HotDoc recommends that you log into the Recalls section of the Dashboard at least once a week or more and check on your To Action and Unresolved screens. This ensures clinical reminders are actioned within a timely manner and your patients do not encounter a delay in receiving their messages.

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 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

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 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

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: 

3. Check for new patients to call

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’ 

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 for new letters to print

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’ 

To view these in your HotDoc Dashboard, navigate to Recalls > Activity 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

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:

Click here to learn more about how to action this type of recall.

6. Check the unresolved tab

If you are using our pause on booking feature, you will need to check if any patients have since been seen by the doctor but have a clinical reminder still unresolved on their patient file.

HotDoc will sync if a doctor 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 doctor. 

In your HotDoc Dashboard, navigate to Recalls > Activity (Unresolved tab) > Filter by the Doctor > select Print > provide the doctor with the list to 'remove the clinical reminder if it was discussed in their recent appointment.

Alternatively, if the doctor 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.