The holidays are closing in, which means many medical practices will be closing to enjoy time with their families and to celebrate the reason for the season: the gift of life.
However, even though your office may be closing, patients will still expect to receive appointment reminder messages. And as their trusted healthcare provider, they also expect your office to keep the lines of communication open.
With that said, there’s no time like the present (and before holiday-related stress sets in) to evaluate and set vacation days and holidays in your Vital Interaction™ system.
The good news is that configuring your reminder messages to reflect upcoming vacations and holidays is simple, quick process.
Let’s look at when and how to configure these dates in your system.
When to Configure Patient Reminder Messages for Vacations
For times when your practice’s providers take vacation and the office is closed, we suggest setting the days you will be closed as vacation days. This will ensure that Vital Interaction™ manages all reminder messages that attempt to connect patients to your office.
For example, in some voice-call messages, when the patient chooses the Decline response, we include a {connect_facility} process that connects the existing phone call to the office so the patient can be rescheduled. However, if the office is closed, then we obviously don’t want to attempt to make that connection.
So, there are essentially two options:
- Decline_Open (during business hours)
- Decline_Close (during non-business hours)
Vacation days are handled with the Decline_Close option. In almost all these cases, we simply tell the patient to call the office during business hours.
When to Configure Patient Reminder Messages for Holidays
On the other hand, when your office is closed during the holidays and you don’t want to send messages to patients, we recommend entering these dates as holidays in your Vital Interaction™ system. We’ll adjust our calculations and send messages on the day before the message was originally scheduled to be delivered.
For instance, let’s say a patient has an appointment on 12/27 and Vital Interaction was originally going to send a message two days prior, on 12/25. If 12/25 is entered as a holiday, then the message would then be sent on Sunday instead (if your practice sends messages on the weekend) or Friday (if you don’t send messages on the weekend).
It’s important to note that there is no right or wrong way to handle message setups for these special occasions. We give you the flexibility to customize the setup and delivery of reminder messages to meet your practice’s unique needs.
How to Configure Patient Reminder Messages for Vacations and Holidays
To get started updating your system settings, use our step-by-step guide, available on our support website, to walk you through the process.
Simply login to your Vital Interaction™ account and click the “Get Help” link. Then, click on “Settings” and “How to Enter Vacation Days and Holidays.”
If you still have questions or need help configuring upcoming holidays and vacations in your system, we’re a quick email away.
Patient Reminder Messages: Common Holiday Dates to Consider
As you update your Vital Interaction™ system, here are some upcoming and common holidays to consider:
2017
Friday, November 10: Veterans Day
Thursday, November 23: Thanksgiving Day
Monday, December 25: Christmas Day
2018
Monday, January 1: New Year’s Day
Monday, January 15: Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Monday, February 19: Presidents’ Day
Monday, May 28: Memorial Day
Wednesday, July 4: Independence Day
Monday, September 3: Labor Day
Monday, October 8: Columbus Day
Monday, November 12: Veterans Day
Thursday, November 22: Thanksgiving
Tuesday, December 25: Christmas Day