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 | Automated best practice recall process. Patient recalls constitute a significant business opportunity for most Practices. Recall Manager is a productivity tool and a patient retention utility that automatically runs monthly recalls, monitors the progress of appointment bookings and measures the effectiveness of the recall strategy. It integrates seamlessly with the SMS and Online Booking modules. It is available from EXACT version 11. |
Are you worried that you'll have Recalls chaos if you automate? Are your patient recall dates are in such a chaotic state that you are wary of changing to an automated system? The Support Desk personnel have advanced tools to update your disordered recall dates for all active patients. This will enable you set up and fully utilise the powerful automation capabilities of Recall Manager, SMS and / or EasyPost to recall patients successfully. Please contact your Software of Excellence Liaison or Support Desk for details. | |
Purpose
Patient recalls constitute a significant business opportunity for most Practices. With a Provider-Patient relationship already established, and with patient contact details already known, it is possible to automate many recall actions from the EXACT software.
A productivity tool
Recall Manager automates much of the recall effort, freeing personnel resources for other tasks. Once configured for automated recalls, it will continuously recall patients as they become due, using the SMS, Email and / or EasyPost templates that are best suited for each Patient grouping.
From v12.2 recall criteria are customisable per patient grouping by means of Variable Recall Defaults. As patients migrate to or change groups their recall defaults change accordingly. For example as children age they change age-group and their default appointment duration changes accordingly.
A Business tool for retaining patients and filling the Appointment Book
EXACT continuously monitors the progress of appointment booking, and graphically displays the effectiveness of your recall strategy in the Recall Manager interface.
Use this for for monitoring, reporting and improving patient retention, and for facilitating recall bookings.
Practice Managers learn how to judge the state of recalls with just a glance at the graphical display.
A Receptionist tool
Recall Manager integrates into the Appointment Book in the form of a Recalls Tab, providing a means for Receptionists to control recalls and contact patients by means of various media, directly from the Appointment Book interface.
With Recall Manager automation, Receptionists become participant observers rather than drivers of the recall effort.
A Provider tool
Recall Manager integrates into the Patient interface with a simplification of the Recalls tab for Providers.
In Month View, Recall Manager displays all recall records for the month as interactive hyperlinks. Any edited information updates in real time throughout EXACT.
Features
Automate your recalls
Automate the recalls so that EXACT tracks every patient in the system and continuously recalls patients as they become due, using the best or preferred recall methods per patient. If well configured this recall strategy requires no practitioner inputs!
Use multiple media for these automated recalls, including SMS, Email, or EasyPost (letters, postcards etc), all customised to the practice corporate appearance.
Optionally use Variable Recall Defaults where recall criteria are customisable per patient grouping, and as patients migrate to or change groups their recall defaults change accordingly. For example as children age they change age-group and their default appointment duration changes accordingly. This is made possible by "Override Groups" - unique groupings of patient for whom custom recall parameters apply:
Customise an automated multiple-action recall strategy
You can setup multiple sequential automated recall actions that EXACT will implement based on a daily calculation of due appointments. For example:
An action to recall all those due appointments next month,
An action to recall all those who evaded recall last month, and are due appointments this month,
An action to recall all those who evaded the first and second recalls, and were due appointments last month.
An action to recall all those who have repeatedly evaded recall attempts, and were due an appointment 6 months ago.
An action to notify serial recall-evaders that the Practice will stop issuing them recalls unless notified otherwise.
Choice of default and custom-created templates
Customise recall templates per recall method (SMS, Email, EasyPost), and configure EXACT to send specific templates to specific groups of people. For example, automatically send
A custom Teen Email template to Under 19s.
A custom JJ SMS template to dentist John Jones' patients.
A custom Male EasyPost card template to male patients and a Female EasyPost card template to female patients.
A custom Reassuring Email template to patients with a history of dentist phobia.
Recall Success Percentages
From EXACT version 11.3 SP5 Success columns are included in the graphical display:
Success is defined as a patient having a booked or a completed recall appointment.
So if a practice has 100 Total Recalls in a month and only 10 patients actually book or complete their recall appointment, Success is 10/100 = 10%.
Manual recalls
You can opt to manually run the configured recall actions at times that best suit the Practice. This will run the recalls configuration in the same way as if an automated scheduled recall event had just triggered.
Automated, live, real time information
The data in the graphical display is Live, always compiled, and always up to date, and as you change parameters such as recall dates in EXACT, it updates instantly, providing a visual snapshot of your recall effectiveness at any moment
Graphical display
Graphing facilitates instant comparisons and maximises the readability of statistics:
Track the status of recall media
From the EXACT interface you can watch the recalls go out and track them by means of status indicators on the screen.
For example, track the SMS recalls to patients:
 | SMS appointment reminder delivered to recipient |
 | SMS message received by gateway but not yet delivered to recipient |
 | SMS delivery failed |
 | Reply to an SMS reminder has been received |
 | SMS status is now available |
 | SMS status unknown |
 | SMS failed or not sent to gateway |
 | SMS status unavailable |
Month View
This displays all recall records for the month, where each information record is a hyperlink, providing direct access to editable content.
Recalls Tab
Receptionists monitor and control recalls directly in the Appointment Book by means of a Recalls Tab on the Activity Bar:
Recalls Outbox
A Recalls Outbox contains a single list of all recall contacts who have not been actioned:
Audit trail for patient recall contacts
All communications are recorded in a Patient file Contacts tab, where you can see a history of contacts for each patient:
Recall Statuses
"Recall Statuses" are explained by means of a colour key in the Manage Recalls tooltip:
New recall statuses have been added to the software from version 11:
Recalls that were postponed after the recall date passed without the patient having an appointment are referred to as Moved On.
Recalls that have been set to no recall, or where the patient has been set to inactive are referred to as No Recall.
Optionally assign Therapists to Hygienist Recall Type
In earlier software versions, Therapists were assigned the Dentist Recall Type. From version 11, you can re-assign Providers for Recall Type, which is particularly useful for Therapists, who for practical reasons can be re-assigned to the Hygienist Recall Type.
Recall Prompt constraints
EXACT sets constraints on Recall Prompt functions from version 11 onwards:
Only Providers with the appropriate setting in the Recall Manager configuration see the Recall Prompt.
Receptionists do not see the Recall Prompt.
The Recall Prompt only displays when EXACT calculates that some patient recall parameter needs to change.
Adjust notification settings on-the-fly
EXACT users can quickly access the automation settings screen by means of a Recall Automation hyperlink.
Using Recall Manager is optional
It is not essential to use or monitor Recall Manager; the software functions automatically, so it does not rely on manual intervention, and can optionally be left unobtrusively running in the background.
Warning on unsent recalls
When a user opens the Recall Manager, warnings display if any recalls were not sent automatically.
Benefits
Stop losing patients
Many dental practices fail to recall their patients for return business. Recall Manager either fully automates recalls, or enables practices to manually run their recalls in order to optimise the returning-patient business opportunity.
Automation
EXACT can be configured to automate the patient recall process. It integrates so effectively with other automated functions such as SMS Replies and Online Bookings that Receptionists often watch in amazement as recalls go out to patients, patients respond, and the Appointment Book continuously ticks over.
Variable Recall Defaults
The practice can benefit from different recall defaults for different groups of patients. For example, children by default have a shorter appointment time than PRIVATE adults. Recall intervals and lengths can then automatically change for patients as their circumstances change, such as when they become eligible for a new age group or when they move to a new Payor (For Australia the groups include Healthfund, which will help sites comply with their health fund requirements.)
This strategy is explained in Variable Recall Default Values, and it brings its own subset of benefits:
Flexible recall settings.
Greater automation. For example, recall settings now automatically change when patient parameters change, such as when patients turn 18 or when they are assigned to a different Provider.
It is possible to change patient recall values by changing group membership configuration - by means of the Overrides your practice can easily update an entire group of patients to a new recall setting - for example if the practice policy changes a standard 30 minute recall slot to a 20 minute slot.
Choose any service as the recall default, even if the service has been elsewhere set up with no defined length.
Multiple Providers can book the same recall service but with appointment lengths customised for each Provider.
The recall services are now primarily configured in the recall configuration rather than in the services setup.
Free up Reception personnel
In busy practices Receptionists often put in constant effort to keep the recalls rolling in. If configured appropriately, Recall Manager has the potential to completely automate this effort, freeing personnel for other work.
Increased efficiency and profitability
Recall Manager increases chair utilisation and efficiency, driving further profit.
Even spread of patient contacts
With EXACT recalling due patients daily, the recall communications (SMS, Email, EasyPost) are spread evenly, with no bulk impact on a Practice.
Run the recalls manually, if required
A Practice can also opt to manually run recalls for configured recall actions. This has the same effect as automated recalls.
Measure and improve Recall strategies
Recall strategies are measurable, so they can be monitored for effectiveness and progressively improved.
The graphical display facilitates understanding
With a glance at the display, an experienced user can instantly grasp the recall strategy effectiveness of a Practice. For example, red equates to "bleeding", so a lot of red in the display indicates a problem with the recall strategy.
Real time display keeps you updated
The Recall Manager display is real time (Live), so users can monitor statistical and graphical changes in the display.
Recall Manager is included within the EXACT software
Recall Manager is included within the EXACT software from version 11 so it does not require separate registration.
Simpler than previous recall software
It simplifies the recall functionality of earlier software, and combines it into one interface.
Requirements for Recall Manager
Recall Manager requires EXACT software version v11.1 or later.
Note that when EXACT is updated to version 11, Recall Manager adopts the recall configuration from the earlier software, and these parameters can then later be edited if necessary.
Variable Recall Default Values requires at least EXACT v12.2.
Presentation Manager module must be switched on.
These EXACT communications tools are highly recommended for optimal automation:
SMS and SMS Replies
EasyPost
Email
Online Booking
For new installations of EXACT, recall parameters must be configured from the Recall Manager Configuration.
NOTE: Recall Manager will not attempt to contact INACTIVE patients