Why is my patient not receiving recall correspondences as expected?
Patients might not receive a recall as expected if their due date is not as expected - this could be due to several factors including cancelled appointments, failed attendance, issues with the recall settings, or issues with conversion from a previous system.
If your recalls aren't set up effectively, you could end up contacting patients unnecessarily and causing confusion or frustration.
If a patient has not received a recall which they should have received:
Check the patient’s next due date and recall interval is as expected. Unless amended manually, it will be the date after their last completed appointment based on your chosen interval. The date either updates manually or automatically.
Check the patient's appointment history. If a patient had an appointment booked which was later cancelled or they did not attend, this could cause a recall not to be generated until the next recall interval comes around.
Check the patient's recall history. The recall markers should indicate if a recall was generated, and whether the patient was contacted. A recall communication would not be sent if:
There is no recall marker - this means a recall was not generated for the patient.
There is a recall marker with the status 'Booked' - the status is changed to 'Booked' when an appointment of the correct type is booked for the patient.
If a patient has received a recall which they shouldn't have (eg if they have an appointment booked):
Check that the appointment booked is of the correct type.
Go to the recall marker in the patient record and find the recall marked as 'Unbooked' - look at the 'Recall type' column to see what appointment type is required.
Go to the 'Appointments' tab in the patient record, find the appointment which has been booked and check what type of appointment it is (in the 'What' column).
Check that the chosen appointment reason is set to trigger a recall. If you want that appointment type to mark a recall as booked, ensure it is selected here. Likewise, if you do not want it to mark a recall as booked, ensure it is not selected here.
If the appointment type booked does not match the recall type required, a recall will still be generated for them. Recalls will continue to be generated for the patient (even if their due date is in the past), every time recalls are run, until their due date is changed or an appointment of the correct type is booked.
If you edit your appointment and select a reason which will trigger the recall, then the recall marker will automatically be changed to 'Booked'.
If you do not want a patient to be picked up for recalls, please note:
The 'Prevent Appointment Booking' option does not stop recall messages going out if the patient is currently in a recall workflow.
To stop a patient being contacted for automatic recalls, you will need to manually remove the recall marker to stop them being picked up for recall communications.
Furthermore, remove any recall dates they have to prevent any further recall markers from generating in the future.
Why was my patient's recall sent using the wrong contact method?
A recall communication is sent based on:
The method you have chosen when setting up the automated recall.
If a patient's recall was sent using the incorrect contact method, this could be because:
The patient's preference has been changed after the recall was produced. This can be checked by Level 3 users or higher, by going to the 'Audit' tab in the patient record.