Coming Soon: This feature is currently in pilot. To register your interest for this feature, please complete this form
Please note: This feature is currently available for EMIS customers only
To send SMS booking links to multiple patients in one go, navigate to the Bookings Tab in the Appointments Window. The configuration of these messages is managed in the New Message Tab
Patient details can be uploaded as the recipients in bulk under the Add Patient List. A bank template can be downloaded via the Download Template button
You will need to fill out the following fields within the CSV file:
First Name (of the patient)
Last Name (of the patient)
Patient ID (unique number from the clinical system)
DoB (DD/MM/YYYY)
Mobile Number
Once this is completed, upload the CSV via the Upload CSV button (please note that there is a limit of 10k patients per upload). Once there has been an upload attempt, the amount of successful and unsuccessful attempts will be listed
By Clicking on Unsuccessful, you can view the entries that have not been uploaded, as well as the reason that they were unsuccessful
To configure the message that you send to these patients, either select a pre-existing message template, or free type into the Message Body
For more information on SMS messages and Message Templates see our Help Guide here
You will also need to select:
Appointment Slot Type: these are populated from your active slot types in EMIS
Appointment Type: either Face-to-face or Telephone
Booking Link Expiry: how long the booking link is active for. This defaults to 48 hours, but you can choose from the below options
Allow patients to decline: whether a patient can decline to book an appointment once the SMS has been received
Decline SNOMED Code: the SNOMED Code written to the clinical record if a patient declines the invitation (this is only applicable if the decline box has been ticked)
Please note: Surgery Connect does not check whether there are available appointment slots within the selected slot type. You will need to check that EMIS has the available slots before sending the booking link
If there are no appointment available when the link is accessed by a patient, they will be informed of this when trying to book
Clicking the Save Message to Record box allows you to choose whether the SMS will be written to the clinical record. This will either be automatically ticked or unticked, depending on your File SMS by Default settings
When the box is ticked, you can choose to assign a SNOMED Code to the message by clicking in the dropdown and typing the code you wish to select
Clicking Reset will clear any content in the Message Body
Once you are happy with your message content and booking link configuration, select Send SMS to send it
Via the Sent Messages tab, you can view any previously sent singular or bulk Appointment booking links. This tab will display the following information:
Date and Time the message(s) were sent
The amount of messages Sent
Slot Type
Appointment Type
Expiry
Whether the option to Decline was enabled
Message Body
You can also filter by Date, Slot Types and Appointment types in order to locate specific messages sent
For more information on Self Appointment Booking, explore our collection of Help Centre guides or take our Academy Course
If you do not have Self-Appointment booking enabled on your service, you will see the following message when accessing the Bookings tab in the Appointments Window
Self Appointment Booking is a paid for feature. For more information, click here