Open Dental Forum

Ok after a little looking into it, open dental can easily send text messages with a slight workaround as suggested here before without knowing what network a patient is on. In the email field a mobile number is entered@aparticulardomain.com with their real email address seperated by a semi colon.
aparticular domain is registered with the likes of godaddy and email set up with 'catch all' . this results in an email being sent with the cellnumber @aparticular domain being redirected to the inbox of aparticular domain. Ozeki Ng is then set up to download the email from this inbox periodically and then forward the email and delete it.Ozeki sms sends the email with the main body to the cell number in the email address,all that is needed is a cellphone plugged into the pc to act as a gsm modem and the texts are forwarded. Here in Europe free text messages can be sent for not a huge monthly commitment. The only alight hitch is the cost of Ozeki at $500 or so.

After fully testing it, this solution works. Godaddy offers a free catch all email address with any domain purchased so only 10 dollars a year ongoing. Messages are downloaded using pop3 and the sms are automatically sent with delivery reports. I used a sonyericsson k800i with its standard packaged usb data cable. What is needed ideally in the future for better functionality is open dental having a text message setup option where the cellnumber entered in the cell box can be emailed to a domain.com where the domain is the changable option. Professional text services need - (xyz).patients cell number@abc.com where abc and xyz can be configured to enable the texts to be sent and practice identified to be billed but this is a good workaround for the moment.

ok im a little slow on this one. what are you trying t do with this?

Personally I'd rather see Open Dental integrate Twilio (http://www.twilio.com/) functionality.

This provides the ability to text message patients recalls, confirmations etc without relying on the cost of a third party provider using database plug ins. Open Dental has built in email ability for the above and this extends it to mobile phone sms messaging which is much more widespread here in Ireland than email.

so do you just keep sending these reminders?

as an alternative to posting them? yes that is the idea anyway .postage is a waste of good paper and stamps as well as the resources to put the letters in the envelopes and stamp them. text messaging and email is the communication of the future, i doubt many would disagree with that, but you do?

Ps previous posts seem very excited about text functionality, this extends it professionally so that one doesnt need to know the carrier network which is crazy anyway. Any carrier can kill that functionality at any moment so data may be entered manually which is waste of time. People can also port in Europe meaning you can swap network and number stays the same how would that be of any use?
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2449&p=10327&hilit=sms#p10327

I like Twilio. Looks good. I agree it's stupid to have to enter the carrier.

Or one could use MyPatientScheduler (http://mypatientscheduler.com/j/automated-confirmations) for texting appointment reminders / confirmation requests. It automatically sends email, telephone, and SMS Text messages to patients with appointments at intervals you define. And, patients can respond to any of the messages to confirm their appointment, which is reflected immediately on your Open Dental schedule. It even updates the appointment status and notes to indicate message delivery, so you can see at a glace who has been called or SMS'd.

I see some offices receive over 80% appointment confirmation rates using MyPatientScheduler. Certainly your workload is reduced if 80% of your appointments are confirmed automatically!

Oh, and did I mention it can do online appointments and automate recare communication also? Of course, non of this real-time transaction integration would be possible without the great open architecture of Open Dental!

Regards,

-Jim

Ozeki at $500? That’s really expensive! You can try http://www.textmagic.com for cheaper web to mobile sms solutions.

jordansparks wrote:I like Twilio. Looks good. I agree it's stupid to have to enter the carrier.

I don't see what the big deal is about entering the carrier. I set up a custom field and a simple drop down list of the carriers in my area.
Sending SMS messages from OD e-mail is easy. It could be even easier if there was a separate SEND TEXT command (wherever there is a SEND EMAIL command) that would merge the cell phone number with the carrier's SMS address. Seems like a very simple thing to setup.

Hersheydmd- I am very interested in how you configured this and how you utilize it. Where did you set up the custom field and drop-down list?
Thanks...Joe

Joe Gordon wrote:Hersheydmd- I am very interested in how you configured this and how you utilize it. Where did you set up the custom field and drop-down list?
Thanks...Joe

Joe,
I posted this in a different thread (viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2449)

Hersheydmd wrote:So, I added a patient field (drop down) for the cell phone carrier, and I put in the most common carriers in our area.
It would be even nicer, if the field were on the Edit Patient Information window, next to or below the Wireless phone field.

To set up a new Cell Phone Carrier patient field go to SETUP --> PATIENT FIELD DEFS --> ADD --> field name = CELL PHONE CARRIER -> field type = PICKLIST --> type your list, one carrier per line.

You need to know the e-mail address for each carrier you listed and put it on an index card.
Verizon (10 digit number @vtext.com),
AT&T (10 digit number @txt.att.net),
SprintPCS (10 digit number@ messaging.sprintpcs.com),
T-Mobile (10 digit number@ tmomail.net),
Virgin Mobile (10 digit number @mobl.com),
SprintNextel (10 digit number @messaging.nextel.com)

In Open Dental, we enter 2 (two) email addresses separated by comma in the Email section:
1-the patient email address and
2- the cell phone number converted to Email
both separated by comma and a space; for example:
E-mail: sample@hotmail.com, 1234567890@vtext.com

HOPE THIS HELPS

Yes, this helps. Just read through the other post you referred to, and I get the whole thing. Many thanks to you and Richard and all others contributing. I have been hoping for an sms feature and full integration in OD to streamline pt communications. This will reduce no-shows and day-of cancellations & save staff hours and time spent tying up the phone lines.

One of the features I proposed and paid for was the AskToArriveEarly & TimeAskedToArrive fields. This was primarily for the families who are chronically late (10,15,20,30min), and/or forget every appt, despite all the confirmation calls including 7am same day. We haven't started texting yet, but should help as you all suggest. Seems like maybe these completely disorganized people won't answer their phones with full mailboxes, but may check their sms's. Is it safe to assume that?
It is a hassle for the staff to continue to make 3 separate confirmation calls to these families. And they are the ones who come unglued when they are charged a canx fee.

Sorry to rant-just really hoping this sms thing will reduce these problems.

Joe Gordon wrote:Yes, this helps. Just read through the other post you referred to, and I get the whole thing. Many thanks to you and Richard and all others contributing. I have been hoping for an sms feature and full integration in OD to streamline pt communications. This will reduce no-shows and day-of cancellations & save staff hours and time spent tying up the phone lines.

One of the features I proposed and paid for was the AskToArriveEarly & TimeAskedToArrive fields. This was primarily for the families who are chronically late (10,15,20,30min), and/or forget every appt, despite all the confirmation calls including 7am same day. We haven't started texting yet, but should help as you all suggest. Seems like maybe these completely disorganized people won't answer their phones with full mailboxes, but may check their sms's. Is it safe to assume that?
It is a hassle for the staff to continue to make 3 separate confirmation calls to these families. And they are the ones who come unglued when they are charged a canx fee.

Sorry to rant-just really hoping this sms thing will reduce these problems.

Hey Joe. I know exactly how you feel. Been there.

BTW Thanks for the Arrive Early feature. I use it sometimes. Nice to have.

Sorry, this is off topic, but the only thing that came up in my search...

One of the features I proposed and paid for was the AskToArriveEarly & TimeAskedToArrive fields. This was primarily for the families who are chronically late (10,15,20,30min)...

At first I thought this was for new patients asked to arrive early to fill out paperwork. But if I set that in the patient section it would be there for all appointments. Do other people use it for that and if so, do you just add that time in the appointment edit window instead of the patient section?

For patients who are habitually late, add it in the patient window so it will be there for all appointments.
If you want it just for a particular appointment (for example, you want the patient to arrive early to update all their forms) then just put it in that appt edit window.