recalls Website Facebook 1

2 There are two types of patient recalls within PPMS. The first is a predefined recall which you send to specific patients. An example could be for patients who have had orthotics fitted. You may want to send them a recall several weeks after fitting so they can be checked. Another example would be an annual Diabetic assessment. The second type of recall is used for patients that have not been treated for several months. The advantage of this type of recall is that you don t have to decide in advance which patients to recall. The details of the recall are defined within templates and are described below. A recall can be sent as a letter, an SMS text message, an or a combination of the three. Where possible we recommend you use an SMS text message. This method is much cheaper than printing letters and paying for postage. It also has the advantage that it is delivered to their phone within 5 minutes and if you include your telephone number in the message it gives the patient a quick and convenient way of contacting you. s don t cost anything but there is no guarantee the patient will actually read it. It could be filtered into the junk folder or may get overlooked. However, unlike most things in life they are free so there is no harm in sending one as well. There are different ways to configure the recalls. One option is to send a text message if you have the patient s mobile phone number, a letter if you don t and also send an as well if you have their address. Sending recalls using letters will cost approximately 60p per letter compared to text messages which cost 6p. Text messages usually get the best response rate but if you don t want to spend anything you can always just send s. If you do want to send letters you may want to read the booklet describing the different ways of configuring standard letters or word documents. 2

3 PREDEFINED RECALLS Recall Templates for Predefined Recalls Predefined recalls are recalls that are normally specific to a particular type of treatment the patient has had. You can define as many different types of recall templates as you want. The templates contain the details describing how you want to contact the patient and what you want to say. Once the template has been created you use the Add Recall button on the treatment screen to add the patient to that recall group. Each recall template can consist of up to two reminders per recall and you can define which standard letter, word document, text message or is used. To create a recall template, select the option shown on the menu. This opens a new screen as shown below. This example shows it already filled in. 3

4 The above would create a recall for patient s 6 weeks after having their orthotics fitted. As we have completed all the boxes including letter, txt message and , the following rules will apply when the recalls are sent. If the patient record has the mobile number in the SMS field the text message will be chosen for that patient. If there is no mobile number the letter will be printed instead. If the patient record holds an address the will be sent as well. This means a patient could receive a text message and an , or a letter and an . 4

Example 2. Only the email details have been entered.

5 Example 2. Only the details have been entered. Patients will only receive the recall if they have an address. No text message or letter will be sent. 5

6 Example 3. Just the text message will be sent to patients that have a mobile number on their patient record. If no mobile number is registered they won t get anything. Example 4. All patients will be sent a letter and nothing else. 6

7 CREATING THE RECALL FOR THE PATIENT Once the templates have been set up you add individual patients to a recall at the time of treatment. To do this, click on the Add Recall button on the treatment history screen. This brings up a pop-up screen listing the recall templates. Select the type of recall from the list by clicking on the description. The date of the recall will automatically calculate for you but you can change it if you want. Click on the Ok button to add this recall information for your patient. After a recall has been inserted you cannot amend the date. If you need to change any of the details remove the recall and add it again. To do this, click in the Patient Recalls box on the recall you want to remove, and click on the Remove Recall button. 7

SENDING PREDEFINED RECALLS You can use Send Predefined Recalls on the PPMS Main menu to print all outstanding recall letters of a certain type and over a chosen date range.

This brings up a new screen. Click on the type of recall to be printed, and amend the dates to give the required date range. Click on the OK button.

8 SENDING PREDEFINED RECALLS You can use Send Predefined Recalls on the PPMS Main menu to print all outstanding recall letters of a certain type and over a chosen date range. First, use the Add Recall button on the treatment history screen to add that patient to the correct recall group. Each week (we suggest), select Send Predefined Recalls from the menu shown below. This brings up a new screen. Click on the type of recall to be printed, and amend the dates to give the required date range. Click on the OK button. It is possible to run this monthly but you would normally run it weekly, by entering the Monday date in the first date field and six days later in the second. You may have several types of recalls setup in which case you can choose to send them individually or all in one go. 8

9 Before the recalls are sent PPMS will print a report to the screen listing out all of the patient and what type of recall they will receive. Use this as a final check before you process the recalls. When the system has sent all the reminders described in the Recall template it will automatically delete the recall from the patient s recall list. However, if a patient responds to a recall which normally includes more than one reminder, it is up to you to remove the recall with the Remove Recall button, otherwise the system may continue to send letters to the patient. This is not an issue with recalls that only have one reminder as the system automatically deletes the recall when the letter is printed. 9

RECALLS FOR PATIENTS THAT HAVE NOT BEEN TREATED FOR SEVERAL MONTHS This type of recall provides a means of contacting patients that have not been treated for several months.

10 RECALLS FOR PATIENTS THAT HAVE NOT BEEN TREATED FOR SEVERAL MONTHS This type of recall provides a means of contacting patients that have not been treated for several months. Typically you would run this on a monthly basis, perhaps targeting patients that have not been treated for between 6 and 7 months. You could also use it on an ad-hoc basis (If business is a bit quiet). Setting up the template Like with Predefine patient recalls you need to setup a template to tell PPMS how you want to communicate with these patients and what you want to say to them. The options are letter, SMS text message and . There is already a template included in your database with a reference PPMS. This is the template you need to configure for this type of recall. Use the Find button to display the PPMS template and then use Edit to make your changes. For more information on how to configure the template please read the section on Predefine recalls. It works in exactly the same way except there are no follow up recalls if the patient does not respond to the first one. 10

SENDING RECALLS TO PATIENTS NOT TREATED FOR SEVERAL MONTHS In this example assume that today s date is the 1/3/2014 and we want to send a recall to patients that have not been treated for between 6

11 SENDING RECALLS TO PATIENTS NOT TREATED FOR SEVERAL MONTHS In this example assume that today s date is the 1/3/2014 and we want to send a recall to patients that have not been treated for between 6 and 7 months. To do this enter the last treated dates as 1/8/2013 (7 months ago) and 1/9/2013 (6 months ago). Deceased patients and those who already have an appointment are excluded. We have also selected to exclude patients that have opted out and have the Do not send Recall category on the patient record card. We have also selected All Clinics. You could select patients that are registered at a particular clinic if prefer. Underneath this section are 3 radio buttons. The default option is to Send SMS, s and Print Letters and you would normally leave it at this setting. 11

12 Even if you have configured your PPMS template to only send s or just send txt messages, still leave it at this setting. It simply means follow the rules laid out in the template. The second option is Send only SMS and s (no letters). Your template may be set up to send text messages (where you have the mobile number) and letters to everybody else. On this occasion you may not want to send any letters. You may not have the time to print them out and put them in envelopes. On this occasion only send recalls using text message and s. The third option is Print Letters only (no SMS or ). The order in which the recalls are processed are Text messages first, followed by s and then letters. It s possible that whilst printing out your letters your printer runs out of ink. This option lets you reprint them without resending the text messages and s again. Sending the recalls. After entering your selection click on the OK button. You then have the opportunity to print out a list of the patients that will be included and what type of recall(s) they will get based on your template. Even if you just print it to the screen it is recommended that you do this in case you have made a mistake with your date selection. Remember the report is only based on the template. If you have reduced this recall using radio buttons 2 and 3 not all of the recalls will be sent. 12

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