What is the context of the article?
Recalls are a highly practical and convenient feature in Meddbase which allows for streamline booking, tracking, and reporting of follow-up appointments. Recalls allow you to automatically send reminders out to your patients via e-mail or SMS to ask them to contact you to book an appointment.
Recalls can be tracked and interacted with through the Recall Reminder work item.
If you are not familiar with the general function of work items feel free to read through the two articles linked directly below:
What is the purpose of this article?
The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of what recalls are, how they work, and what happens once they reach the end of their life cycle. Engaging with this article will provide you with all information surrounding the Recall work item.
This article is split into the following sections:
Overview
What are Recalls?
A ‘Recall’ is a work item within Meddbase which allows for quick and convenient scheduling of a follow up appointment.
Recalls allow you to automatically send reminders out to your patients via e-mail or SMS to ask them to contact you to book an appointment. They are based on the appointments and services you already have set up in your chamber.
Role Group Access
When a recall is made, members of the Recall Reminder Administrator role group will receive a Recall Reminder task a specified length of time before the recall is due. This reminder can be found along with the other work tasks on the Start Page, as seen below:
Creating a Recall: Automatic vs Manual
There are two ways in which recalls can be generated within Meddbase - Manually and Automatically.
The Reminder timer for a recall will trigger when the associated appointment is 'Arrived'
Manual Recalls
Should you need to see a patient again within a set period of time, it is possible to prepare a patient recall within Meddbase either by the recall section of the 1.) Patient Record page or through a 2.) Consultation where the recall button appears on the top task bar. Click on either of these buttons and you will be presented with the patient recall dialogue box.
Once the recall option is selected there are four fields to fill in here:
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Recall Date
- The date that the recall should take place. This field can either have a specific date in DD/MM/YYYY format or a days-from-today input such as 2w, 2 weeks, 6m, 6 months, 1y, 1 year etc.
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Recurring Every
- If the recall is to be repeated after a certain period you can fill this in here. Once again this field takes date format or days-from format.
-
Admin Reminder
- Any users assigned to the ‘Recall Reminder Admin’ role will be able to receive notifications a set period prior to the recall taking place. The number of days can be set in days-from format.
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Recall Reason
- A free text field to describe the reason behind the recall.
Automatic Recalls
Recalls can also be set to automatically send, this can be done via 3.) Appointment Type; or from an 4.) Service Type or be entirely custom automated via a 5.) Pathway.
Automatic Appointment Type Recalls
To set up an automatic recall against an appointment, go to Start Page> Admin > Appointment Admin, select the appointment and click Edit.
Click on the Recall tab located to the right of the Edit Appointment Type window and define:
- Recall Reason
- Recall Timeframe: Days, Months or Years.
Automatic Service Type Recalls
To set up an automatic recall against a service, go to Start Page> Admin > Service Management and select the service you wish to add the Recall to.
Fill in the relevant reason, which should be a description of what is being requested ie. 'Booster Hepatitis vaccination is now due'. You can then set the recall to go out in days, months and years. Meddbase will send the recall X number of days after the service has been consumed within an appointment.
Pathway Type Recalls
Recalls can also be generated from Pathways, these are custom workflows within Meddbase that can be set to perform automated tasks.
If you are unfamiliar with pathways please feel free to read the following article: Understanding Pathways
Note: If you are interested in the pathway option please speak to your CAM/CSM/PM as this is a chargeable feature.
Recall Reminders
When a recall is initially created, there will be no work item associated with it. The work item will only be created for that recall on the reminder date that was set whilst creating it. Once this date is reached a reminder is made and will be added as a work item in the Recall work type inbox.
Chamber Wide Reminders
There are two separate reminders that can be configured to send out, one to Admins and the other to Patients. The Admin reminder will go to the internal admin team of the clinic and the Patient reminder will be sent externally to the patient. Only an email option exists for internal Admin whilst email and SMS options exist for Patients. This can be enabled or disabled for either party by interacting with the tick-box.
This can be set up in Admin > Configuration > Task Checker. Within the Task Checker page there is a section called Recall Reminder.
Default reminder time is referring to the number of days prior to the recall appointment that the reminder will be sent to the Admins and Patient. The Time option will control the exact time that this message will send on that day.
Recall Reminder Work Item Actions
Upon opening a recall task there will then be several Recall Actions available to the user. These options are listed below:
- Booking an appointment - either via the Side by Side Schedule, or the Slot Finder
- Viewing related appointments - view any appointments related to this recall
- Editing the recall - change the reason of the recall, the services, the due date etc.
- Logging call details - log the time of any inbound or outbound calls to the patient
- Sending SMS - send a text to the patient's mobile
- Assigning the task - assign the task to another user or role group
Recall Archiving
Automatic Archiving of Recalls
Once a recall reminder task is created, there is a 60-day window of time in which actions can be made from them. If no action is taken after 60-days, the recall reminder work item will be automatically archived. See below:
Upon gaining archived status it will no longer be possible to initiate actions from that recall nor can it be deleted from archived status. Only System Administrators will be capable of editing the archived recalls. Editing recalls refers to being able to change non-consequential information within them. No actions can be made from archived recalls.
Manually Archiving Recalls
It is possible to manually archive recalls, this can be done by setting a specific date cut-off range or selecting one of the provided options (one week or older/one month or older). You can find this manual archive button at the bottom right corner of the recall tasks page (from the Start page).
See below:
Please note: Currently there is no way of removing or editing the 60-day archive feature.
Review Date
This article was last updated on the 13th of August 2024.