Set up appointment SMS reminders

After registering for SMS Reminders with Best Practice Software, or after contacting Best Practice Software to purchase additional credit, you will be emailed a code to add additional text message credits.

1. Go to Setup > Configuration and select the SMS Messages tab.
2. Click Top up SMS Credit.



The SMS Credit screen will appear.

3. Enter the SMS Credit Code from the email received from Best Practice Software and click Validate code. You will be returned to the SMS Messages screen, and the Remaining Credit value should be increased by the topup amount.

You will need the SMS username supplied to you by Best Practice Software after registering for SMS functionality.

1. Select Setup > Configuration from the main Bp Premier screen. Select the SMS Messages tab.



2. Click Configure at the top to open the SMS Connection Information screen.



3. Enter the SMS user name you were assigned.
4. If your network uses a proxy server to access the internet, tick the I use a proxy when connecting to the Internet checkbox, and enter the Proxy name, Proxy port, Proxy username, and Proxy password.
5. Click Test Connection to test the SMS connection. If the connection is successful, click OK to return to the SMS Reminders screen.

Note: If you are unsure whether your practice uses a proxy, contact your IT system administrator.

Continue configuring the rest of the sections in this screen.

Default appointment search options

6. These options set the default search criteria when a user sends bulk SMS reminders:
• Exclude appointments that have already had a reminder sent will not send reminders for appointments for which a reminder has already previously been sent, no matter how far in the past.
• Exclude appointments made in the last ‘n’ days will not send reminders for new appointments that have booked in the specified number of days prior to the current date.
• Include only certain appointment types will send reminders for the selected appointments only.

SMS Reminder Replies

7. Tick Check for replies to SMS Reminders to enable Bp Premier to receive SMS replies from patients.
8. Tick Automatically confirm or decline appointment attendance when the patient replies ‘YES’ or ‘NO’ to SMS Reminders to automatically update a patient’s appointment attendance based on a 'yes' or 'no' reply.

You can check replies and manage appointment attendance through the SMS Reminders screen and the Appointment attendance screen.

If you have upgraded to Indigo Service Pack 1, you can also set the keywords that Bp Premier will accept in patient replies to automatically confirm appointment attendance. See Bp Comms templates for more information.

SMS Credit

9. Tick Warn when less than n credits remaining checkbox and enter a value to receive a warning when SMS credit gets low. You can also top up SMS credit here.
10. Tick Display credit warning when opening appointment book to pop up a credit reminder when users open the appointment book.
11. Click OK to save your SMS reminder configuration.

An SMS template is a standard block of reminder text that uses fields to autopopulate items like patient names, doctor names, and appointment times. You can create as many SMS templates as you need.

1. Select Setup > Configuration from the main Bp Premier screen. Select the SMS Messages tab.
2. Click Add button under SMS reminder templates. The SMS template screen will be displayed.



3. Enter a Template Name and select the intended use from the Template used for dropdown. (At the moment, ‘Appointments’ is the only selectable option, but this will be expanded in future Bp Premier versions.)
4. Type your template text into the text box.
5. The fields on the right hand side will be substituted with information when the SMS reminder is sent. Double-click on a field to insert the field where the cursor is positioned in the template text.
6. An SMS character limit of 150 characters applies.

Note: Take into account the length of the data that could be populated in each of template fields to ensure that the limit is not exceeded. For example, a doctor or patient may have a long name, or an appointment type might occupy several characters.

7. Select Default template to automatically select this template when SMS reminders are sent. You can change the actual template used before sending.
8. Tick User can edit text before sending to allow a user to modify the template text before sending. If this option is not ticked, users will not be able to modify the SMS text from the template.
9. Click Preview to view how the text will appear on a mobile device. If the template preview is acceptable, click OK to save the template.

The Send SMS Reminders user permission is set to Not allowed for all users by default.

To change the user permission:

1. Select Setup > Users from the main screen of Bp Premier.
2. Select the user you want to enable permissions for and click Edit. The Edit user details screen will appear.
3. Click Set Permissions. Scroll down to the bottom of the permissions list and look for the permission Send SMS Reminders.
4. Change the permission status to Allowed, and click the Save button.
5. Repeat steps 2–4 for all users who need to send SMS reminders.

Before a patient is able to receive SMS reminders, you must indicate consent in the demographic record.

Note: SMS reminders should follow your practice’s policies for telephone and electronic communications.

1. Search for the patient using any of the patient search methods: File > Open Patient, View > Patient, or press F2.
2. Click Edit to open the Patient details screen.
3. Tick Consent to SMS Reminder.
4. The mobile phone number entered must be in the Australian format of ‘0400 000 000’ (with or without spaces). The number must not have a ‘+’ or ‘61’ prefix. Incorrectly formatted numbers will be rejected by the message provider service and will not be delivered to the patient.
5. Click Save.