Stacked Reminders in TopsDPX

When patients have more than one upcoming appointment on the same day, or have multiple appointments over the course of several days, consider if you want the patient to see all of the appointment times or just the earliest.

Stacked Reminders refer to how appointment reminders are delivered when a patient has multiple appointments on the same day.

• Stacked (Disable Stacked Reminders toggled OFF) is a consolidated reminder that reflects the earliest appointment time for a patient's appointment, instead of listing each appointment time separately. Below are a couple exceptions to take note.
  • Example: The practice has a "1 day before" appointment reminder configured. A patient has an appointment at 9:00am and 10:30am tomorrow. They would receive one text that says “You have an appointment at 9:00 AM tomorrow with PTek Orthodontics.”
• If there is a large enough time gap between appointments (6 Hours) on the same day, the appointments are not treated as a stacked reminder.
  • Example: The practice has a "3 day before" appointment reminder configured. A patient has a New Patient Exam at 8:00am followed by a 3:45pm Records appointment and a 4:00pm Full Banding appointment. They would receive the family text that says “You have upcoming appointments on March 21 (Lauren Bertsch at 8:00 AM and 3:45pm) with PTek Orthodontics."
• The reminder will always reference the first appt of the day regardless if it is filtered by the Patient Group.

• Non-Stacked Reminders (Disable Stacked Reminders toggled ON) sends a reminder that contains a list of individual appointment times for the patient (e.g., the reminder will list all scheduled appointments during the day)

  Example: The practice has a "1 day before" appointment reminder configured. A patient has an appointment at 9:00am and 10:30am tomorrow. They would receive one text that says “You have appointments tomorrow. (Lauren Bertsch: 9:00 AM and 10:30am ).”

  When Disable Stacked Reminders is toggled ON, the Stacked Reminders feature is disabled.

  
  

Below are example appointments with Stacked Reminders Enabled and Disabled

Disable Stacked Reminders is toggled OFF (default)

Below are examples to visually assist with understanding the Stacked Reminders behavior when Disable Stacked Reminders is toggled off.  

Text Reminder - Single Patient with multiple appointments on the same day
Email Reminder - Single Patient with multiple appointments on the same day
Confirmation Request- Single Patient with multiple appointments on the same day

Disable Stacked Reminders is toggled ON

Below are examples to visually assist with understanding the Stacked Reminders behavior when Disable Stacked Reminders is toggled on.

One Hour Reminders

Examples

• Patient has an 8am appointment followed by an appointment at 1:45p and 2:15p.

  If there is at least 6 hours between appointments, individual 1 hour reminders will be sent.

  • Disable Reminders Toggled On - The patient will receive two separate one hour reminders.  The first will be for the 8am appointment. The second will be a single reminder around 12:45p with the 1:45p and 2:15 appointment listed (if the Appointment List variable is used)
  • Disable Reminders Toggled Off - The patient will receive two separate one hour reminders.  The first will be for the 8am appointment. The second will be a single reminder around 12:45p with the 1:45p appointment listed.
• Disable Reminders Toggled On - Patient has a 1:45p, 2:15 and 3:00 appointment.  The patient will receive a single reminder around 12:45p with all three times listed.
• Disable Reminders Toggled Off - Patient has a 1:45p, 2:15 and 3:00 appointment.  The patient will receive a single reminder around 12:45p with the 1:45p appointment time listed.

With standard Appointment reminders (not Smart Remind appointment types) there is a hard coded 6 hour ‘cool down' period that has to elapse in between standard reminders. TopsDPX will provide a list of appointments in a single reminder to prevent multiple appointment reminders from sending.  

Confirmation Request Behavior with Stacked Reminders

When a patient or linked family members have multiple upcoming appointments that need to be confirmed, it's important to understand how the confirmation requests are viewed when Stacked Reminders are enabled or disabled.

When the URL link is used in a Confirmation Request and the recipient clicks the appointment URL, TopsDPX will reflect all patient appointments in the defined Confirmation Request window.

• If Disable Stacked Reminders is toggled OFF TopsDPX will only list the earliest appointment per patient, per day for confirmation purposes.
• If Disable Stacked Reminders is toggled ON, TopsDPX will list all appointment times per patient per day for confirmation purposes.

Please reference the articles below regarding Confirmation Requests for more information.