Send automated appointment reminders that allow patients to confirm or cancel their appointments directly from the reminder message, up to 24 hours before the appointment. By allowing patients to respond with a simple reply, practices can keep schedules accurate and up to date, reduce no-shows, and quickly identify appointment slots that become available due to cancellations.

Two-way reminders streamline appointment management by automatically updating appointment statuses based on patient responses, minimizing the need for manual follow-up calls and reducing administrative workload. This feature also improves communication between patients and staff by providing a convenient and efficient way for patients to manage their appointments. 

Enable two-way reminders

To enable Two-Way Appointment Reminders, navigate to the Utilities and click Patient Reminder, then Company Preferences. 

Locate the Allow Replies Until 24 hours Before Appointment preference, which is set to No by default, select Yes to enable. When enabled, SMS reminders will automatically include instructions for patients to reply "Yes" to confirm or "No" to cancel, alongside the standard "Stop" to opt-out message. If disabled, only the opt-out option is shown. 

• When you hover over the information icon next to the preference, a tooltip will appear: 
  • “Enabling this preference will allow patients to confirm or cancel appointments via SMS. Appointment statuses will be updated based on the patient’s reply. You will be charged for patient replies and autoresponses at the same cost as the reminders you choose to send.” 
• When you hover over the information icon next to the On Same Day setting, the following tooltip will appear: 
  • “When Allow Replies Until 24 Hours Before Appointment is enabled, replies to same-day reminders will not update the appointment status. Instead, patients will be instructed to contact the office to confirm or cancel their appointment.”

Reminder composer

The Reminder Composer includes important information on top of the screen:

• With Two-Way Reminders enabled:
  "Every SMS reminder automatically includes: Reply STOP to opt out, Yes to Confirm, or No to Cancel."
• With Two-Way Reminders disabled:
  "Every SMS reminder automatically includes: Reply STOP to opt out."

When Two-Way Reminders are enabled, patients can respond directly to the reminder message to confirm or cancel their appointment. These responses are automatically processed by the system and can update the appointment status accordingly, helping practices maintain accurate schedules and reduce manual follow-up efforts.

Regardless of whether Two-Way Reminders are enabled, patients can reply STOP at any time to opt out of receiving future SMS communications.

Appointment responses 

When a patient responds to a Two-Way Appointment Reminder, the appointment status is automatically updated based on the patient's reply, and a confirmation message is sent in response.

• A "Yes" patient response indicates that the patient has confirmed the appointment and updates the appointment status to Patient Confirmed. The patient will receive an automatic reply stating:
  "Your appointment on (Appointment Date) at (Appointment Time) has been confirmed. Reply STOP to opt out"
• A "No" patient response indicates that the patient has canceled the appointment and updates the appointment status to Cancelled. The patient will receive an automatic reply stating:
  "Your appointment on (Appointment Date) at (Appointment Time) has been canceled. Reply STOP to opt out"
• A “Yes” response after a previous “No” response will confirm the appointment only if an appointment, provider and material resource availability exists. If there’s no available slot, the patient will receive an automatic reply stating: “Appointment slot unavailable. Please contact the office to schedule a  new appointment. Reply STOP to opt out”

The appointment workflow is updated on the appointment screen, allowing staff to view the date and time the patient confirmed or cancelled the appointment. 

If a patient submits multiple responses, the system applies the most recent response to the appointment associated with the latest reminder received. Patients can confirm or cancel appointments through SMS only up to 24 hours before the scheduled appointment time. 

Example 1 - Response Received More Than 24 Hours Before the Appointment 

• Appointment Date: June 8th at 11:00 AM 
• Reminder Setting: 2 days before at 10:00 AM 
• Reminder Sent: June 6th at 10:00 AM

The patient replies “Yes” on June 6th, confirming the appointment. The patient then replies “No”on June 7th at 6:00 AM, canceling the appointment. Finally, the patient replies “Yes” on June 7th at 8:00 AM. Because the response was received more than 24 hours before the appointment, the appointment is confirmed again, provided an appointment slot and provider are available. 

Example 2 - Response Received Within 24 Hours of the Appointment

• Appointment Date: June 8th at 11:00 AM
• Reminder Setting: 2 days before at 10:00 AM
• Reminder Sent: June 6th at 10:00 AM 

The patient replies “Yes” on June 6th, confirming the appointment. The patient then replies “No” on June 7th at 6:00 AM, canceling the appointment. Finally, the patient replies “Yes” on June 7th at 12:00 PM. Because this response was received within 24hrs of the appointment, the appointment status is not updated. Instead, the patient receives the message:

“Please contact the doctor's office to make changes to your appointment.”

Example 3 - Multiple Appointments and Reminders

• Appointment 1: June 3rd at 11:00 AM
• Appointment 2:  June 8th at 12:00 PM 
• Reminder Settings: - 1 week before at 10:00 AM and 2 days before at 10:00 AM

A reminder is sent on June 1st at 10:00 AM. If the patient replies “Yes” or “No”, the response affects only the appointment associated with the most recent reminder received by the patient. Responses are not automatically applied to all upcoming appointments. 

Appointment statuses 

When Two-Way Reminders are enabled, the Patient Confirmed and Canceled appointment statuses are automatically selected and designated for use with patient SMS responses. 

The Available and Default checkboxes for statuses cannot be deselected while the preference Allow Replies Until 24 hours Before Appointment is enabled. This ensures that the system can correctly process patient responses and automatically update appointment statuses based on confirmation or cancellation replies. 

When you hover over the information (i) icon, a tooltip appears displaying the following message:

"Cannot be deselected as patient reply is enabled."

To modify these settings, Allow Replies Until 24 hours Before Appointment must first be disabled in the Company Preferences.

Reminder Responses report

A new Reminder Responses report is available under Scheduler Reports. This report provides visibility into patient responses to appointment reminders and the corresponding autoresponses sent by the system. It allows staff to track appointment confirmations and cancellations, monitor patient engagement, and maintain accurate scheduling records.

To access the report, navigate to Reports and click Reminder Responses. 

An information (i) icon is displayed next to the report name. Hovering over the icon displays the following message:

• This report displays patient responses to appointment reminders and the corresponding autoresponses. Data will only appear if the Allow Replies Until 24 Hours Before Appointment reminder preference is enabled. 

When the report opens, the following message is displayed: 

• If the patient does not receive an autoresponse, the requested action was not successful and the appointment status will not be updated. 

Run report

The report can be generated using one of two search criteria:

• Appointment Date (selected by default)
• Invoice Date

Select the appropriate radio button to determine which date range will be used for the search. Depending on the option selected, the corresponding date fields will be displayed. 

Both the Date From and Date To fields are required. 

After entering the desired date range, click Run Report to display the results. 

The report contains two tabs:

• Reminder Responses
• Reminder Autoresponses

Reminder responses tab 

The Reminder Responses tab displays patient responses received for appointment reminders and includes the following columns:

• Appointment ID
• Appointment Date
• Appointment Time
• Patient Name
• Person Resource
• Appointment Location
• Phone number
• Reminder Sent Date
• Response Received Date 
• Response Received Message (Yes/No)

Reminder autoresponses tab

The Reminder Autoresponses tab displays system-generated responses sent back to patients and includes the following columns:

• Appointment ID
• Appointment Date
• Appointment Time
• Patient Name
• Person Resource
• Appointment Location
• Phone number
• Reminder Sent Date
• Autoresponse Sent Date 
• Autoresponse Sent Message
• Autoresponse Status (Delivered/Failed)
• Auto Response Failure reason

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