This week we have a few minor updates and a new feature for users.
On the updates we have added the “Next appointment” to group receipts for all people included on the receipt. This was previously only on single statements.
Occupations has been included under the Settings menu to allow you to set occupations for your patients. Once the occupation has been defined in Settings it will be available for you to apply to patients in the Details screen.
The big new feature is the ability to send an email with appointment details on it. Patients will receive an email listing the time and date along with who they are seeing. They also can click a link in the email to download the appointment details to their electronic diary. We feel that this will improve appointment attendance, thus saving your practice time and money.
You have two options with this feature. You can send them the email when you book them an appointment, or you can choose to do it later. You can only send the email for a single appointment at this stage, not when you book recurring. We hope to add this feature before long.
How to use this feature:
First of all go to Settings-> System configuration. Ensure that you have a default email set and that your practice name is correct. Scroll down and click save.
Then go to Settings->Diary admin. If you want to be automatically sending an email appointment details to everyone who books an appointment check the box next to appointment details email. Then click Save.
You are now set up to use this system feature.
Now when you click on an appointment time in the diary, you will notice that there is an “Email details?” tick box at the bottom of the pop-up box. This box is disabled until you either select a patient to book the appointment for or if you are entering a new patient, until you have it into something in the email field. If you have selected to send an email to everybody who books an appointment then the box will be ticked by default. You can either tick or un-tick the box if you wish. If the box is ticked then the patient will be sent an email when you click save. The ability to send these reminders is only available if you are booking a single appointment. If you book recurring appointments at this stage you will have to send the reminders manually.
To send a reminder manually, right click on the appointment (or tap and hold on a touchscreen) and then select “Email appt” from the list. An email detailing the appointment will then be sent to the patient.