HotDoc can sync the comments that a practitioner leaves in the 'comments' field when actioning results and correspondences, and show them to patients in their result recall message for 60 days.

This allows practitioners to communicate additional and personalised information to a patient about their result, and/or the type of recall appointment you would like the patient to book. 

In addition to this, you can also show practitioner comments in the HotDoc Dashboard to appear under the patient's recall activity in order to provide additional context to your practice staff who manage recalls and results in the HotDoc Dashboard. 

Please ensure you've obtained consent from your practitioners to show these comments to the patient and in the Dashboard, prior to turning this on.

What comments does HotDoc sync? 

Once you enable the settings in HotDoc for your selected practitioners, we can show the practitioners comments to patients in their result message for your selected templates, as well as show comments in the HotDoc Dashboard to staff who manage recalls.

We sync the 'Comments' field in the Inbox in Best Practice and the Holding File in Medical Director. Please make sure your practitioners are aware of this before turning this feature on, incase they currently use this for internal notes. 

Best Practice

• In Best Practice, when a practitioner is checking a result in their 'Inbox', HotDoc can sync any comments that the practitioner adds in the 'Comment' field. 
  
  
  
  
  

Medical Director 

• In Medical Director, when a practitioner is checking a result in their 'Holding file', HotDoc can sync any comments that the practitioner adds in the 'Comments' field. 
  
  

How do I set up practitioner comments to display in the patients result recall message?

This setting can be turned on per practitioner in each of your result templates.

Each Practitioner can be enabled individually, and this should only be done after discussing with the practitioner to ensure they're aware that the patient will have visibility of the comments field.

Please follow the instructions below for how to do this:

1. In your HotDoc Dashboard, go to Recalls > Template Groups > Results Templates
   
   
   
   
2. Click Edit Template on the template you would like to send practitioner comments for
   
   
   
   
3. Scroll to ‘Add Practitioner’s Comments to Recall Message’, then check the box and individually select the practitioners who would like to display their comments in the patients message for this template.
   • Note: Please ensure practitioners are aware that patients will have visibility of the comments field prior to doing this.
     
     
     
     
4. Select the Save button to allow practitioners comments to start displaying in the patients result recall message. (They will show in a blue speech box as annotated below). 
   
   
   
   
5. Once a practitioner checks a result in their practice software and leaves a comment, a result message will send to the patient. After the patient verifies their last name and date of birth, they can view their result message and the practitioners comment. 
   
   

   Result SMS message sent to patient	Result email message sent to patient
   Patient verifies their details	Patient views message and practitioner comment

Please note:

• We will start showing practitioner comments to the patient from the day you enable the practitioner in your results templates. Any comments left on results from this date will be visible to the patient in their results message if applicable.
   

• Since the practitioner comments may contain sensitive information, HotDoc will automatically remove these comments from the patients result message after 60 days. The patient will also see in their message that this will expire after 60 days. 
   

• If the patient has an upcoming appointment in the appointment book prior to the practitioner checking a result and leaving a comment, we will not send the patient a result message and they will not see the practitioners comment. Please ensure practitioners are aware that in this scenario, the patient may not see their comment. 
  

Expected behaviours for when practitioners leave comments on multiple results

Below are some of the expected behaviours of when we will display practitioner comments to patients, if practitioners leave comments on multiple results.

• A reminder that tests performed on the same day are grouped together so that we only send one message to the patient.
  
  
• As multiple tests are synced for a patient, HotDoc will apply a template to the highest priority “Action” that the practitioner has assigned and the message we send to the patient is based upon the recall template, eg. 'non-urgent appointment'.
  
  
• We will only show comments for the templates that the practitioners have been enabled for. 

Example 1: Practitioner left comments for multiple results on the same performed date with the same action 

• Scenario: Patient has multiple tests done on the same performed date, the tests have the same action (non-urgent), and the practitioner left a comment on each test. 
• The result: The patient would see each comment from the practitioner, in one results message. 
  • The template used for the recall is Non-urgent appointment, and both 'non-urgent' test results match this template 
  • Tests performed on the same day are grouped together so that we only send one message to the patient as opposed to multiple messages.

Example 2: Practitioner left comments for multiple results on the same performed date, with different actions 

• Scenario: Patient has multiple tests done on the same performed date, the tests have different actions (non-urgent and no action), and the practitioner left a comment on each test. The practitioner is also enabled for sending comments for both non urgent and no action templates. 
  
  
• The result: The patient would only see the comment from the practitioner for the non-urgent result in their results message. 
  
  • The template used for the recall is Non-urgent appointment, so the 'non-urgent' test result matches this template, and the 'no action' does not. 
  • 'Non-urgent' result messages take priority in sending to the patient over 'no action' results messages. 
  • Tests performed on the same day are grouped together so that we only send one message to the patient as opposed to multiple messages with different copy, as this would cause confusion for the patient.
    

How do I set up practitioner comments to display in the HotDoc Dashboard?

This setting can be turned on per practitioner in your recalls settings.

Showing practitioner comments in the Dashboard for a patients result can give you more context to whether comments are shown to the patient in their results message, and what was communicated to them. 

Please ensure you've obtained consent from your practitioners to show these comments in the HotDoc Dashboard, prior to turning this on. 

Please note: 

• The 'Comments visible to patients' column will be 'yes' if:
  • The practitioner is enabled to show comments per template and;
  • The results or correspondence's actions matches the template used for the recall.
    
    

• Since the practitioner comments may contain sensitive information, HotDoc will automatically remove the comment from the Dashboard after 60 days. 
  
  

• Once the comments have been removed, they will no longer be visible in the Dashboard. You will still be able to see that a comment existed because the comment will show this message:
  
  
  

FAQS:

Do the practitioners comments write back into our practice software?

If you're using Best Practice as your software, we will write back the practitioners comment into the patient file under Investigations reports or Correspondence In if the patient opens and reads their result message. 

We do not write back the exact practitioner comments for Medical Director/Pracsoft, only the contact attempts. For more information, see Where are Recall notes entered in the patient's file?

Which practitioners name do we show in the patient message?

We will show the Practitioner who checks the result and writes the comment in your practice software. If that practitioner is linked to a HotDoc Practitioner and is visible for online bookings, we will show the practitioner's name as written in HotDoc. If the practitioner is not visible for online bookings on HotDoc, we will show the name of the practitioner as set in your clinical software. 
If there are multiple comments from different practitioners visible to the patient in a result message, we will show each practitioners names. 

When will patients start seeing practitioner comments in their result message?

We will start showing practitioner comments to the patient from the day you enable the practitioner in your results templates. Any comments left on results from this date will be visible to the patient in their results message if applicable.