This guide will take you through the various actions we recommend to keep your HotDoc Recalls up to date. We recommend you check the Recalls section in the Dashboard at least once a week to check on your To Action and Unresolved sections. This ensures your recalls are actioned within a timely manner and your patients do not encounter a delay in receiving their messages.
Best Practice - Medical Director (Pracsoft) - Zedmed - Optomate
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In this article |
Why is it important to check my Recalls?
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It is important that you regularly check how your clinical reminders are tracking. As you continue to use HotDoc Recalls, new items may pop up which will require manual actioning within the Dashboard. |
Your recalls can be found in the Recalls > Clinical Reminders or Activity section of your Dashboard.
If regularly maintained, the action checklist won't take much time to complete and will ensure your patients are being notified efficiently.
We recommend that this guide is passed onto all members of your team who will help to manage your clinical reminders.
If you are new to the To Action section of the HotDoc Dashboard, please watch the helpful video below before starting your checks.
1. Check for new reminder types
| Action: Assign your new reasons in the To Action screen to templates so HotDoc knows what kind of communication to send for these patients. |
As we sync your recalls, you may find that new reminder reasons which have not been previously assigned to a Template will appear in your To Action screen.
To view unassigned reasons in your HotDoc Dashboard, navigate to Recalls > Activity/Clinical Reminders then filter by the status To action - New reminder type:
This will show a list of new clinical reminder reasons that have been pulled into the your dashboard and is yet to be assigned to a template.
You will need to either:
- Assign this clinical reminder to an existing template (see How to assign a reason to a Template Group to learn more)
- Create a new template (see How to edit, add and remove Clinical Reminder Templates to learn more)
2. Check for patients that cannot be sent a SMS
| Action: Check for patients who cannot be sent SMS via HotDoc. Choose to either remind by post and send a letter, or remind by call contact the patient directly via phone. |
Because of your settings, you may find that there are some patients who HotDoc is not permitted to send SMS recalls to. This will be due to:
- The patient being out of the age range
- The patient not having a mobile phone number in their patient record
- The patient is opted out of receiving SMS communication
It's important to check these patient's reminder status in their patient record as HotDoc is unable to use SMS to alert the patient to their recall on your behalf.
- If the recall has since been given already, you can Mark as Done
- If the recall has not been given, you can choose to Remind by Post (which places the recall into the 'To Post' tab for letter download)
- If the recall has not been given, you can choose to Remind by Call (which places the recall into the 'To Call' tab and into a call list)
We recommend leaving a comment on the Clinical Reminder each time you call the patient, as this will then be entered back into the patient's file. You will also see this recorded in the Attempts column of the patients recall:
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Patient invalid age This patient is outside of your chosen age range for Clinical Reminders. Navigate to Recalls > Activity/Clinical Reminders (To Action tab) > Filter by the status To Action - Patient invalid age:
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Patient invalid mobile number The phone number on the patient's file is either incomplete or invalid. If possible, update the mobile number on the patient's file. Navigate to Recalls > Activity/Clinical Reminders (To Action tab) > filter by the status To Action - Invalid phone number.
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Patient opted out This patient has chosen to opt-out of SMS communication. You can opt the patient back in if required. Navigate to Recalls > Activity/Clinical Reminders (To Action tab) > Filter by the status To Action - Patient opted out.
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3. Check for new patients to call
| Action: Head to your 'To Call' screen to see patients that you will need to call to schedule a recall appointment |
The To Call section shows all recalls which require you to manually call the patient to schedule in a recall appointment. Items will appear here if:
- The patient has not responded to the final SMN attempt. (You can see the contact attempts in the Attempts column, see image below)
- You have manually selected a patient as ‘Remind by Call’
Navigate to Recalls > Activity/Clinical Reminders then select the To Call tab:
For additional steps on how to action recall in the Call stage, see: What to do when a recall is in the To Call section
4. Check for new letters to print
| Action: Head to your 'To Post' screen for letters that need to be downloaded and sent to your patients |
The To Post section shows all recalls which require you to generate a letter, and manually send the letter to patients. Items will appear here if:
- The recall/reminder type has a template that is only ever set to send as a letter.
- The patient has not responded to the final SMS attempt. (You can see the contact attempts in the Attempts column, see image below)
- You have manually selected a patient as ‘Remind by Post’
Navigate to Recalls > Activity/Clinical Reminders then select the To Post tab:
For additional steps on how to print your Recall letters see How do I print a Recall letter in HotDoc?
5. Check for upcoming appointments
| Action: Review any paused recalls and check if the patient's appointment is booked correctly |
If you are using our pause on booking feature, you will need to check if any patient's recall has been paused due to having an upcoming appointment booked which does not match the appointment type set on the template.
In your HotDoc Dashboard, navigate to Recalls > Activity (To Action tab) > Filter by the status To Action - Patient has appointment:
Please see this Pause on Booking for HotDoc Recalls article to learn more about how to action this type of recall.
6. Check the unresolved tab
| Action: Review the Unresolved tab to check for any patients who have attended an appointment but still have an unresolved recall in their file. |
If you are using our pause on booking feature, you will need to check if any patients have since been seen by the practitioner but have a clinical reminder still unresolved on their patient file.
HotDoc will sync if a practitioner removes a clinical reminder from a patient's file and will move this to 'Done'. Checking for any recalls in the Unresolved tab will allow you to make sure the recall is notified and if not, provide a list for you to follow up with the patient's practitioner.
Navigate to Recalls > Activity (Unresolved tab) > Filter by the Practitioner > select Print > provide the practitioner with the list to 'remove the clinical reminder if it was discussed in their recent appointment.
Alternatively, if the practitioner is unable to update the recall to notified, you can mark the Clinical Reminder as done. To do this click on the patient's name to expand the patient reminder details and click 'Mark as done'. See How to leave a comment and mark the Recall as done for more information.
If the clinical reminder was not discussed, you have the option to restart communication to the patient. To do this click on the patient's name to expand the patient reminder details and click Start again.
Dental4Windows - HotDoc Calendar
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In this article |
Why is it important to check my Recalls?
|
It is important that you regularly check how your recalls are tracking. As you continue to use HotDoc Recalls, new items may pop up which will require manual actioning within the Dashboard. |
This guide will take you through the various actions we recommend to keep your HotDoc Recalls up to date. If regularly maintained, the action checklist won't take much time to complete and will ensure your patients are being notified efficiently.
We recommend that this guide is passed onto all members of your team who will help to manage your Recalls.
1. Check for patients that cannot be sent an SMS
| Action: Check for patients who cannot be sent SMS via HotDoc. Choose to either remind by call to contact the patient directly via phone or mark as done |
You may find that there are some patients who are not permitted to receive SMS recalls via HotDoc. This will be due to:
- The patient being out of the age range
- The patient not having a mobile phone number in their patient record
- The patient has opted out of receiving SMS communication
You can choose to take the following actions in these cases:
- If the recall has not been given, you can choose to Remind by Call (which places the recall into the 'To Call' tab and into a call list)
- If you do not wish to contact the patient, you can choose to Mark as Done
We recommend leaving a comment on the recall each time you call the patient. You will see this recorded in the Attempts column of the patients recall:
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Patient invalid age This patient is outside of your chosen age range for Recalls. To view these, in your HotDoc Dashboard, navigate to Recalls > Activity (To Action tab) > Filter by the status To Action - Patient invalid age:
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Patient invalid mobile number The phone number on the patient's file is either incomplete or may not be a mobile number. If possible, update the mobile number on the patient's file. In your HotDoc Dashboard, navigate to Recalls > Activity (To Action tab) > filter by the status To Action - Invalid phone number:
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Patient opted out This patient has chosen to opt-out of SMS communication. You can opt the patient back in if required. In your HotDoc Dashboard, navigate to Recalls > Activity (To Action tab) > Filter by the status To Action - Patient opted out.
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2. Check for upcoming appointments
| Action: Review any paused Recalls and check if the patient's appointment is booked correctly |
In your HotDoc Dashboard, navigate to Recalls > Activity (To Action tab) > Filter by the status To Action - Patient has appointment:
Click here to learn more about how to action this type of Recall.
3. Check for new patients to call
| Action: Head to your 'To Call' screen to see patients that you will need to call to schedule a recall appointment |
The To Call section shows all recalls which require you to manually call the patient to schedule an appointment. Items will appear here if:
- The patient has not responded to the final SMN attempt. (You can see the contact attempts in the Attempts column, see image below)
- You have manually selected a patient as ‘Remind by Call’
To view these in your HotDoc Dashboard, navigate to Recalls > Activity then select the To Call tab:
For additional steps on how to action recall in the Call stage, see: What to do when a recall is in the To Call section
4. Check the unresolved tab
| Action: Review the Unresolved tab to check for any patients who have attended an appointment but still have an unresolved Recall. |
If you are using our pause on booking feature you will need to check if any patients have since been seen, but have a Recall that is still unresolved in HotDoc.
Checking for any Recalls in the Unresolved tab will allow you to make sure the patient was seen for their Recall reason.
In your HotDoc Dashboard, navigate to Recalls > Activity (Unresolved tab) > Filter by the Practitioner > select Print > provide the practitioner the list:
If the patient has been seen for this appointment, please revisit their appointment in the calendar and update the arrival status to Seen. The recall will then move to Done- Patient Seen (providing that the appointment type is linked to the template).
If the appointment type was not linked to the Recall template, but the patient was Seen, please click Mark as Done.
If the recall is not resolved and the patient was not seen, you have the option to restart communication to the patient. To do this click on the patient's name to expand the patient Recall details and click Start again.
