We've heard your feedback and we've added the ability to opt patients out of receiving their Recalls via SMS. You can now opt a patient out of receiving a Recall via SMS through the Blocked Communications page in your Practice Admin portal.
Below is a guide to walk you through how this works and what this looks like.
- How do I opt a patient out from receiving a Recall SMS?
- Can I send a Recall SMS to a patient who has been opted out via the Blocked Communications page?
- How do I know a patient has been opted out from receiving a Recall SMS?
- What if a patient changes their mind and wants to receive their Recalls via SMS again?
- What do you do with patients who are recorded as not consented in our PMS?
- Why do my Recalls show all patients as non-consenting?
How do I opt a patient out from receiving a Recall SMS?
You can now opt a patient out from receiving a recall SMS by adding the patient's mobile number to the Blocked Communication list. This can be done by
- Logging into your Practice Admin portal
- Go to Account
- Select 'Blocked Communications'
- Add the patient's mobile number to the free text field and press 'Block' when done
- Click the checkbox against this mobile number for 'Blocked Recalls'
Following the above instructions will apply a blocklisted status against the mobile icon for all individual recalls linked to that patient's mobile number. This icon will appear in the Actions sections of your Recalls page in Practice Admin, indicating the patient does not give consent to receiving Recalls via SMS.
Hovering over the mobile icon will show the message 'Mobile number blocked in your blocked communication list' so you know the reason for the blocked status; When selecting these recall types in the To Action tab, the SMS send option will be greyed out and unavailable as an option.
Can I send a Recall SMS to a patient who has been opted out via the Blocked Communications page?
No.
As this consent is read from the Blocked Communications page in your Practice Admin portal, whereby the patient has specifically opted out from receiving Recalls via SMS, you will not be able to send a Recall via SMS to this patient; This goes for both manual and automated processing of Recalls via SMS.
The 'SMS' option for sending recalls will display as greyed out when a recall is selected for a patient that has been opted out via the Blocked Communications page.
How do I know a patient has been opted out from receiving a Recall SMS?
If you hover over blocked status on the individual recall's mobile icon, it will give you a reason for blocklist. Depending on the message, you may or may not be able to send a Recall SMS:
- "Mobile number blocked in your blocked communication list"
- This consent is read from the Blocked Communications page in your Practice Admin portal, whereby the patient has specifically opted out from receiving Recalls via SMS. You will not be able to send a Recall via SMS to this patient; this goes for both manual and automated processing of Recalls via SMS.
- This consent is read from the Blocked Communications page in your Practice Admin portal, whereby the patient has specifically opted out from receiving Recalls via SMS. You will not be able to send a Recall via SMS to this patient; this goes for both manual and automated processing of Recalls via SMS.
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"Does not wish to be contacted by SMS" '
- This consent is read from your PMS, whereby the patient has specified that they do not want to receive marketing messages. As the Recall SMS is a transactional message, it does not require consent and you will be able to send a Recall SMS to this patient.
- This consent is read from your PMS, whereby the patient has specified that they do not want to receive marketing messages. As the Recall SMS is a transactional message, it does not require consent and you will be able to send a Recall SMS to this patient.
What if a patient changes their mind and wants to receive their Recalls via SMS again?
We understand that people change their minds and we're here to help!
You can easily opt them back into receiving Recalls via SMS by unticking the 'Blocked Reaclls' checkbox against their mobile number in your Blocked Communications page.
Here's a step-by-step guide to walk you through doing this:
- Logging into your Practice Admin portal
- Go to Account
- Select 'Blocked Communications'
- Add the patient's mobile number to the free text field and press 'Block' when done
- Untick the checkbox for 'Blocked Recalls' against this mobile number
- This mobile number will no longer be excluded from Recall SMS sends
What do you do with patients who are recorded as not consented in our PMS?
The consent recorded in a PMS relates to whether or not they would like to receive marketing messaging.
As the Recall SMS is a transactional message, it does not require patient consent.
Why do my Recalls show all patients as non-consenting?
For practices using Best Practice as their PMS, all recalls will show a blocked mobile icon status.
Best Practice does not allow third-party providers to access patient consent settings in the PMS so all of your recalls will display this status.
Unlike blocking Recalls via the Blocked Communications page, this will not prevent the send of a recall SMS to these patients as the consent in the PMS is for marketing messaging and the Recall SMS is a transactional message that does not require consent.
For manual processing of Recalls via SMS, we will give you the option of whether or not to proceed and send the Recall SMS to these patients.
For automated processing, we will send out recall SMS to all recalls included in the categories configured by your practice.
If a patient reports to you that they no longer wish to receive Recalls via SMS, you can prevent them from receiving any further Recalls via SMS by adding them to your Blocked Communications page and ticking 'Block Recalls', as described in How do I opt a patient out from receiving a Recall SMS?.
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