As apart of our COVID Vaccinations product, we will send patients an appointment reminder for their upcoming vaccine appointment and provide the option for you to send patients pre and post-appointment communication.
Here you may wish to include important information such as:
- Information or procedures specific to your clinic
- How to report adverse reactions
- COVID-19 vaccine resources
Please read the following guide to how vaccine appointment reminders will differ to regular appointments and how to create and edit pre and post-appointment communications.
In this article |
Appointment Reminders
Patients can receive an appointment reminder in any of the following forms:
- Push Notification
Patients may receive a push notification on their mobile device if they book through the app and if your clinic has enabled push notifications. See What are Push Notifications? and How to activate push notifications for more information.
Example of the push notification a patient will receive
Example of what it looks like once a patient opens the push notification.
- Email
We will send an email appointment reminder if you have the patients email address in their patient file. This will also provide you the option to include pre-appointment information.
Example of the appointment reminder email
Example of what it looks like once a patient clicks "confirm/cancel" in the reminder email - SMS
We will send patients a SMS if we are unable to send a push notification or email.
Example of the sms
Example of what it looks like once the patient clicks the link in the SMS
You can see how a reminder was sent and how patients responded in the HotDoc Dashboard. The status of the appointment reminders will also write back into your clinical software. For more information on this please see How do I know if an appointment reminder has been confirmed? |
How do I set up pre and post-appointment communications
Please follow these instructions if you have not yet completed the Vaccinations setup:
- Log into your HotDoc Dashboard and click Vaccinations > COVID-19 Vaccines. Click Get Started to complete the self onboarding setup.
- Once you're in the Communications section, you can enable pre and post-appointment information by selecting Yes, then you can customise the pre-populated copy by typing in the text box field.
- Once you have done this, click Next to complete the onboarding flow and this information be activated once you enable vaccination appointment types for online bookings.
How to edit the copy in pre and post-appointment information
- Go to Vaccinations > COVID-19 Vaccines in your HotDoc Dashboard, then click View Appointment Setup under the appointment type you would like to edit.
- Click edit next to Communications and you will be taken directly to the appointment type where you can add, edit or remove the text. Press Save and your changes will be effective immediately.
How patients will receive the pre and post information
If you enabled pre and post-appointment information, we will send patients an email with this information regardless of whether your clinic has disabled emails to send (including clinic booked emails). This is so patients can receive this important information. |
Pre-appointment information
Patients will receive the pre-appointment information in their appointment confirmation email once they book online or through your clinic directly, as well as through their appointment reminder.
= Example of pre-appointment information shown in the HotDoc booked appointment confirmation email. |
![]() Example of pre-appointment information shown in the clinic booked appointment confirmation email. |
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![]() Example of pre-appointment information after patient confirms their appointment in the app or web browser. |
Post-appointment information
Patients will receive their post-appointment information in the form of an email, once they've attended their appointment at your clinic.
Example of a post-appointment information email sent to patients.