Best Practice - Medical Director (Pracsoft) - Zedmed - Optomate

Why is it important to check my Recalls?

If regularly maintained, the checklist won't take much time to complete and will ensure your patients are being notified efficiently.

This guide will take you through the various actions we recommend to keep your HotDoc Recalls up to date.

We recommend that this guide is passed on to all members of your team who will help to manage your clinical reminders.

Check the 'Summary' page

The following will explain how you can use the Recalls Activity Summary to see a summary of Recalls that need checking or actioning: 

1.  In you HotDoc Dashboard, go to Recalls > Summary:
   

   This is how it will look if you are only using Recalls	This is how it will look if you are using Clinical Reminders and Results.
   Note: Click to enlarge the images below

2. The To Do List on your Summary page will include a summary of tasks completed out of a total of 9 tasks and the total number of results that require your action:
   
   
3. To see a definition of each category, hover your mouse over the tooltip. The blue information box will also include a Learn More button linked to relevant support articles:
   
   
   
   
4. Hover your mouse over each status and select the Go to button to be directed to that section of the Dashboard. This will apply the status filter automatically.
   
   
   
5. Repeat these steps for each task as explained in the following steps of this article.
   
   

Task 1 - Paused due to template settings

When sending clinical reminder messages to patients, we will always respect the template the recall is linked to. If the template is paused, we will not start recall sequences automatically and these will need to be manually actioned by the clinic.

To check your paused recalls:

1. Navigate to Recalls > Summary
   
   
2. Click Go to next to the first status Paused due to template settings
   
   
   
   
3. This will take you to your Clinical Reminders that are currently in this status. If you wish to action them manually, click View next to each and chose from one of the options available:
   
   Please note: the available options to action these recalls will depend on your current template settings
   
   You can also action them in batches following these steps: How do I batch action multiple Recalls?
   

  
Task 2 - Assign recalls to a template

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:

1. Navigate to Recalls > Summary
   
   
2. Click Go to next to the status Assign recall to a template
   
   
   
   
3. You can then see all new clinical reminder reasons that have synced into your Dashboard and are yet to be assigned to a template. From here, you will need to either:
   • Assign this clinical reminder to an  existing template - Please see How to assign or remove Recall Reasons from a Template 
     
     
   • Create a new template - Please see How to edit, add and remove Clinical Reminder Templates   to learn more)
     
     

Task 3 - Patient's out of age range

You may find that there are some patients for who HotDoc is not permitted to send a SMS due to the patient being out of the age range as set in your recall settings. 

To action these in your Dashboard:

1. Navigate to Recalls > Summary
   
   
2. Click Go To next to the relevant status:
   
   
   
   
3. You can then action those clinical reminders based on their status and your chosen sequence:
   • If the recall has since been given already, you can Mark as Done. See How do I leave a comment and mark a Recall as done?
     
     
   • If the recall has not been given yet, you can choose to Remind by Post (which places the recall into the 'To Post' tab for letter download) or to Remind by Call (which places the recall into the 'To Call' tab and into a call list)
     

Task 4 - Mobile numbers are incomplete or invalid

You may find that there are some patients for who HotDoc is not permitted to send a SMS due to:

• The patient not having a mobile phone number in their patient record or the number is invalid

To action these in your Dashboard:

1. Navigate to Recalls > Summary
   
   
2. Click Go To next to the relevant status:
   
   
   
   
3. You can then action those clinical reminders based on their status and your chosen sequence:
   • If the recall has since been given already, you can select Mark as Done. See How do I leave a comment and mark a Recall as done?
     
     
   • If the recall has not been given yet, you can choose to Remind by Post (which places the recall into the 'To Post' tab for letter download) or to Remind by Call (which places the recall into the 'To Call' tab and into a call list)
     

Task 5 - Patients opted out of SMS

You may find that there are some patients for who HotDoc is not permitted to send a SMS due to:

• The patient is opted out of receiving SMS communication

To action these in your dashboard:

1. Navigate to Recalls > Summary
   
   
2. Click Go To next to the relevant status:
   
   
   
   
3. You can then action those clinical reminders based on their status and your chosen sequence:

• If the recall has since been given already, you can select Mark as Done. SeeHow do I leave a comment and mark a Recall as done?
  
  
• If the recall has not been given yet, you can choose to Remind by Post (which places the recall into the 'To Post' tab for letter download) or to Remind by Call (which places the recall into the 'To Call' tab and into a call list)
  

Task 6 - Patients to call

The To Call section shows all recalls that 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 SMS 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 check these recalls:

1. Navigate to Recalls > Summary
   
   
2. Click Go To next to the Patients to call
   
   
   
   

From there, you can action them individually. For additional steps please see: What to do when a recall is in the To Call section & How to use the Recalls 'To Call' Stage

Task 7 - Letters to post

The To Post section shows all recalls which require you to generate a letter and manually send it 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 check these recalls:

1. Navigate to Recalls > Summary
   
2. Click Go To next to the Letters to post
   
   

For additional steps on how to print your Recall letters see How do I print a Recall letter in HotDoc?

Task 8 - 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 that does not match the appointment type set on the template.

To check these recalls:

1. Navigate to Recalls > Summary
   
2. Click Go To next to the Check patient's upcoming appointment
   
   
   
   
3. You will then need to action these recalls and decide whether you want to stop the sequence and link the relevant upcoming appointment to the recall, or if you would like us to continue to message the patient.

Please see this Pause on Booking for HotDoc Recalls article to learn more about how to action this type of recall.

Task 9 - Patients seen but recall unresolved in 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. 

To check these recalls:

1. Navigate to Recalls > Summary
   
   
2. Click Go To next to the Patients seen but recall unresolved in file
   
   
   
   
3. In the 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.
   
   
   
   
4. Alternatively, if the practitioner is unable to update the recall to notified, you can mark the Clinical Reminder as done by clicking the patient's recall and  selecting 'Mark as done'. For steps and images on how to do this, see How to leave a comment and mark the Recall as done.
   
   
5. 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 recall to open and click Start again. For steps and images on how to do this, see How do I restart a recall sequence?

How to check if my recalls are up to date?

1. Navigate to Recalls > Summary
   
   
2. If you are up to date, this will be reflected in your Dashboard as Tasks Complete:
   
   
   

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