Appointment Reminders are a fantastic way to reduce your DNAs and ensure that patients are getting the care that they need. However, as these messages are automated, they also have the potential to be a large source of fragments, and therefore a large contributor to SMS costs.
Here's how you can be more sustainable with fragments in Appointment Reminders! For more context on SMS costs and fragments, take a look at this article.
Try to be as concise as possible
Accurx Appointment reminders automatically pull all of the relevant appointment information from EMIS/SystmOne into the text message for you 👇
This means that you don't have to include any information about the date, time or location yourselves. We also include a clear call to action with the cancellation link, meaning that you don't need to include any cancellation information either!
If you do decide to add extra information into the Reminder (e.g. slot-type specific advice), try to ensure that the remaining text is limited to the minimum number of characters.
A great way of giving patients extra information in the most fragment-sustainable way is to set up a Tinyurl to pages or articles on your website (such as your lateness or DNA policies) and paste these into the Reminder ✏️
Keep them relevant
You can opt to send Appointment Reminders 3 days and/or 7 days before the appointment as well as 24 hours before. This can be super useful for some slot types, but less for others 📆
Consider the impact of both reminders for each slot type and whether they are worth the fragment cost. It may be worth reviewing your appointment statistics to see which appointment types have the most DNAs and schedule appointment reminders accordingly.
If you still have any questions or concerns, feel free to chat with us using the green message bubble in the bottom right-hand corner of this page.
