RE: Re: How to remind patients to SCHEDULE follow up appointments?

January 11, 2011

The Appointment Quest I am using would send patients appointment

reminders a few days before the scheduled appointments. the challenge

we have is to track/remind those who want to make their follow up

appointments online by themselves, yet forget to do so for months. I

usually refill more than the number of months they are due for follow

up so that they don't run out.

Any other suggestions?

Thank you.

HelenTo: From: eric@...Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2011 10:59:03 -0600Subject: Re: How to remind patients of follow up appointments?

Many EMRs are based on Microsoft SQL which has a function called SQL Mail. SQL Mail can run views of the db and then run an email process on that view. I programmed daily scripts that remind patients of their upcoming surgeries, new pt and f/u visits, spa appointments, etc… The script runs at 5 am for the appointments 3 business days later. 3 days is sort of a magic number has seemed to work the best, but can be adjusted as desired. It can be as granular as you like, instructing patients by appointment type and directing them to forms for their visit etc… The system can also be used to reschedule entire days or blocks if something unexpectedly takes the physician away from the office. If you use a SQL based emr or appointment scheduling module, it can be easily adjusted to take advantage of this feature. Quick ROI as your staff will spend much less time thinking about confirmation and more time evolving your practice, advancing billing issues, marketing, etc. About 60% of our patients confirm this way. We are working on offering text confirmations as well. You can use the same SQL Mail process if you have the cell phone number and the cell carrier for your patient. If you don’t collect patient emails and cell phone numbers currently for contact, reminders or marketing, start now, as you will wish you had this info when you need it. And you will need them as these features will be built-in to most systems… Good luck - I really appreciate that great conversation that happens here. Happy New Year! -- M. McQuaid North Texas VascularOffice of Mark A. McQuaid, MDleading the way in state of the art treatment of vascular disease 1518 Legacy Dr., Ste. 120Frisco, TX 75034 www.friscolegs.com office cell -- empower systems.to get the job done 1518 Legacy Dr., Ste. 120Frisco, TX 75034 eric@... emr . practice management . marketing

January 11, 2011

The Appointment Quest I am using would send patients appointment

reminders a few days before the scheduled appointments. the challenge

we have is to track/remind those who want to make their follow up

appointments online by themselves, yet forget to do so for months. I

usually refill more than the number of months they are due for follow

up so that they don't run out.

Any other suggestions?

Thank you.

HelenTo: From: eric@...Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2011 10:59:03 -0600Subject: Re: How to remind patients of follow up appointments?

Many EMRs are based on Microsoft SQL which has a function called SQL Mail. SQL Mail can run views of the db and then run an email process on that view. I programmed daily scripts that remind patients of their upcoming surgeries, new pt and f/u visits, spa appointments, etc… The script runs at 5 am for the appointments 3 business days later. 3 days is sort of a magic number has seemed to work the best, but can be adjusted as desired. It can be as granular as you like, instructing patients by appointment type and directing them to forms for their visit etc… The system can also be used to reschedule entire days or blocks if something unexpectedly takes the physician away from the office. If you use a SQL based emr or appointment scheduling module, it can be easily adjusted to take advantage of this feature. Quick ROI as your staff will spend much less time thinking about confirmation and more time evolving your practice, advancing billing issues, marketing, etc. About 60% of our patients confirm this way. We are working on offering text confirmations as well. You can use the same SQL Mail process if you have the cell phone number and the cell carrier for your patient. If you don’t collect patient emails and cell phone numbers currently for contact, reminders or marketing, start now, as you will wish you had this info when you need it. And you will need them as these features will be built-in to most systems… Good luck - I really appreciate that great conversation that happens here. Happy New Year! -- M. McQuaid North Texas VascularOffice of Mark A. McQuaid, MDleading the way in state of the art treatment of vascular disease 1518 Legacy Dr., Ste. 120Frisco, TX 75034 www.friscolegs.com office cell -- empower systems.to get the job done 1518 Legacy Dr., Ste. 120Frisco, TX 75034 eric@... emr . practice management . marketing

January 11, 2011

Helen,

If there are certain known offenders, I

would probably put them on the schedule at the time of their current visit and

set the reminder one week prior to their next visit. That way, they will be

prompted to re-schedule if they can’t make it. Our EMR has a way to set a

recall reminder. That is another way to track it, if your EMR has this

feature. When our patients leave the office, if they don’t schedule their 3-

or 6-month follow-up, we put it in their recall reminder. We go through those

the last week of the month for the next month and remove those that have

scheduled and then follow up with those that still need to schedule in our down

time.

Hope this may help,

Pratt

Office Manager

Oak Tree Internal Medicine P.C

www.prattmd.info

From: [mailto: ] On Behalf Of Helen Yang

Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2011

1:24 PM

To:

practiceimprovement1

Subject: RE:

Re: How to remind patients to SCHEDULE follow up

appointments?

The Appointment Quest I am using would send patients

appointment reminders a few days before the scheduled appointments. the

challenge we have is to track/remind those who want to make their follow up

appointments online by themselves, yet forget to do so for months. I usually

refill more than the number of months they are due for follow up so that they

don't run out.

Any other suggestions?

Thank you.

Helen

To:

From: eric@...

Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2011 10:59:03 -0600

Subject: Re: How to remind patients of follow up

appointments?

Many EMRs are based on Microsoft SQL which has a

function called SQL Mail. SQL Mail can run views of the db and then run

an email process on that view. I programmed daily scripts that remind

patients of their upcoming surgeries, new pt and f/u visits, spa appointments,

etc… The script runs at 5 am for the appointments 3 business days later.

3 days is sort of a magic number has seemed to work the best, but can be

adjusted as desired. It can be as granular as you like, instructing

patients by appointment type and directing them to forms for their visit etc…

The system can also be used to reschedule entire days or blocks if

something unexpectedly takes the physician away from the office.

If you use a SQL based emr or appointment scheduling

module, it can be easily adjusted to take advantage of this feature.

Quick ROI as your staff will spend much less time thinking about

confirmation and more time evolving your practice, advancing billing issues,

marketing, etc. About 60% of our patients confirm this way.

We are working on offering text confirmations as well. You

can use the same SQL Mail process if you have the cell phone number and the

cell carrier for your patient.

If you don’t collect patient emails and cell phone

numbers currently for contact, reminders or marketing, start now, as you will

wish you had this info when you need it. And you will need them as these

features will be built-in to most systems…

Good luck - I really appreciate that great

conversation that happens here.

Happy New Year!

--

M. McQuaid

North

Texas Vascular

Office of Mark A. McQuaid, MD

leading the way in state of the art

treatment of vascular disease

1518 Legacy Dr.,

Ste. 120

Frisco, TX 75034

www.friscolegs.com

office

cell

--

empower systems

..to get the job done

1518 Legacy Dr.,

Ste. 120

Frisco, TX 75034

eric@... emr

. practice management . marketing

January 11, 2011