This article details the process of contacting patients on your waitlist, and explains how to send SMS' to facilitate a booking online. The Waitlist feature is in the Bookings section of Practice Admin.
If you would like access to the Waitlist Feature and cannot see it under the Bookings section in Practice Admin, please contact your CSM to discuss activating it.
Contents
Searching and Filtering Patients on the Waitlist
Contacting multiple Patients on the Waitlist
Contacting a single Patient on the Waitlist
Searching and Filtering Patients on the Waitlist
Some practices might have a lot of patient requests in the waitlist, and it can be hard to find certain patients or those matching certain criteria. There are a number of filters that can be applied to help find suitable patients when a cancellation occurs. These search filters work across all the entries, so if there are multiple pages of waitlist entries, all eligible patients will be shown. To open the filters menu, click the "Apply Filters" button in the top right.
The practitioner search filter brings up only patients who have chosen to see that specific practitioner, or didn't have a preference (and thus are happy to see that practitioner). You can select more than one practitioner at a time.
The appointment type search brings up all the available appointment types at your practice, and allows you to select multiple types to see patients that match those results.
The date and time filters work to bring up patients who have indicated they are available at that time.
Make sure to click "Apply Filters" at the bottom of the menu when you're ready to apply the filters to your results!
If you wish to see more information about a patient, you can click their entry to read more information about them, including their contact information or any notes they've added.
Contacting multiple patients on the Waitlist
Healthengine provides you two options for contacting patients: a bulk contact option or an individual option.
For the bulk option, once you have found the patients you wish to contact, you can select up to 10 patients by ticking the checkbox next to their name to include them in the batch SMS send.
Once selected, click the "Notify" button in the top right. This button is grey until at least one patient entry has been selected. You can then see the message creation screen, that allows you to customise certain elements of the SMS you will send. You can customise the practitioner name, the appointment time and where the patient is directed to book on your Healthengine network.
When you're happy with your settings, click next to be taken to a preview screen. This page shows the example message a patient would see (please note: the first name shown in the SMS matches the first patient in the list, but does dynamically change to match the patient who is receiving it).
If you wish to go back and make changes to the message, you can do so by clicking back and changing any of the settings. If you wish to send this message, click "Send".
Contacting a single patient on the Waitlist
For the single patient contact option, once you have found the patient you wish to contact, you can select that specific patient by checking the box next to their name, and clicking "Notify" in the top right.
You will be presented with the settings to customise certain elements of the SMS you will send. You can customise the practitioner name, the appointment time and where the patient is directed to book on your Healthengine network.
When you're happy with your settings, click next to be taken to a preview screen. This page shows the example message a patient would see (please note: the first name shown in the SMS matches the first patient in the list, but does dynamically change to match the patient who is receiving it).
If you wish to go back and make changes to the message, you can do so by clicking back and changing any of the settings. If you wish to send this message, click "Send".
Setting up Waitlist automation
There are two options provided to make it easier to match an opening/cancellation with patients on the waitlist.
Option 1 - Get notified when an available appointment match a patient on the waitlist
Turning this option on will notify the nominated practice staff when there is one or many patients on the waitlist that matches an appointment slot that has become available, allowing you to select which patients you want to notify about this availability.
Option 2 - Automatically notify patients when an available appointment match a patient on the waitlist
This is the set and forget option where we will automatically send out an SMS to one or many patients on the waitlist that matches an appointment slot that has become available allowing you to get on with other tasks instead.
Note: To prevent the SMS being perceived as SPAM automation is restricted to only notifying the same patient once per day, even if there are multiple instances of new appointments becoming available
To enable your preferred option:
In Prac Admin simply go to the waitlist preference page and select your preferred option.
If not selection is made then waitlist will continue to work as per current implementation meaning you will manually have to locate patients on the waitlist to notify for an available appointment.
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