Advanced Usage, Management, and Best Practices

This article covers how to personalize your reminder messages using keywords, manage appointment statuses, and provides essential best practices for effective and compliant use of Cerebrum's Appointment Reminder Services.

1. Reminder Keywords and Customization

Cerebrum supports the use of dynamic placeholders, referred to as keywords, which allow you to personalize the content of your email, text, and voice reminder messages. These keywords automatically pull specific information from the patient and appointment records, ensuring each message is tailored.

Here is a list of available keywords and their descriptions:

Keyword	Description
{{patientFirstName}}	Patient’s first name
{{patientLastName}}	Patient’s last name
{{doctorFirstName}}	Doctor’s first name
{{doctorLastName}}	Doctor’s last name
{{appointmentDate}}	Date of the appointment
{{appointmentTime}}	Appointment time
{{officeName}}	Short name of the office
{{officeFullName}}	Full name of the office
{{officeAddress}}	Office address details
{{testName}}	Short name of the test
{{testFullName}}	Full name of the test
{{testInstruction}}	Specific instructions related to the test derived from Practice Tests page
{{confirmedLink}}	Confirmation link for email/text or instructions for voice (e.g., “Press 1 to confirm”)

2. Using and Managing Appointment Reminders

Once appointment reminders are configured and enabled, they are automatically sent out daily according to your set schedule. Cerebrum actively updates the Confirmation Status column for each appointment on the Daysheet to reflect the reminder activity and patient responses.

Daysheet – Appointment Status Field

Here's how the Appointment Status field on the Daysheet will be updated:

• To Be Confirmed: The appointment has been booked and it will be picked up by the reminder service to send an appointment reminder to the patient; this is the default status assigned when an appointment is booked.
• Confirmed via Email/Text/Voice Reminder: The patient has successfully confirmed their appointment through the respective reminder method.
• Not Required: The reminder has been manually disabled for this specific appointment.
• Picked Up: This status is for voice reminders and indicates that the call was answered, but the patient did not press 1 to confirm the appointment. It may occur when the call is answered by either a person or an answering machine. 
• No Answer: This means the call was not answered by a person or an answering machine. The system could not reach the patient.

Manually Disabling a Reminder

There may be instances where you need to prevent a reminder from being sent for a particular appointment (e.g., if the patient has already confirmed verbally).

To manually disable a reminder:

1. Locate the specific appointment on the Daysheet.
2. Click the Pencil icon located next to the "To Be Confirmed" status field.
3. Change the status to Not Required.

This action will stop any further reminders from being sent for that appointment.

3. Best Practices and Important Notes

To ensure effective, compliant, and cost-efficient use of Cerebrum's Appointment Reminder Services, consider the following best practices:

Consent

• Prior Consent is Crucial: Always ensure that "Consent Email" is properly set to YES in the patient's profile before enabling reminders for them.

Message Management

• Keep it Short and Clear: Compose reminder messages that are concise, easy to understand, and professional, especially text and voice reminders.
• Test Before Activating: Before fully enabling live notifications, always send test reminders for each type (email, text, voice) to ensure they are formatted correctly and delivered reliably.

Cost and Delivery Tips

• Prioritize SMS for Cost: Where possible, utilize SMS text messages over MMS to minimize messaging charges, as SMS is generally less expensive.
• Stagger Reminders: Distribute your reminders across different days and communication methods to prevent overwhelming patients with too many messages at once.