Reminder

This screen allows you to view/edit the details for each Reminder Type.  For general information on the Reminder system, see Concepts|Reminders. See also Stopper Reminders and Switch Reminders below.

The fields are as follows:
Name - its name
Description - you can use this to clarify the type of reminder
Active - uncheck the box to deactivate the Reminder Type
Group By - you can select None, Patient or Customer.  Use None if you want individual reminders generated; use Patient to group multiple reminders for the one patient on one reminder, and use Customer to group multiple reminders for the customer's patients on one reminder.  See also the Grouped Reminders discussion below.
Interactive - check this box if you want confirmation when this type of reminder is generated as a result of using a product to which the reminder is attached (such as a vaccination). Note that this sets the default setting of the Interactive flag for this reminder. However, each product that uses this reminder can have its own setting of the Interactive flag.  Specifically, this means that if you have existing products using this reminder, then altering the Interactive setting here will have no effect - you will have to go and set the Interactive flag as required for each product that uses this reminder.
Reminder Interval - the period from the time that the reminder is created until it is due
Cancel Interval - the period of time after a reminder is due that it is automatically cancelled. This should be set to be a little more than the reminder count Interval set for the "last" template that you have - ie the one with the highest Count. If you set it less than the last Interval, then the reminder will be cancelled before all the reminders that you planned have been sent.
Sensitivity Interval - the period that determines the colour of the reminder when displayed on the Patient Information & Medical records screens when you click the Reminders bell icon in the left panel. It shows as follows:

If a given reminder has a sensitivity period of two weeks,  then up until two weeks before the reminder is due, it will be shown in green; in the two weeks prior to and after the due date, it will be shown in orange; and after two weeks after the reminder date, it will be shown in red.
Note - an optional note that can be used in reporting, or on reminders, or simply as an extended description.

Counts

The Counts tab determines how reminders are sent. There should be at least one Reminder Count defined. Multiple Reminder Counts can be used so that different reminder notices are generated for the initial reminder and first, second, etc overdue notices.

The fields are as follows:
Count - this is the reminder number, 0 for the initial one, 1 for the second etc.
Interval - the period from the reminder Due Date when the reminder should be sent. The interval can be:

• negative, indicating that the reminder should be sent prior to the Due Date
• zero, indicating that the reminder should be sent on the Due Date
• positive, indicating that the reminder should be sent after the Due Date

Template - required if a Reminder Rule indicates that reminders should be emailed, SMS'ed or printed. Enter the name of template or use the binoculars to search for one. Notes:

1. The template must have its Type (see Templates) set to Patient Letter or Form, and depending on the Rules, will need to have an Email and/or SMS template specified.
2. If the reminder is being sent by SMS, then the template Content is ignored and the specified SMS Template determines the text that is SMS'ed
3. If the reminder is being sent by Email, then the specified Email Template is used to generate the email itself. If 'Email Reminders as Attachments' is checked in the Reminder Configuration settings, then the template Content is used to generate the attachment otherwise the template Content is ignored and not used.

Rules

These determine how individual Reminder Counts are sent.

A Reminder Count may specify multiple rules. These are processed in order, until one is satisfied.

Each rule contains the following options, one or more of which may be selected:

• Contact - use the customer's contacts that have Reminder purpose to determine if the reminder should be printed, emailed or SMS'ed. If multiple contacts have a Reminder purpose, then Send To determines which are used.
• Email - using the customer's preferred Email contact (or first if no preferred), email the reminder to the customer
• SMS - using the customer's preferred Phone contact (or first if no preferred) with Allow SMS enabled, send the reminder via SMS
• Print - using the customer's preferred Location contact (or first location if no preferred), print the reminder for mailing to the customer
• List - list the reminder on the Patient Reminders Report
• Export - export the reminder to a CSV file. See here for the export format.
• Send To - may be one of:
  • First - send to the first matching contact. This is the default.
    E.g. if both Email and SMS is selected, the rule is satisfied if the customer has either contact.
    The precedence is Email > SMS > Print
  • Any - send to any matching contact. If a customer doesn't have a contact, then the rule isn't satisfied.
    E.g. if both Email and SMS is selected, the rule is satisfied if the customer has either contact, and the reminder will be sent to each one
  • All - send to all specified contacts.
    If a customer doesn't have a contact, then the rule isn't satisfied.
    E.g. if both Email and SMS is selected, the rule is only satisfied if the customer has both Email and SMS contacts.
    NOTE: if a customer has multiple contacts of the same type (e.g two email addresses), only one will be selected to receive the reminder

If no rule is satisfied, then the Reminder will be processed as per List.
E.g. A Reminder Type might specify the following:

• Reminder Count = 0
  • Rule 1: Contact, Send To = All
  • Rule 2: Email,SMS, Send To = All
  • Rule 3: Print, Send To = All
• Reminder Count = 1
  • Rule 1: SMS, Print, Send To = Any

In the above, the first reminder will be sent:

• to all contacts with Reminder purpose, if there are any; else
• via SMS, if the customer has a Phone contact with Allow SMS set AND by email if the customer has an Email contact; else
• via Print, if the customer has a Location contact; else
• it will be Listed

The second reminder will be sent:

• via SMS, if the customer has a Phone contact with Allow SMS set and/or via Print, if the customer has a Location contact; else
• it will be Listed

Multiple rules may be selected. If Contact and Print is selected, and both correspond to to the same customer contact, a duplicate is not created.

Species

The Species tab is used to display and edit the species to which this reminder can apply. You don't have to use this facility. It is only needed if you want to ensure that species specific reminders are applied only to the relevant species. To adjust, click the species in the Available or Selected box and then click the > or < button respectively.

Groups

The Groups is used to display and edit the group(s) to which this reminder belongs. To adjust, click the group in the Available or Selected box and then click the > or < button respectively.
This facility is optional. It is only needed if you want to group reminders so that generating reminder B will complete an existing reminder A (for example for "Stopper" and "Switch" reminders - see below). Use Administration|Lookups|Reminder Groups to create a group named say G, and the use the Groups Tab to make both reminders A and B members of group G.

 

"Stopper" Reminders
You may want to create a special reminder whose purpose is simply to complete other reminders. Consider the following:

Senario - have a new puppy and so manually create Desex reminder for 4 months forward. When we do the actual Desex operation we want this reminder to disappear, but with no creation of any future reminder.

Solution:

• create a reminder group called say Desexing-Complete-G
• create the Desex reminder as normal, but with group Desexing-Complete-G
• create Desex-Complete reminder with a zero Interval and zero Cancel Interval, and also set the group Desexing-Complete-G
• for all desex products, set the reminder type as 'Desex-Complete'

Now when we invoice the Desex operation, a new Desex-Complete reminder will be created. This will complete the original Desex reminder.

 

"Switch" Reminders
A variant of the above case is where have a product whose sale needs to generate its own reminder but stop another reminder. Consider the following:

Senario - you want to offer vaccine antibody testing. That is, instead of having the client's dog vaccinated, you offer the option of having a blood test so that you can see if the dog already has enough antibodies (and therefore doesn't need to be revaccinated).

So, if a dog has one of these blood tests, then they no longer need to have a vaccination - so it should cancel out the reminder associated with the G6 vaccination. And it should create a new reminder to redo the blood test within a year.

Solution:

• Create a reminder group called say G6 Vaccination Complete-G
• It is assumed that you already have a G6 Vaccination reminder type - edit this and set its Group to 'G6 Vaccination Complete-G'
• Create 2 new reminders types
  • G6 Vaccination-Complete with a zero Interval and zero Cancel Interval and set its Group to 'G6 Vaccination Complete-G'
  • Canine Vaccination Antibody Blood Test with the required intervals
• Create the product: Vaccine Coverage Antibody Titre Test Canine (Clotted Blood/Serum) and add the two reminders 'Canine Vaccination Antibody Blood Test' and 'G6 Vaccination-Complete'

Now when we invoice the Antibody test, it will complete any G6 reminders, but also create a new Antibody test reminder.

You will probably want to also create a cat/feline/F3 of the above.

 

Grouped Reminders processing
The Group By option indicates when reminders queued for Email, SMS or Print can be grouped. It does not apply to reminders that are queued for Export or List.

If a patient has:

• multiple reminders to be sent using the same method (e.g. there is multiple reminders to be emailed); and
• those reminders have types that have Group By set to Patient

then these will use the Reminder Configuration's Patient Grouped Reminder Template, irrespective of the Template specified for the applicable reminder count.

Similarly, if a customer has:

• multiple reminders to be sent using the same method (e.g. there is multiple reminders to be printed); and
• those reminders have types that have Group By set to Customer

then these will use the Reminder Configuration's Customer Grouped Reminder Template.

Consider the following, and assume that reminders will be printed in all 4 cases:

If both the G6 and Proheart reminder types have their Group By set to Customer, then one document will generated for Sir Humphry. It will be generated using the Customer Grouped Reminders Template, and it will list the 4 reminders shown.

If both the G6 and Proheart reminder types have their Group By set to Patient, then two documents will be generated, one for Dotty, and one for Twiglet. They will be generated using the Patient Grouped Reminder Template.

If only the G6 reminder type has the Group By set to Customer, then 3 documents will be printed:

• one Grouped Reminder for the G6 vaccinations showing both Dotty and Twiglet
• two Proheart reminders, one for Dotty and one for Twiglet, generated using the Document template specified for the reminder count. 

If Twiglet did not have a G6 vaccination due, then there would still be 3 documents, with the Grouped Reminder being replaced by a G6 vaccination reminder letter for Dotty.

That is, if the Group By is selected, then the appropriate Grouped Reminder Document Template will be used - but ONLY IF there are multiple reminders.  If the customer only has one reminder (and thus there is no need to group them) then the Document Template used is that specified in the Reminder Type's Templates tab for the applicable reminder count.

A sample Grouped Reminders document template is included in the standard system.  It will need tailoring for your practice.

Any Email Template linked to Grouped Reminders template follows the same format.

If the Reminder Configuration has Email Reminders as Attachments selected, the Grouped Reminder Template will be used to generate a summary of the reminders and include them as an attachment.