Reminders by Text and Email

What is a AGD Patient Alerts' Appointment Confirmation and how does it work?

AGD Patient Alerts automatically delivers all of your appointment confirmations by text message and e-mail (voice too but this comes with a monthly fee) daily.

AGD Patient Alerts seamlessly integrates with your practice management software and is fully automated. Once all text messages and e-mails (and calls) are delivered, we provide your staff with a full delivery report status.

How do I know when an Appointment has been conformed via their email? In the sysytem I see deliveries but I don't know where to look for confirmed, so our patients do not get a text, email & a call.

When a patient receives an Appointment Reminder email there is a Confirm button. Once the patient clicks this you receive an email to say that the patient has confirmed their appointment. The email you receive provides the patient name and appointment time and date.

If you are using AGD Patient Alerts telephone calls we send you an email 1 1/2 after the calls were first sent. In that email you get a breakdown as to what patients received the call, if they listened live and for how many seconds, if it went to voice mail and for how many seconds or if for any reason we were unable to deliver the call. This data is also available in your online account

If the patient confirms via email does the system still sends a text?

The email and text message reminders are delivered to the patient at the same time. If the patient confirms via email they will have received a text message reminder at the same time. When it comes to Appt. Reminders more is ofter better.


When we send out e-mails to confirm our patients appointments is there any way to add a cancellation fee reminder?

Yes, absolutely.

Log into your account and follow these steps.

1. Click the "Appointment" tab
2. Click "Configure Email"
3. Add or edit the ":Personal Message" area.
4. Click "Submit"
5. Click "Configure Email"
6. Click "View" and you will see the new verbiage that your patients receive.

Am I able to send instant e-mails or text to pts added to the schedule since the reminders were sent?

Yes, Use the Campaign feature

Can my PMS show that an appointment has been confirmed?

While technically possible to push data back into your software (show an appointment has been confirmed) AGD Patient Alerts has been advised not to do this. Software “breaks” all the time. If AGD Patient Alerts was to push data back into your software and for whatever reason your software has a problem we fear that the customer support of your Practice Management Software (PMS) may find the easy option is to blame AGD Patient Alerts (even though we had nothing to do with the problem). From a Risk Management perspective we do not push data into the PMS.

On the positive side we do help you in two ways

1. When a patient confirms you immediately receive an email to let you know the patient has confirmed.

2. We keep track of all the confirmations for you in your AGD Patient Alerts online account.

• Log into AGD Patient Alerts
  Click the Appointments tab
  Click on the day in the calendar you want to see (remember to click the actual date/number not just the box)
  The patients for the day you select that we have sent reminders to and that have confirmed will show on the right of your screen.
  For even more information click on the Daily Sign In button.

I had a patient call and say they responded to the appointment reminder email saying she cannot make the appointment. Where would I go to see this information? I have gotten emails saying people have confirmed, but for this one in particular who canceled I didn’t receive any type of notification. How would I know when someone cancels?

Patients can NOT cancel or reschedule their appointments by email they can only confirm.

If a patient tries to reply to the email to cancel or reschedule they get a notice that informs them their response has not been sent. We do not allow patients to cancel or reschedule by email.



Appointment Reminders - Can AGD Patient Alerts be configured to have different verbiage on its reminders for different confirmations
Can AGD Patient Alerts be configured to have different verbiage on its reminders for different confirmations. For example, we confirm 1 week before the visit and verify/remind 1 day before. Can different messages be sent for these 2 types of contacts.?


Yes, AGD Patient Alerts can send out two messages.

Message 1 can be sent anywhere from 1 -6 days (you pick the number of days in advance) of the scheduled appointment. This is an Appointment Reminder message and you can edit this under the “Appointments” tab.

Message 2 is “Save The Date” reminder. This reminder goes out anywhere from 7-30 days (you pick the number of days in advance) prior to the appointment. This message can’t be edited at this time. It is the same structure as the Appointment Reminder email with the only difference being the patient is requested to Save the date. The patient can’t confirm from this reminder as it is too far in advance. They can confirm from the Appointment Reminder email which is sent 1-6 days in advance.

Where can the settings for the "Save the Date Reminder" be found?

You need to be on the computer where your AGD Patient Alerts was set up (99% of the time this is the server)

1. Go to your server (or the computer where you installed AGD Patient Alerts)
2. Click the “Start” button (bottom left of your computer screen)
3. Click “Programs” or “All Programs”
4. Look for the AGD Patient Alerts program
5. Click Concierge and then Concierge Controller
6. A box will open up. Click “Admin”
7. Click “Enable Future Sync” (there will be a tick in the box)
8. Go to "Set up and Delivery"
9. Select "Days of Operation" here you will see a tab for each day of the week. You will need to do each day individually. If you want the "Save the Date" reminders to go out 4 weeks in advance but in 28 where you are prompted e.g. on the Monday tab put in 28, next go to Tuesday etc.
10. Do this for each day you are open. Then click "Apply"
11. Click the red X at the bottom right of the screen of the box you are now in.
12. That's it, you are done.

That’s it your done.

This is no fault of AGD Patient Alerts but I wondered if a feature could be added that would help.

Out of curiosity I ran a report from my dental software and I noticed some email addresses were entered by my staff with obviously wrong addresses. They forgot the . or @ symbols so I know these emails are not getting sent out. When we use Hotmail and we send to an erroneous address, we get a message back from Hotmail saying the message was undeliverable and then we correct it.

Is it possible that AGD Patient Alerts could automatically send us a message when one of our email addresses is undeliverable?

Yes, it is possible and will be in a future release. We have a few new features that we are currently working on so this will be 2010 release.

Please remember to have your staff print the "Daily Sign In Sheet" first thing each morning. This will share with the team the patients that are coming in that day for appointments and will show you what contact points you have for each patient e.g. "Hi John, we are updating our contact information, we have your email address as john@hotmail.com is this correct?" Have your staff write all the new patient contacts points they receive each day on the "Daily Sign In Sheet" and at the end of the day have them spend 5 minutes updating your practice management software.

The Daily Sign In Sheet is located by following these steps:

1. Click the Appointments tab
2. Make sure that today's appointments are shown on the right of the screen
3. Click Daily Sign In Sheet - it is on the top right corner above the patients names.
4. Click for the printer friendly version

If you want to select the following day or any of the previous days patients simply click the date that you want to select in the calendar.

It is important that you click on the actual date (number) e.g. click on the number 7 for the 7th of the month. By clicking on the box nothing will happen you HAVE to click the actual number.

My understanding is that a patient’s email is only updated when they have a appointment reminder a dormant patient or birthday. However if I have a patient and I want to send them a campaign about an appointment , and they gave me a new email how will AGD Patient Alerts update that in their system so that i can send them a message

You are correct. With our new Campaign feature you may want to send an email or text message to all patients in your PMS.

AGD Patient Alerts may have a lag in data if the patient has provided you their most recent contact details but we have not had a reason to contact them in the time since they provided those details. So how do you get the latest data from your PMS?

1. Go to your server (or the computer where you installed AGD Patient Alerts
2. Click the “Start” button (bottom left of your computer screen
3. Click “Programs” or “All Programs”
4. Look for the AGD Patient Alerts program
5. Click Concierge and then Concierge Controller
6. A box will open up. Click “Launch Advanced”
7. Click “Upload Patients”

That’s it your done. Give it 15 minutes or so and all your latest information will be uploaded into your AGD Patient Alerts account.

How can I mark a patient "complete" or confirmed once they called our office so that they don't receive another text or email?

If a patient is on the schedule then they will get a reminder. Here's an example:

On Tuesday we send your reminders for your Thursday appointments. On Monday a patient that has an appointment on Thursday calls to confirm that they will be at their appointment. Our system will still send this patient a reminder unless you make a change in your PMS e.g. in Dentrix when you schedule an appointment for a patient you can schedule the patient as "Fixed", "ASAP" or "Open". If you mark the patient as "Open" we will not send them a reminder. If the patient is marked "Fixed" or "ASAP" they will get reminders.

You can (but we do not recommend) turn the patient "off" in your AGD Patient Alerts account (go to the patients "Notification Preferences" and turn them off for email and text messages. Keep in mind if you do this and forget to turn them "on" again we won't communicate appointment reminders to that patient again and you may think the system is not working if the patients next appointment is not sent a reminder.

Does the system know to insert the date and time of the patients upcoming appointment? I changed the verbiage to reflect what our office uses but usually when I send out emails I always include the date and time of their appointment - will the system know to insert the appropriate date and time?

Absolutely. We automatically add the time and date of the appointment in both the email and the text reminder (and the telephone call too if you use the telephone appointment reminders).

Patients sch twice in the same day

If the patients scheduled twice in the same day, will the system send 2 emails & 2 texts?

No, the patient will receive 1 email and 1 text message reminder. The reminder will have the time of the earliest scheduled appointment.


I need to know how I can set my delivery days, for example email 4 days before appt. & text one day before appt. Is this possible?

The emails and text messages go out at the same time and on the same day e.g. if you have set your reminders to go out on Monday at 10AM for Wednesday’s appointments then the text and emails will go out on Monday at 10AM.

If you have set a Future Reminder date set to 14 days then those emails and text messages will also go out at 10AM.

To see how many days in advance your appointment reminders go out you need to be at your server (the computer where AGD Patient Alerts was set up).

1. Click the “Start” button
2. Click “Programs/All Programs” button
3. Look for “AGD Patient Alerts” usually over on the far right
4. Click “Concierge” and then “Concierge Controller”
5. The Concierge will open up
6. Click “Admin”
7. Primary sync time shows you the time your Appointment Reminders are delivered at
8. If you click the “Enable Future Sync” check box then this enables the “Save the Date” reminders to be sent
9. You will want to go to “Set Up and Delivery” tab
10. Click “Days of Operation”
11. Go down to the “Future Reminders” this is a “Save the Date” email and text message. This can go out anywhere from 7-30 days in advance of the patients appointment (depending on the number you place in the box).
12. You will have to do this for each day e.g. if you want a “Save the Date” reminder to go out 14 days in advance of the appointment you will want to put 14 in the Future Reminder box for Monday, then go to the Tue tab and put 14 in the box there, same with Wed etc


Can we choose frequency of Appt reminders?

Wish I could send an email & text to my patients when they are 5 months past due and 9 months past due. Also want to send a reminder one week prior to their scheduled visits, b/c we call them to confirm the night before anyway. Would be sweet if we could customize the frequency in months or weeks prior to their scheduled visit or when they are due or past due for recall.


The good news is we already offer many of the features you are looking for.

Wish I could send an email & text to my patients when they are 5 months past due and 9 months past due.

We call this the “Dormant Patient Reactivation”. When your AGD Patient Alerts was set up this was defaulted to 12 months. However you can change this to 5 months or 9 months. Please call us and we can walk you through how to make the setting.

Also want to send a reminder one week prior to their scheduled visits, b/c we call them to confirm the night before anyway.

Yes, you can do this. You can have your reminders go out anywhere from 1-6 days in advance of the appointment (this is an appointment reminder) and anywhere from 7-30 days in advance of the appointment (this is a save the date). Call us to help you set this up. 888-771-6074.