Writing appointment type specific messages to your patients Follow

What does appointment type specific messaging look like? 

In order to ensure that your patients are getting timely and relevant information from you regarding their appointments, Healthengine’s online booking platform allows you to display custom messages to your patients when they select an appointment type when they book on the Healthengine website or app.

Patients will either see the disclaimer-type message (“Display only” type), which appears as a grey text box under the appointment type options for the user to read, or the consent-required-type messaging (“Requires consent” type), which appears as a pop up which they must agree to to be able to proceed to make a booking. This is based on a setting which you can control in your Practice Admin account (see instructions below). 

These messages are shown as a practice wide setting, meaning every practitioner with this appointment type will show the same appointment type messaging in the booking form.

How to add a new message

1. In order to write a new custom message for your patients, first log into Practice Admin.
2. On the left hand side navigation bar, click “Appointment setup” and then “Practice settings”.

Once you are in the “Practice settings” page, you will see a table that lists all of the appointment types available to be booked under different specialties and for which patient type(s) they are available. This table shows which appointment types already have appointment messaging in the “Appointment notes” column, either as “Requires consent”, blank (...) or “Display only” based on your configuration.

The messaging can be customised based on appointment type and patient type, so you can have different messaging for existing patients attending a telehealth appointment versus for new patients, for example.

3. To create a new message, click the three vertical dots on the far right next to the appointment type / patient combination you want to write a message for, and select the Edit appointment notes dropdown option.

4. You will be presented with a pop up box that requires you to click the grey toggle to make the note active. If you wish to remove the note in the future, you can do so by unticking this toggle.

5. When you click it to the show appointment note on setting, the box will expand and you can enter your message.
6. Select if you want this note to appear as a pop up, or as text in your booking form. A mandatory note requires the patient to click "I accept" in order to proceed booking an appointment.
7. If you wish to bulk update multiple appointment types with the same message, you can do so by clicking on the relevant appointment types on this page and then clicking 'Save'. If you just want the note to apply for one, click 'Save'.

You can write up to 300 characters in the box to provide any information for patients to know when they are booking that appointment type. There are a few exceptions to what is allowed to be shown on the Healthengine network. These include things such as:

• Text which does not relate directly to the services and practitioners provided by your practice.
• Marketing of products and services of another business.
• Content or messaging which may compromise a patient’s health care choices or are not in the patient’s interest.
• Any material that is libellous, defamatory, discriminatory or otherwise malicious or harmful to any person or entity. 
• Any phone numbers or external links to encourage patients to book with your practice outside of Healthengine.
• Content or messaging that may lead to the patient acquiring or undergoing a health service that they may not need.
• Any messaging of an unethical or coercive manner. 

Healthengine continuously moderates the content on our website and any information that is not aligned with our values will be noted and your practice will be contacted requesting you to change it or, in extreme cases, changed and you will be informed of the change. In every case, you will be told why the messaging was not suitable.

You can also set the message to require consent, which means the message appears as a pop up and the patient must click “I agree” to be able to continue making a booking. By default the message will be set as 'display only'.

Click save to ensure your messaging is saved. These changes are made live immediately on the Healthengine network, so you can check to see it straight away. 

How to delete a message

1. If you want to delete a message that is shown in the booking form, navigate from the left hand side navigation bar, to “Appointment setup” and then “Practice settings”.

2. In the table, find the appointment type message you want to remove. Make sure you check that you are deleting the right message based on the appointment type and patient type (new or existing).

3. Once you find the right appointment type message, click the pen icon to edit it. In the pop up that appears, click the toggle so it looks like what is shown below.

4. Click ‘Save’. These changes will be live and appear immediately on the Healthengine platform.

How to edit your messages

1. If you want to edit a message text or message type, navigate from the left hand side navigation bar, to “Appointment setup” and then “Practice settings”.

2. In the table, find the appointment type message you want to edit. Make sure you check that you are editing the right message based on the appointment type and patient type (new or existing).

3. Once you find the right appointment type message, click the pen icon to edit it. You can now change the text shown, and change the message from the “Display only” type or the “Requires consent” type.

4. Once you are done, click save. These changes are live and appear immediately on the Healthengine platform.

Moderation Process

Healthengine continuously moderates the content on our website and any information that is not aligned with our values will be noted and your practice will be contacted requesting you to change it or, in extreme cases, changed and you will be informed of the change. In every case, you will be told why the messaging was not suitable.

Continued violation of the self-serve messaging policy can result in your practice’s access being revoked.

If you have any issues, or require any assistance please contact Healthengine support via live chat, email or phone.