# Patient recall

> Patient recall brings patients who are due or overdue back into your diary. Intavia contacts them and books their appointment, so your recall list keeps moving without your team chasing it.

Type: Workflow (Outbound)
Last reviewed: 3 October 2026
Web page: https://www.intavia.ai/docs/patient-recall

## At a glance

- What it does: Contacts patients due for recall and books them in
- Channels: Outbound calls, with additional channels available
- Integrations: Your practice management system, such as Dentally
- What you can customise: Who is included, when it runs, how often patients are contacted and what happens next
- What your team sees: New bookings in your system, a campaign summary and tasks for anything that needs a person
- Setup: Done for you by our team, around your recall policy

## How it works

Recall runs 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.

1. Plan: we agree with you how recall should work, from who is included to the next step for every outcome. Our team builds the campaign rules from that.
2. Eligibility: each time the campaign runs, Intavia reads recall data from your practice system and selects the patients who meet the rules. Patients already booked for the matching appointment are excluded.
3. Contact: eligible patients are contacted within your contact window and any volume limit you set, following the attempt schedule.
4. Conversation: identity is confirmed before any personal or appointment details are shared. Available appointments are offered and booked directly in your system.
5. Outcome: every attempt ends with a recorded outcome.
6. Next step: the outcome decides what happens next, such as another attempt, a task for your team or removal from the campaign.

## 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, such as on a regular schedule or when an event happens, like a recall falling due |
| Eligibility | Which recall types are included, how overdue patients can be, 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 |
| Booking | The appointment types, clinicians and locations that can be offered |
| Hand-over | The situations that become a task for your team |
| Fallbacks | Alternative routes that keep things moving, such as offering other times or locations, 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 |
| --- | --- |
| Booked | The appointment is created in your system |
| No answer | The next attempt is scheduled, if any remain, and a follow-up message can be sent |
| Call back requested | A task is created for your team |
| Chose not to book | Recorded, with no further attempts for this recall |
| Wrong number or opted out | That number isn't contacted again, for this campaign or all your campaigns, as you prefer |
| Needs the practice | A task is created with the details already captured |

## Safeguards

- Identity is confirmed before any appointment details are shared.
- Existing bookings are checked before contact, so patients already booked are left out.
- 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](https://www.intavia.ai/capabilities/appointment-booking): Appointments booked, moved and cancelled during the call, directly in your system.
- [Identity verification](https://www.intavia.ai/docs/identity-verification): Identity confirmed before personal details are shared, including for people calling on someone's behalf.
- [Outbound calling](https://www.intavia.ai/docs/outbound-calling): The shared rules for every outbound call: who is contacted, when, and how often.
- [Multi-channel communication](https://www.intavia.ai/docs/multi-channel-communication): Conversations with patients by phone, text, email, WhatsApp and your website, inbound and outbound.
- [Team hand-off, tasks & alerts](https://www.intavia.ai/docs/team-hand-off): Clear tasks and alerts so your team knows exactly what to do next.
- [PMS & booking system integration](https://www.intavia.ai/integrations): Live information from your practice system and appointments handled directly in it.

## FAQs

### Which channels can recall use?

Calls are the default for recall. Other channels, such as text messages, can be added to the attempt schedule.

### Can the rules change after launch?

Yes. Tell your support team what you need and they update the campaign. There's nothing for you to configure.

### Does it cover recalls for children?

Yes. Children's recalls are handled through a parent or guardian, who is confirmed in the way agreed with you before any personal or appointment details are shared.

### Could a patient end up booked twice?

Patients with an existing appointment of the same kind are left out before contact.