HotDoc recommends that you log into the Results section of the Dashboard daily or more and check on your To Action and Unresolved screens. This ensures your patient's non-urgent Results 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 Results 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 Results/Recalls.

1. Check for any Paused Results

If your Results template is currently still set to send manually, any new result HotDoc syncs will remain paused and will require you to manually 'resume' the result to start sending. 

To view paused Results in your HotDoc Dashboard, navigate to Recalls > Results then click Status and check the box next to To action - Paused:

Select each patient's name, then hit Resume to start sending the Result message:

Alternatively, when you are ready you can activate automatic sending via the templates section. See How to pause your Recall templates to learn more about manual and automatic sending modes.

2. Check for upcoming appointments

In your HotDoc Dashboard, navigate to Recalls > Results (To Action tab) > Filter by the status To Action - Patient has appointment:

If you are using our pause on booking feature, you will need to check if any patient's Result has been paused due to making an upcoming appointment which does not match the appointment type set on the template.

For this status, you can either:

• Update the patient's appointment type in your management system to match your Recall/Results appointment type
  
  
• Manually verify the patient's appointment by selecting the green Verify Appointment button:
  
  

It's important to check this as you will need to select Start Again if the patient has booked an appointment which is not regarding their Results. This will then start the communication to the patient.

Click here to learn more about the To Action - Patient has Appointment status.

3. Check for patients that cannot be sent a SMN

Because of your settings, you may find that there are some patients who HotDoc is not permitted to send an SMN Result. This will be due to:

• The patient is out of the age range
• The patient not having a mobile phone number in their patient record
• The patient is opted out of receiving SMN communication

It's important to check these patient's reminder status in their patient record as HotDoc is unable to use SMN 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) or Remind by Call (which places the recall into the 'To Call' tab and into a call list)

We recommend leaving a comment on the Result each time you call the patient, as this will then be entered back into the patient's file.

4. 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 Result/Recall still unresolved on their patient file.

HotDoc will sync if a doctor removes a Recall/Result from a patient's file and will move this to 'Done'.

Checking for any Results in the Unresolved tab will allow you to make sure the Result is notified and if not, provide a list for you to follow up with the patient's doctor. To print this list and provide it to the relevant doctor:

• In your HotDoc Dashboard, navigate to Recalls > Results > Unresolved tab > Filter by the Doctor > select Print Table:
  

Alternatively, if the doctor is unable to update the recall to notified, you can mark the Result 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 Result 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.

5. 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 > Results  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

6. Check for new letters to print

The To Post section shows all Results which require a letter to be sent. Items will appear here if:

• The Recall/Result type has a template that is only ever set to send as a letter.
• The patient has not responded to the final SMN attempt.
• You have manually selected a patient as ‘Remind by Post’ 

To view these in your HotDoc Dashboard:

1. Navigate to Recalls > Results > then select the To Post tab. In the Attempts column, you will also see the contact attempts that were made to the patient (if any) for their result:
   
   
   

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

7. Educate and train your Team

Congratulations! You have now fully setup and learnt how to manage HotDoc Recalls

As your team start to use this, they may naturally have questions. Most questions can be pre-empted by good education and knowledge of the product.

To educate your Team:

• Download our Medical Director or Best Practice cheat sheet on and print this out for your reception staff!