frequently asked questions

The appointment correspondence setup allows you to create defaults for a range of different appointment related events. It should be noted that SMS (Simple Message Service) messages are chargeable and require an additional service agreement for use in your dental software.

Please enter the main setup area of the program, from here click on the program icon.

Now click on appointments followed by correspondence you should be faced with a screen similar to the one below.



Book Appointment
This is the default letter to will be printed on booking an appointment; it can be any of the templates including appointment cards.

Change Appointment
When an appointment is changed, the options selected below will be available as the defaults for SMS, E-Mail and printed Letter.

Cancel Appointment
The options for SMS, E-Mail and printed Letter are available when an appointment is cancelled individually, using the block cancelations feature will give a different set of options.

Appointment Reminder
Appointment reminders are a special case, these options if set will automatically provide reminders for the patients. The following circumstances apply:

• Letter, appointment reminder letters will be printed on demand, this is completed via the Reminders report under appointments, in the reports section.

• E-Mail, these reminders are sent to the patients default E-Mail address one week prior to their appointment, we do intend to make this time period customisable in the future. You must have setup the E-Mail feature before using this option, please see FAQ: How do I setup my E-Mail account? For details.

• SMS, assuming you have a valid SMS account with Systems for Dentists Limited, you will be able to send appointment reminders to both landlines and mobile phones, the processing period is user defined, though we find the best result for avoiding FTA's (Failure to attend) is two days prior to the appointment.

It is important to ensure that the defaults are set for any reminder type you wish to send, this can be done by clicking on the Patients tab on the current screen, and checking the grid:



In the grid above I have set a default of E-Mail and SMS for all my patients, this will ensure the check box when booking an appointment is set for these reminder options. A patient can of course opt out of any form of correspondence; you simply change the options in the patients' private record.