A colleague mine recently recommended a fully automated appointment reminder application called Patient Prompt. He indicated that the system integrates with open dental. From his description all confirmations are posted directly into the scheduler. Has anyone used this application?
I have investigated a variety of appointment reminder systems that claim to be fully automated but all seem to require some form of manual input.
Greatly appreciate any comments.
Brent
Patient Prompt
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opensource
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- Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2007 8:11 pm
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Hello Brent / Team,
I have been a PromptAlert Customer for almost 3 months now.
To begin with, I too was a bit apprehensive about how this would all work...To my pleasant surprise, PromptAlert had done their homework really well and the fact that we are on a OpenSource software (Thanks Dr. Sparks), makes it even easier.
The setup took about 30 minutes to do and it is all automated once the setup is completed. You can specify the time-window when it is okay to make the reminder calls. You can configure stuff like..when do u want the reminder calls to start...should they start 36 hours or 48 hours..prior to the appointment etc.
The Process that we have implemented is the system starts calling 48 hours prior to the appointment. If for some reason, the system is not able to reach the patient or leave a message 24 hours prior..then my staff calls these folks..typically these are less than 10% of my total appointments. Quite frankly speaking, the staff is not able to do the job any better than what promptalert has already done.
Their Email reminders and SMS reminders work great too. Got some very positive feedback from some of the busy patients regarding the SMS. Again, all of this is optional and we can configure on whether SMS should be sent out to or not.
I have not tried to see if the SMS can be configured at the Patient level..but have not felt the need for it so far. I can check with PromptAlert on that..knowning them, they will build that functionality based on our feedback.
On that note, They have been very co-operative..in explaining and building functionality. Infact, recently..there was a patient who claimed that they had not received a reminder call. On checking with PromptAlert, they told us the number where the system had left the message. I requested more details..guess what...promptalert actually delivered to me the voice recording of the message that was left. Ofcourse, the Customer is always right..
...but it just made my confidence in promptalert go even higher
From a BizValue perspective, the entire service of prompt alert saves my staff about 1 hour of effort each day.....email and phone reminders. It cost me around $100 bucks right now for promptalert service based on usage. Clearly there is operational efficiency as well as savings in operating cost.
They have also launched a portal where u can go in and view the status of the various calls..etc..on a regular basis. They email me a daily report on the status for the next day's appointments.
Based on my feedback, They are also working on building additional services..such as reminder for payment..etc...I am looking forward to them integrating all of these services with open-dental even more to offer a total solution.
It would be great if they had a database similar to opendental on my server where they would write all the details (They do make necessary entries into the communication log of opendental though). I am just thinking about how I can go into opendental itself and if go to a reports option or any such other options..and be able to view the 'reminder / follow-up' details. Anyways, these are nice-to-have features..which one day might become a reality..with even a closer/tighter integration between the two (Opendental & PromptAlert)
Net-Net, I would highly recommend them. You might be atleast want to give them a try and I am sure, you will be pleasantly surprised. Good Luck
Cheers,
OpenSource
I have been a PromptAlert Customer for almost 3 months now.
To begin with, I too was a bit apprehensive about how this would all work...To my pleasant surprise, PromptAlert had done their homework really well and the fact that we are on a OpenSource software (Thanks Dr. Sparks), makes it even easier.
The setup took about 30 minutes to do and it is all automated once the setup is completed. You can specify the time-window when it is okay to make the reminder calls. You can configure stuff like..when do u want the reminder calls to start...should they start 36 hours or 48 hours..prior to the appointment etc.
The Process that we have implemented is the system starts calling 48 hours prior to the appointment. If for some reason, the system is not able to reach the patient or leave a message 24 hours prior..then my staff calls these folks..typically these are less than 10% of my total appointments. Quite frankly speaking, the staff is not able to do the job any better than what promptalert has already done.
Their Email reminders and SMS reminders work great too. Got some very positive feedback from some of the busy patients regarding the SMS. Again, all of this is optional and we can configure on whether SMS should be sent out to or not.
I have not tried to see if the SMS can be configured at the Patient level..but have not felt the need for it so far. I can check with PromptAlert on that..knowning them, they will build that functionality based on our feedback.
On that note, They have been very co-operative..in explaining and building functionality. Infact, recently..there was a patient who claimed that they had not received a reminder call. On checking with PromptAlert, they told us the number where the system had left the message. I requested more details..guess what...promptalert actually delivered to me the voice recording of the message that was left. Ofcourse, the Customer is always right..
...but it just made my confidence in promptalert go even higher From a BizValue perspective, the entire service of prompt alert saves my staff about 1 hour of effort each day.....email and phone reminders. It cost me around $100 bucks right now for promptalert service based on usage. Clearly there is operational efficiency as well as savings in operating cost.
They have also launched a portal where u can go in and view the status of the various calls..etc..on a regular basis. They email me a daily report on the status for the next day's appointments.
Based on my feedback, They are also working on building additional services..such as reminder for payment..etc...I am looking forward to them integrating all of these services with open-dental even more to offer a total solution.
It would be great if they had a database similar to opendental on my server where they would write all the details (They do make necessary entries into the communication log of opendental though). I am just thinking about how I can go into opendental itself and if go to a reports option or any such other options..and be able to view the 'reminder / follow-up' details. Anyways, these are nice-to-have features..which one day might become a reality..with even a closer/tighter integration between the two (Opendental & PromptAlert)
Net-Net, I would highly recommend them. You might be atleast want to give them a try and I am sure, you will be pleasantly surprised. Good Luck
Cheers,
OpenSource