Patient Repeat Reminders

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Selection Criteria
• Message History
  • Batch History
  • Patient Reminder History
  • Patient History Grid
  • Bulk Edit Patients

Patient repeat reminders uses text messaging to advise patients when they had a repeat due using the mobile phone number recorded in their patient record. The functionality may be found in 6. Contact > 5 Patient repeat reminders: 

Note: Repeat reminders requires a preset message template to be set up in 6. Maintain message templates.

Repeats for all period of supply are considered except daily dispensings. Once reminded, the patient is not suggested for a reminder again until their next repeat is due, to avoid bothering customers with too many messages.

Patients who are are to be contacted can be tailored using criteria before the report is run (see Selection Criteria below). There is also opportunity to remove patients from the contact list before sending the texts.

Selection Criteria

Patient repeat reminders can be run for everyone with a mobile phone who has a repeat expiring in the near future (the number of days can be specified). It will consider all scripts with outstanding repeats available, except daily dispensings. It can also be set up to remind specific groups of patients, such as:

• LTC patients only
• Patients with overdue repeats as well as repeats due
• Patients identified with (or without) a particular note
• Institution patients are automatically excluded, but can optionally be included
• Patients with expiring repeats only

Reminders are specific not only to a patient but also their medicine history. It is possible to:

• Exclude script items for certain medicines or therapeutic groups
• Filter out patients recently reminded about another repeat due

Once successfully reminded, a patient will not be considered again until another repeat matches the criteria set. 

Key:

1. Select repeats due in (days): If set to 3 days as above, will find patients with repeats due today, tomorrow and the following 2 days after that. If run daily, which is advisable, then will report on those with repeats due in 3 days time.
2. Exclude patients reminded in last (days): Patients who have already been texted within the last 3 day (in above example) will not be contacted. The assumption being that if a patient has several repeats due within a few days, all the repeats will be dispensed and so they do not need to be repeatedly contacted regarding them.
3. Include overdue items + up to + days overdue: If the pharmacy is closed at weekends, or for a long weekend, or repeats reminders have not been run routinely, this overdue option will catch any repeats that may potentially be missed.
4. Patient Note + Exclude: If a patient has advised that they do not want reminders and a patient Note of No reminders has been added to their record, then they will not be in the contacts list (ensuring Exclude is also ticked).
5. Message template: Select the appropriate template set up in 6. Contact > 6 Maintain message templates. There is the option to change the message to an individual patient before sending the texts once the contact list is created.

Message History

A record of all sent text message reminders is kept in the database. These can be viewed:

• From the selection criteria screen using F4 Batch History detailing how many messages were sent on what day and to whom
• Via F4 Sent History on the Repeat Reminder contact list which views the patient's Diary
• From the patient history grid (shown as a colour block, like diary items)

They can also be reported on using Bulk Edit Patients.

Batch History

To see details of who was sent a message on a particular date, or to get an idea of how many messages are being sent, use F4 Batch History from the Patient repeat reminders menu option:

 

Patient Reminder History

A patient's text reminder history is accessible from F4 Sent History when they are highlighted on the Repeat reminder contacts list (see second screenshot on this article). It is also available from the patient diary, using F9 Repeat Remind:

Patient History Grid

The history is also viewable from a patient's history, using F10 Other > Text reminders history:

A line on the history grid shows individual text reminders but, unlike other diary items, text reminders cannot be edited.

Bulk Edit Patients

Selection criteria on page 3 of Bulk Edit Patients (9. Other > 2. Bulk edit patients from the main menu) enables creating a list of patients who were sent a reminder on a particular day, or date range. Where groups of patients are sent different reminders, they can be isolated using message specific content. Add the message's unique content (e.g. “warfarin” or “due” or “waiting”) into the Messages containing selection: