Workflow · Outbound
Appointment reminders
Appointment reminders help patients turn up, or tell you in good time when they can't. Intavia contacts patients before their appointment and handles any change in the same conversation, so fewer slots go unused.
At a glance
- What it does
- Reminds patients of upcoming appointments, confirms attendance and handles changes
- Channels
- Outbound calls, with additional channels available
- Integrations
- Your practice management system, such as Dentally
- What you can customise
- Which appointments are included, when reminders go out, how often patients are contacted and what happens next
- What your team sees
- Changes made in your system, a campaign summary and tasks for anything that needs a person
- Setup
- Done for you by our team, around your reminder and cancellation policy
See it in action on the Appointment reminders page.
How it works
Reminders run as a campaign built around your practice. Our team does the setup work: we agree with you how each situation should be handled, turn that into campaign rules, and Intavia applies them whenever the campaign runs, on a schedule or when a trigger event happens, such as an appointment coming up.
- Plan: we agree with you how reminders should work, from which appointments are included to the next step for every outcome. Our team builds the campaign rules from that.
- Eligibility: each time the campaign runs, Intavia reads upcoming appointments from your practice system and selects the ones that meet the rules. A patient with several appointments on the same date gets one reminder.
- Contact: patients are contacted at the agreed time before their appointment, within your contact window and any volume limit you set, following the attempt schedule.
- Conversation: identity is confirmed before any appointment details are shared. Each appointment is then confirmed, moved or cancelled in turn. Moves and cancellations are made directly in your system, and confirmations are recorded in Intavia.
- Outcome: every attempt ends with a recorded outcome for each appointment.
- Next step: the outcome decides what happens next, such as another attempt, a task for your team or no further reminders.
Campaign rules
These are the options we agree with you, not fixed settings. Each one can be shaped around how your practice works, and anything not listed here can be built into the plan.
| Rule | What we agree with you |
|---|---|
| Schedule and triggers | When the campaign runs and how far ahead of each appointment reminders go out |
| Eligibility | Which appointments are included, such as particular appointment types or clinicians, and any exclusions |
| Contact window | The days and hours contact can happen |
| Volume | The maximum number of patients contacted over a given period |
| Attempts | How many attempts are made, how far apart, and on which channels |
| Changes | Whether patients can move or cancel on the call, which times can be offered, and how your cancellation policy applies at short notice |
| Hand-over | The situations that become a task for your team |
| Fallbacks | Alternative routes that keep things moving, such as offering other times, trying another channel or passing the conversation to your team |
Outcomes
Each outcome has a default next step. Any of them can be changed to suit your practice.
| Outcome | What happens next |
|---|---|
| Confirmed attending | Recorded, with no further reminders for this appointment |
| Rescheduled | The appointment is moved in your system and the new time read back to the patient |
| Cancelled | The appointment is cancelled in your system, following your cancellation policy |
| Not sure yet | Recorded for your team to see, with the appointment left as it is |
| No answer | The next attempt is scheduled, if any remain, and a follow-up message can be sent |
| Wrong number or opted out | That number isn't contacted again, for this campaign or all your campaigns, as you prefer |
| Needs the practice | Passed to your team, such as a task with the details already captured or a request for the patient to contact the practice |
Safeguards
- Identity is confirmed before any appointment details are shared.
- Each appointment is checked again in your system immediately before it's moved or cancelled.
- Short-notice changes follow your cancellation policy.
- Contact only happens inside the agreed window.
- Anyone who asks not to be contacted, or whose number is wrong, isn't contacted again, for this campaign or across all your campaigns, whichever you prefer.
Works together with
- Appointment booking, changes & cancellations: Appointments booked, moved and cancelled during the call, directly in your system.
- Identity verification: Identity confirmed before personal details are shared, including for people calling on someone's behalf.
- Outbound calling: The shared rules for every outbound call: who is contacted, when, and how often.
- Practice rules & policies: Your booking rules, cancellation policy and hand-off rules, followed on every call.
- Waitlist filling: Short-notice gaps offered to people waiting for an earlier appointment.
- No-show follow-up: Patients who missed an appointment are contacted and helped to rebook.
FAQs
Calls are the default for reminders. Other channels, such as text messages, can be added to the attempt schedule.
Appointments on the same date are covered in one reminder. Each one is confirmed, moved or cancelled on its own, so a change to one leaves the others as they are.
They follow your cancellation policy. Intavia can explain any short-notice terms you've agreed before a change is made, and changes your policy keeps for your team are passed to them, by asking the patient to contact the practice or by creating a task.
Yes. Tell your support team what you need and they update the campaign. There's nothing for you to configure.