Setting Recall Default Values

The default recall service, length and interval can be set from the manage recall section. This can be a default for all patients or you can have defaults for patients of a certain age range, payor or provider allowing you to customise your recall strategy for different types of patients.

Go to Administration->Manage Recalls

Click the Configure Recalls button:

In the Recall Parameters screen, double-click either Dentist or Hygienist Recall Type (in this example it is Dentist) to open the Edit Recall Type window:

In the Edit Recall Type window, set the standard default recall values for Service, Length and Interval:

Note that the Length value in minutes is an override of the length that is configured for the service in the Service Setup.

How this window relates to Recall options:

By default patients will be recalled by means of the standard default values set in this window.

You can also set Overrides (see steps below), and where an override supersedes the above standard values, patients are by default recalled by means of the override parameters.

Providers can also opt to manually disable the standard defaults and the override defaults for individual patients whom they treat, and manually set recall parameters for recalling those specific patients.

If you intend using variable recall defaults, select the Overrides button (in the above Edit Recall Type window) to open the Recall Booking Service Overrides window where you can configure Override groups:

Patients who meet group criteria do not use the default recall service, appointment length or recall interval, but use parameters that have been customised for the group.

Add entries to it by choosing the age, payor, provider of the patients to be recalled.

Then set the Service, length and recall interval that this kind of patient should receive by default.

Take note of the instruction in the top of this window.

Patients will be recalled by means of the first override/category in this list that applies to them (you can re-order the list).

If no overrides/categories apply to them, they will be recalled by means of the default values for service, length and interval, as set in Edit Recall Type window (in the previous step in this procedure).

When treating specific patients, Providers still have the option to disable both of the above defaults (standard and overrides) and customise recall values in the patient file Recalls tab:

To set a default override click on the Overrides button.

In the Recall Booking Service Override window, select the +1 button to launch the Add Recall Booking Service and length Override window:

Populate the fields in the window:

Populate the Patient Group fields to identify a unique subset of patients (this must be different to other groups that you've created).

The Age drop down consists of two parts. The first part is a drop down with a choice of All, Over, Under, and Equal to. For any choice except All, an age must be selected in the second box.
The Payor drop down is a choice of all the practices active payors, with the addition of All and Private (no payor). All matches to any payor (including none), and None only matches where the payor has not been set.
The Provider dropdown is a choice of all the practice’s active providers, with the addition of All, and None. All matches to any provider (including none), and None only matches where the provider has not been set.

Populate the Recall Override Values fields to identify a recall Service, appointment Length and recall Interval in months. Each of these fields must be completed.

As with the default set, you can select any Service - either type it or click to select from the list.
The Length field cannot be zero. The selected services length will be used by default, but if this is zero, or is not the length you want, you can change it directly on the dialogue without editing the service. The length can be set anywhere from 5 mins to 8 hrs.
The Interval can be any number of months between 1 and 99.

Select OK and repeat for any further overrides you wish to set.

Back in the Recall Booking Service Overrides window, select this new Override in the list and use the Up and Down arrows to order it appropriately, remembering that patients will be recalled based on the first override in the list that applies to them, moving from top to bottom.

In other words, if a patient qualifies for more than one of the overrides the first matching override is used, so by changing the order you control priority.

If a patient doesn't match any of these overrides, they fall back to be recalled by the standard defaults.

Providers can in turn override any default settings during treatment and set custom recall values for patients.

Once you have finished click Ok to set the changes. You can now repeat this for the other recall type if you wish.