Working with reminders

Select patients for reminders

1. Select Clinical > Reminders or click the envelope icon on the main screen of Bp Premier. The Reminders screen will appear.



This screen displays reminders that have not yet been sent. If a reminder is 'marked as sent' from anywhere in Bp Premier, the reminder will not be displayed on this screen. See Reprint reminders for more information.

Clinically significant reminders are indicated in the Action column.

2. Click Select Patients to display the Select patients for reminders screen.



3. Select from the fields to search for patients with reminders to send:

Filter	Action
Clinically significant only	Filters the Reminder reasons to only show those marked as Clinically significant.
Filter by type	Filters the Reminder reasons to only show those that are linked to the selected type. Reminder types can be created in Setup > Configuration > Reminders.
Reason	Select one or more reminder reasons to send, or click Select all.
Due between / and	Select patients with reminders due between the dates only.
Select users	Select patients assigned a reminder by the selected doctors only.
Location	Select reminders sent from the selected locations only.
Include overdue reminders	Include patients with reminders that are overdue in the selected time period.
Include inactive patients	Include patients marked as inactive in their patient demographic.

4. Click Ok to return to the Reminders screen. The following actions are available using the top buttons:
   • To remove a single reminder, select the reminder and click Remove from list. The Reminder in the patient record will be unaffected.
   • To delete a reminder from the list and the patient record, select the reminder and click Delete Reminder. The Reminder will be deleted from the patient's record.
   • To view the appointments for a patient (to see if a future appointment might already be booked), click View appointments.

You can now send reminders using a suitable method for each patient.

Send reminders

If the Reminders list shows all of the reminders you want to send, click Send reminders. The Send reminders screen will be displayed.

1. Select the send method from the Use radio buttons:
• Mail Merge prints out a reminder letter for each patient on the list using the selected reminder template.
• Printed List prints the list of patients displayed. You can set the fields shown on this list. See Set the columns shown on a printed Reminders list for more information.
• Labels prints the list of patients in label form to place on envelopes.
• Save as file saves the list of patients in XML, CSV, or text format.
2. Tick Mark as sent to mark the reminder on the patient's record as 'Sent on date', showing the date sent.

Important: If you are printing a test list, do not select Mark as sent. If you are exporting a list of patients and don't want to remove reminders from patient records, do not select Mark as sent.

3. Tick Save a copy into the patient's chart to place a copy of the reminder letter into the Correspondence Out section of the patient's record. The name of the file will be ‘Reminder letter’.
4. Tick Add a new reminder for those marked for auto-update to add a new reminder to the patient's records where the reminder is set to auto-update.
5. Click Send. The rest of the sending process depends on the method chosen.

Mail Merge

Tip: If this is the first time you have printed reminder letters, or you are using a new reminder template, Best Practice Software recommend that you perform a test print for only 2 or 3 patients, to ensure that the letter prints as expected.

Use the Remove from list button to remove all but 2 or 3 patient names, and do not tick the options for Mark as Sent or Add a new reminder for those marked for auto-update when running a test print.

When Mail Merge button is selected, the Word Processor Templates screen will be displayed when you click Send.

1. Select the template letter to be used.
2. If you want a copy of the letter to be stored in the patient record, tick Save a copy in each patient's record.
3. Click Open to begin printing the letters.

Printed List or Labels

When you click Send, this option prints a list or prints labels for all the patients displayed on the screen.

You can customise the format of printed labels from Setup > Labels from the main Bp Premier screen.

Save as file

1. When you click Send, the Save As screen appears.
2. Select the format to save from the Save as type drop-down.
3. Browse to the folder you want to store the file and click Save.

You may need to reprint reminders if, for example, there was a printer problem, or you forgot to tick the box to save the letter into the patient's file. If you need to resend reminders because the first reminder was not actioned, you must resend.

Each time that reminder letters or lists are printed, the system records a batch number.

1. From the Reminders screen, select File > Resend Batch or press Ctrl+R. The Reminder batch screen will appear.



2. Select the batch that you wish to resend and click Load. The list of patients included in the Reminders batch will be displayed in the Reminders screen.
3. Click Send Reminders and follow the steps in Send reminders.

For clinically significant reminders, practices will follow up reminders that have not been actioned.

Tip: Reminder reasons can be marked as clinically significant from the Configuration screen. See Add a reminder type for more information.

Once a reminder has been printed with the Mark as sent box selected, the Reminder is shown on the patient's record as 'Sent' and will no longer appear on the Reminders screen. You must use the Sent Reminders screen to identify sent and unactioned reminders.

1. From the Reminders screen, select View > Sent Reminders. The Previously sent reminders screen will be displayed.



By default, the screen will display all reminders sent during the past year that are still marked as 'Unactioned'. Clinically significant reminders are indicated in the Reason column. This screen does not include reminders that were marked as performed without being sent.

2. Select from the filters at the top of the screen to limit the list of sent reminders:

Filter	Action
Show unactioned only	Untick this box to show all sent reminders. Tick this box to show only reminders that have not been actioned.
Show all patients	Untick to display the Select patient screen to search for an individual patient.
Include inactive patients	Include reminders sent to patients marked as inactive in their patient demographics.
Show Clinically significant only	Show only reminders that have Clinically significant checked in the reminder reason definition in the Configuration screen.
Sent on or after / before	Show reminders sent between the dates only.
By doctor	Show reminders that have been assigned to patients by the selected doctor only.
By location	Show reminders sent from the selected location only.
Reason	Show reminders for the selected reminder reason only. The list is automatically filtered to show only reasons that have been sent during the selected time period.

Tip: To quickly show only the sent reminders for a single patient, right-click a sent reminder and select Show single patient. Tick Show all patients at the top to show reminders for all patients again.

3. To mark a particular reminder record as performed, select the reminder and click the Mark button. This has the same effect marking a Reminder as performed from the patient record.
4. If the list contains all the reminders you need to resend, click Send again. The Send Reminders screen will appear.
5. Send the reminders according to steps in Send reminders.

When a patient visits with regard to a reminder, the provider should mark the reminder as 'Performed', so that it no longer appears when checking for reminders.

1. From the patient's record, select the Reminder in the Notifications list.
2. Right-click and select Mark item as performed.

1. From the main screen of Bp Premier, select Setup > Configuration > Reminders tab.

The Fields to be printed on Reminder list section shows the fields that are printed when a Reminders list is printed from the Reminders screen.

2. To add a column, click Add. The Reminder list fields screen will appear.
3. Select the field to add from the list.
4. Enter a column width in the Width (mm) field.
5. Click Save to return to the Configuration screen.