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Appointment reminders/confirmations.  Related questions should be directed to the Business Administrative Associate or Medical Director.

Guidelines

Reminders for non-surgical appointments will be made by reception 2 days before the appointment.  Reminders for surgical appointments will be made by reception 1 week before the appointment, and then a second time 3 days before the appointment. 

See the table below to reference when reminders need to be done for all appointments.

Surgery reminders require an emailed Estimate and the link to the Consent Form, in addition to calling the owner.

Pet Health Network Pro (PHNP) sends email and text reminders 3 days before appointment for all non-surgical appointments.  Appointments that have been confirmed by the client through PHNP will show Confirmed in Cornerstone and will show PHNP in the ‘Confirmed By’ field. These appointments do NOT need to be confirmed again by reception.  PHNP does not send any text or email reminders for surgical appointments.

Procedure 

Non-surgical Appointments

• In the morning, reception will call the number listed in each Cornerstone appointment, following the table below. 

• If the front desk employee speaks to the client, they will:

• Give the relevant appointment information.
• Update the appointment note by adding the DATE, the NOTE indicating that they SPOKE with the client, and their INITIALS.
• Click the “Confirm” button in the appointment before moving to the next call.

• If the front desk employee does NOT receive an answer to their call, they will:

• Leave a voice message, giving the relevant appointment information.
• Update the appointment note by adding the DATE, the NOTE indicating that a VOICE MESSAGE was left, and their INITIALS. 
• Click the “Confirm” button in that appointment before moving to the next call.

• If the front desk employee does NOT receive an answer and is UNABLE to leave a voice message, (e.g. number is not in service, voicemail box is full, etc.), they will:

• Open the client file to determine if other phone numbers are listed on the account.
• If there are, reception will attempt those numbers as well and will follow the procedures mentioned above, depending if they spoke with someone or left a voice message.
• If there are no additional phone numbers listed for the account, or if also unable to leave a voice message at those numbers, reception will EMAIL the client with the appointment details.  They will then:
• Update the appointment note by adding the DATE, the NOTE indicating that we were UNABLE to leave a message but EMAIL was sent, and their INITIALS. 
• Click the “Confirm” button in that appointment before moving to the next call.

• If reception is unable to contact the client at all (phone or email), they will:

• Update the appointment note by adding the DATE, the NOTE indicating that we were UNABLE to leave message or send email, and their INITIALS. 
• NOT click the “Confirm” button.

Surgical Appointments

All surgical appointments will have two (2) reminders done.  The first will be one (1) week before the surgery.  The second reminder will be three (3) days before the surgery (see table below).  Reception will remind owners that pets can have dinner the night before, but nothing to eat the morning of and that water is ok to give the morning of.  Questions the client may have about giving medications should be given to the doctor.  All surgery reminders require an emailed Estimate and the link to the Consent Form.

FIRST REMINDERS: Reception will call and email the client one week before the appointment.

• Reception will review each surgical appointment that will be confirmed to ensure there is an Estimate for the procedure that is less than 6 months old.

• If there is no Estimate or it is more than 6 months old, reception will write a note in the Cornerstone patient file to request an Estimate from a Tech.  Reception will print and place the note in the Tech bin.
• The employee doing the surgery reminders is responsible for following through with a Tech to ensure an Estimate is received back for a surgical appointment being confirmed.

• For surgeries that do have an estimate (and is less than 6 months old), reception will:

• Call the number listed in each surgical appointment, per the below table. 
• Make a DATED note in the appointment that either the employee spoke with the client, or that a message was left for the client *and* that a reminder email was sent.  The email is to include the appointment information on it, the link to the Consent Form, as well as the correct estimate attached.
• Create a note in the patient file of the email sent to client (copy and paste).
• NOT click the “Confirm” button.

SECOND REMINDERS: Reception will call and email* the client three days before the appointment.

• Reception will search email to see if a client submitted the Consent Form.

• *If client has submitted the Consent Form, reception will attach it to the patient file *and* will call and email the client the reminder, but will not include the verbiage of or link to the Consent Form in that email.
• *If the Consent Form is not found in email or in patient file, reception will call and email the client the reminder, and will include the verbiage of and link to the Consent Form again.

• In both cases, reception will:

• Create a note in the patient file of the email sent to client (copy and paste).
• Add a brief note in the appointment.
• Click the “Confirm” button in the appointment.

NOTE: An Estimate should be requested anytime a surgery appointment is scheduled.  Write a note in the patient file requesting the Estimate, print the note and place in Tech bin.

NOTE: Anyone at the front desk who receives an Estimate back from a Tech can send it to the client.  But whomever requested an Estimate for reminder purposes is responsible for following up with a Tech if an Estimate is not received before the end of day.

Definitions 

Reception: Any employee working the front desk

Cornerstone: The electronic medical record system

Pet Health Network Pro: Platform that works with Cornerstone to auto-communicate reminders to clients

Table for when reminders should be done:

                                                   SUMMARY for Surgery Reminders: