Send a manual reminder

Practices can manually send SMS reminders to patients using the Appointment Report by selecting the criteria for who will receive the reminder then selecting Send SMS.

The standard for most practices will be to set up scheduled reminders.

Considerations:

• A patient must have a mobile number in their patient record.
• Allows SMS must be ticked on the Appointment Details screen for the appointment. 
• Allow SMS is ticked by default if Default Appointment SMS is ticked in the patient's record.
• SMS confirmations for new bookings are sent if Send Confirmation SMS is ticked on the Appointment Details screen. 
• Send Confirmation SMS is ticked by default for Online bookings, so notifications are sent when a patient books online. 

To manually send SMS reminders:

1. Go to Zedmed's Reception tab.
2. Select Daily reports then Appointments.
   The Appointment Report screen will open.
3. Select Send Appointments via SMS.
   This will update the screen so it can be used to configure and send SMS reminders.
4. Use the following criteria to determine who is to receive the reminder:
   
   
   1. Set the Date from and To. Reminders are sent to all patients with appointments in this date range. 
   2. Select the Branch the appointments are at. The default is the branch where you're logged in.
   3. Select the Doctor or Resource (not both) the appointments are booked under. The default is all doctors.
   4. Select the Appointment Type that the reminders will be for. The default is all appointment types.
5. Select the Send SMS button when you're satisfied with the message's criteria. If you get the message "No appointments match the criteria you have selected" when selecting Send SMS or Screen, one of the following may apply:
   
   
   • SMS messages have already been sent for appointments matching the selected criteria.
   • There are no appointments matching the criteria.
   • The appointments that match the criteria are not set to Allow SMS.
   • The patients do not have a mobile phone number in their patient records.

The Appointment Report can also modify the text used in the messages. The modifications are made using the Report and Mail Merge tabs and the Send Appointments via SMS option.

Check if notifications were sent.

The Message Manager allows you to filter all SMS communications by specific criteria, including Confirmed or Cancelled responses to messages sent to the patient. To learn more, see the Message Manager guide.

You can also check what message a patient was sent by opening their patient record and selecting the message tab.