How do I add Check and Cancel to my call flow?
Check and Cancel can be added in several ways to call your call flow to suit your surgery and can be configured for specific appointment types
Check and Cancel works best when added to your call flow behind a menu, this gives the caller the option to self-serve or continue on to the answering group
This guide will take you through how to add Check and Cancel to your call flow and how it can be configured and maintained
Before you start you will need to; get Check and Cancel added to your service, create a dedicated API User in your instance of EMIS and add this user to the new Advanced Tab in your Service Delivery Console
See our Guide on Implementing Check and Cancel
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Step-by-step guide
Loading an existing call flow
Either through the Service Delivery Console, Numbers Section or via X-flow, Load the call flow you want to add Check and Cancel to
See our guide on Loading an existing call flow
Adding Check and Cancel to Your Call Flow
Start Block - Add your Integration API User
Step 1:
Double-click on the Start block to open the properties
Step 2:
Click on the Integrations tab
Step 3:
Select the EMIS API User from the dropdown
Step 4:
Click Save
Any changes you have made to your Start Block will be saved
Adding Check and Cancel to your Main Menu
Step 1:
Double-click on your Main Menu to open the properties
Step 2:
Click on the Visible Outputs Tab
Step 3:
Tick the option number to be used and add a label so that you can see the options on the block on the workspace
Step 4:
Save changes
Step 5:
When you Save the changes, the Menu block on the workspace will update to show the customisations made
You now have a new output to add Check and Cancel to, which will be offered to the caller from the Main Menu
Prompt Block
By adding a Prompt Block to the start of your Check and Cancel call flow you can briefly explain to the caller how your Check and Cancel will work before they start the process
Step 1:
Drag and drop the Prompt icon onto the X-flow workspace
Your Prompt block will be created in your workspace
Step 2:
Customise your Prompt; example prompt below;
NOTE: You do not want the caller to interrupt the prompt message, so set the Can Interrupt to No
See our full Prompt Block guide to edit the properties, including using Text to Speech
Patient ID Block
Step 1:
Drag and drop the Patient ID icon onto the X-flow workspace
Your Patient ID block will be created in your workspace
Step 2:
Double-click on the Patient ID block on your workspace to access the properties
Step 3:
Set your Prompt Voice to match the voice used in the rest of your call flow
Step 4:
Click Save
Any changes you have made to your Patient ID Block will be saved
Check and Cancel Block
Step 1:
Drag and drop the Check and Cancel icon onto the X-flow workspace
Your Check and Cancel block will be created in your workspace
Step 2:
Double-click on the Check and Cancel block on your workspace to access the properties
Properties Tab
Step 1:
Change the name so you can identify it easily in your call flow, if you have more than one Check and Cancel block
Step 2:
Set your prompt voice to match the voice used in the rest of your call flow
Check Tab
Step 1:
Set the Appointment Timescale. How far in advance you want the patient to be allowed to check - EMIS limitation (90 days)
Step 2:
Allow SMS Request. SMS is set to off as default. Set it to On and it sends the patient an SMS detailing the appointment details they have just checked
Step 3:
Appointments That Can Be Checked. Use the drop-down menu to select the slot types you wish patients to check or select Include All Slot Types
If no appointments are booked in a particular slot type within the last 30 days the appointment type will not be retrieved
Step 4:
The Refresh Slots button will call the EMIS API to grab all the slot types that are configured on your EMIS system. It will update the slot types that are available from the dropdowns
Cancel Tab
Surgeries can turn off cancel and only allow patients to check appointments if they prefer
Step 1:
Allow Cancelling. Set Cancelling to On to allow patients to cancel their appointments
Step 2:
Disable Cancellations. Surgeries can select a timescale after which patients cannot cancel their appointments using this service. Select your preferred timescale via the drop-down
Step 3:
Cancellation SMS. SMS is set to off as default. Set it to On for patients to receive an SMS Cancellation notification confirming the appointment they have cancelled
Step 4:
Appointments That Can Be Cancelled. Use the drop-down menu to choose which appointments are acceptable for patients to cancel themselves or select Include All Slot Types
Step 5:
The Refresh Slots button will call the EMIS API to grab all the slot types that are configured on a customer’s EMIS system. It will update the slot types that are available from the dropdowns
Step 6:
Notify of Appointment Cancellation. Add as many surgery email addresses as needed, each email address must be separated by a comma
Step 7:
Click Save
Any changes you have made to your Check and Cancel Properties Block will be saved
Connect the Dots!
Step 8:
Connect your Check and Cancel output from the Main Menu to your Check and Cancel blocks
How to handle your outputs
Patient ID Block - Not Identified output, Check and Cancel Success output and Check and Cancel Fail output need a final call route. You can;
Re-direct one or all of them to your main call flow, for example, taking them back to your calendar will make sure that the surgery is still open, if they need to speak to someone after they have Checked/Cancelled
Or,
you can add a prompt to inform the caller what to do next
Not Identified - best practice
Where a patient has not been successfully identified the call needs to be redirected. Do not add a hang-up as this will frustrate patients. Instead, you can direct the call back into the call flow during opening hours. If a patient is unidentified using the service out of hours there should be clear messaging about what the patient can do next i.e. suggest a time/number to call back on the next working day.
Deploy
Step 1:
At the top of your call flow you will now see the undeployed version warning
Step 2:
If you are happy with your call flow - Deploy your call flow to make it live
Step 3:
When prompted, add a Deployment description. This helps you go back to previous deployed versions of your call flow, if you need to
Step 4:
Click Deploy
See our guide to Testing your call flow
Check and Cancel Call Flow Examples
Check and Cancel on a main call flow
You can offer Check and Cancel during your call flow so that patients have heard your greeting and any personalised informational messages before being offered the appointment management self-serve option through your main menu
The example below shows one Check and Cancel created for all appointment types
By offering Check and Cancel before a calendar mode callers can use the self-serve option even when your phones are closed or not taking calls such as out of hours, on bank holidays or when you are training
To do this change your prompt for each output from your calendar to a menu and add Check and Cancel as a Visible output
Check and Cancel on a Group
You can offer Check and Cancel once the caller has selected a specific call Group from your main menu
The example below shows a menu added before the Appointments group, giving the caller another chance to self-serve before speaking to a team member
Check and Cancel for specific appointment types
The two examples below show different ways of handling Check and Cancel for specific appointment types (e.g. Flu Clinic)
This example shows Flu Clinic Check and Cancel added as a main menu option, when you create this check and cancel make sure you you specify your appointment slot type
This example shows a specific appointment type Check and Cancel added to the the Appointments group menu
Once the caller has chosen to go through to the Appointments group from the main menu, they are offered the opportunity to Check and Cancel all appointments, Check and Cancel the Flu Clinic only, or go through to the Appointments team
Dedicated Check and Cancel Phone Line
Surgeries can also decide to implement a dedicated Check and Cancel number, this will allow their patients the ability to use this service outside of surgery operating hours
You can add a new Check and Cancel call flow with a template, through the Numbers Tab of the Service Delivery Console
See our guide on Using a template to build a call flow
Patient Experience
We recommend surgeries use this prompt to provide information on the next steps, should they not be identified. You can include other X-flow blocks to build a bespoke dedicated Check and Cancel Call Flow.
Example Prompt
See our Introduction of Check and Cancel for more information on the
Patient Experience