MacPractice Engage is a new solution designed to provide appointment reminders and appointment confirmations to your patients from within the MacPractice software. It provides a powerful, flexible set of tools designed with an office workflow in mind.
This article will cover how to use MP Engage. MP Engage is a paid feature on your license. If you're interested in MP Engage, you'll need to speak with your Sales Representative.
Please note that you'll need to be running MacPractice Build 13.11 at minimum to use MacPractice Engage, and you'll need to have a Domain registered on your MacPractice License.
What are the features of MacPractice Engage?
Appointment Reminders
Recall Reminders
Confirmation Syncing
Portal that includes:
Patient Lookup
View Patient Appointment Details
Two Way SMS
Family Messaging
Message Timing & Delivery Customization
Email Widgets for Social Media and Reviews
History Reporting
MP Engage does not interact with Online Scheduling features.
Requirements to use MP Engage
Clients must be on an MP build of 13.11+ in order to use MP Engage.
Before an office can proceed with setting up MP Engage, we'll need to ensure that the office's network configuration is adequately set up. You'll need to have networking requirements completed for registering a domain and a domain must be registered from within MacPractice through ClouDNS.
This is not a task that MacPractice Support can assist with, but our XLDent IT Team or any other Network Specialist can assist with ensuring an office's network is correctly configured to use MacPractice Engage and other Domain-related services. Ports 80 and 443 must be open and forwarded to 26691 & 26692 respectively. Please note that XLDent may offer a quote for any networking related assistance.
Once these requirements are met, our Implementations Coordinator will be in touch to complete your MP Engage setup. They will walk you through the remaining setup steps and the Express Wizard.
MP Engage Setup
The following steps will be addressed by your Implementations Coordinator, but we've also highlighted the process here. If you have already been through the Onboarding Process, you can skip to the Exploring the Engage Portal section.
You'll need to add your Portal URL to MacPractice Preferences. Second, you'll need to ensure Patients are opted in via the Communications Tab of the Patients Ability. And finally, when first visiting your Portal, you'll need to go through the Express Wizard to initially configure the Portal.
Let's walk through each of these.
Adding the Portal URL to Preferences
In MacPractice Preferences > Engage, you'll see a field for the Engage Homepage URL. You can click the lock to unlock this field.
Once you've done so, you'll want to copy and paste the URL from your Registration Email that you'll receive once you've signed up for MP Engage.
Your Implementations Coordinator will assist you with this step when they walk you through the feature and help you with configuration.
Once this is done, you can close the Preferences window.
Patient Communications Settings and Opting Patients In
In the Patient tab in MacPractice, the Communication Subtab contains Opt-In Settings, controlling whether a Patient has opted in to receive Automatic Appointment Reminders and Communications. You'll want to set these according to your patients' wishes.
There is also a button to open the patient in the Engage ability. We'll cover the functionality in the Engage Portal later in the article.
We have also implemented a Database Utility to update these checkboxes for all the patients in your database.
To access this Database Utility, you'll need to navigate to the Managers Ability > Database Utilities, and search for "Update Patient Appointment Reminder Settings".
Remember that we do advise that an office make a backup of your database prior to using any Database Utility as a precaution to avoid any unintentional changes.
Setting up Reminder Colors in the Schedule
Prior to using MacPractice Engage, it is important to configure your Schedule's Appointment Display to reflect when an appointment is confirmed in the Engage Portal.
It is important to note that appointments that have been confirmed in the Engage Portal will not auto-confirm in MacPractice's Schedule Ability.
However, the Appointment's Reminder Status in MacPractice will toggle to Confirmed when a patient confirms an appointment reminder from the Engage Portal. The Reminder Status will also toggle in MacPractice if you use the "Confirm in PMS" function in the Appointment Confirmation Inbox. We'll go into further detail on the Appointment Confirmation Inbox later in the article.
Therefore, we'll want to configure your Appointment Display settings so that one of the appointment areas is set to "Reminder Status". By doing this, a MacPractice user reviewing the schedule will be able to tell when an appointment has been Confirmed in the Engage Portal, and thus you can manually flip that status for that appointment in MacPractice readily.
Setting up by using the Express Wizard
When a user first accesses the Engage Portal, they'll be presented with the Express Wizard. You'll click the green "Get Started Now" button to begin setting up your Engage Portal. This will configure your Reminders and Confirmations and other details for your practice. Our Implementation Coordinator will walk you through the Express Wizard for your Office in all likelihood, but we'll leave these instructions here that walk you through each step for later reference.
You will need to access the Engage Portal from a browser window first to fully utilize the Express Wizard, as part of the Express Wizard deals with enabling pop-ups in order to facilitate notifications. Popups are not able to open in the MacPractice software.
It's important to note that while the Express Wizard does a good job of getting you up and running quickly, there are plenty of options available to fine tune your reminders to better fit your practice's needs. You may also need to customize your messages in Email and SMS Templates. These topics will be covered later in the article.
Once you click the "Get Started Now" button, you'll be taken to Office Settings.
Office Settings
Here, you'll be able to set the details regarding your practice. The majority of the fields should be pulled from the details you filled out on the Registration Page step, but you can adjust these if necessary in the Settings Tab > General Settings in the left Sidebar > Office Settings. Once you're satisfied, click the "Save and Continue" button at the bottom.
Information entered into these fields can be pulled into messages. For example, the Practice SMS Name will always be pulled into your messages. It is important to note that this Name will count towards the 160 character limit in a message, so it's important to keep this succinct.
If you need to change any of this information later, you can do so when navigating from the Home Page to the Settings Page > General Settings > Office Settings.
Click Save and Continue to move on. The next screen allows you to customize your email header.
Header Customization
Here you can upload a logo to include on your e-mails, or reset the header to remove one. You can also customize any text and color included using the editing tools provided. Once you're satisfied with the formatting of your header, click the "Save and Continue" button on the lower right to move on to Popup Settings.
You can change the Email header later by navigating to Settings > General Settings > Office Settings.
Popup Settings
This section instructs the user to enable Popups on your browser. You'll want to ensure that your browser is not blocking pop-ups when using the Engage Portal, since these pop-ups will be used as notifications and you won't want to miss messages. This page of the Express Wizard will help you identify how to enable pop-ups for your browser when on the Engage Portal.
Birthday Notifications
The next page in the wizard assists the office with Birthday messages. Here the office can see a preview of a birthday message and text to be sent to patients on their birthday. The office can turn this option on and off as desired, and also set a time of day when a birthday notification should go out.
The Birthday Notification image cannot be changed from the Express Wizard. There are a few templates available that you can review later with additional options.
Once you're satisfied, continue on by clicking the Save and Continue button to take you to the Confirmations window.
Confirmations
Confirmation Notifications allow you to set when a 1st, 2nd, and/or Voice Confirmation are sent to patients. You can use the Send out _blank_ days selector to tweak when a confirmation should be sent out prior to an appointment, or disable a particular confirmation.
It is important to clarify that when a 2nd confirmation is set to Enabled, that this Confirmation will only be sent if there was no response to the 1st Confirmation request. If the patient responds to the 1st confirmation, the 2nd confirmation will not be sent.
If an appointment was created after a first confirmation would ordinarily be sent out (for example, if the 1st confirmation is set to go out in 5 days, and the appointment was made within 4 days), the confirmation will not go out. However, if the 2nd confirmation is set to go out (in the same example, if the 2nd confirmation was set to go out 3 days prior) it will be sent. Voice Confirmations work the same way.
Once you're satisfied with the options set, continue on to Early Reminders.
Early Reminders
The next page is where the office can set Early Reminders. Early Reminders give patients a heads up about their upcoming appointment. If responded to, Early Reminders will not confirm an appointment like a Confirmation message would.
This can be enabled/disabled, set a timeframe before an appointment and set the time of day the messages should be sent out.
When you're ready to move on to Same Day Reminders, click Save & Continue.
Same Day Reminders
The next page is to allow the offices to set messages for Same Day Reminders. This is a simple reminder sent to the patient so they don't forget their appointment the day of. If responded to, Same Day Reminders will not confirm an appointment like a Confirmation message would.
This can be turned on and off as desired, and you can set a timeframe before the appointment and set a time to not send reminders before.
It is important to note here that if an appointment is scheduled prior to the time a Same Day Notification typically would go out, they will not receive a Same Day Notification.
When satisfied, click Save & Continue to move onto Recalls.
Recall Notifications
The next page is where Recall Notifications can be set. Much like the prior sections, each setting, including voice, can be enabled/disabled depending on the office’s preference.
If all contact details for a given patient are filled out, and all of your Recall Notifications are turned on, a patient could feasibly receive an Email notification, a SMS notification, and a Voice call notification for that one Recall Notification. You may want to consider this and ensure you understand how many reminders are going out.
Once they’re happy with the changes, they can click Save & Continue to move to the final page!
Send Messages / Final Page
On the final Send Messages page, the office has the chance to review their Automated Messaging and Automated recall timelines. This gives the office a good visual representation of when their messages will go out, and how many.
There is also a check box to “Send out today’s reminders now”. This box is checked by default and will immediately send out any reminders that should go out today based on the options you've selected in the Express Wizard. In most cases, this checkbox should not be checked until AFTER the Portal URL is entered into MacPractice, and you've also had a chance to fully review all the options available.
Once you are satisfied, click Finish to continue. You will now be taken to the Home Page, where you can begin to explore the Engage Portal.
Exploring the Engage Portal
There are two ways to access your Engage Portal: Via the Engage Ability, or by navigating to the URL provided in your Registration email. The advantage of using the browser over the integrated Ability in MacPractice is that the browser window will issue popup notifications if you receive messages.
For this reason, we recommend opening the Engage Portal in a browser window so that you can receive these popup notifications, and then using the Engage Ability to access individual Patients as needed.
When you first access the Engage Portal after going through the Express Wizard, you'll first be placed on the Home Page.
Home Page
The Home Page gives an overview of appointments and communication for offices with their patients. At the top of the window, you'll see your navigation buttons allowing you to explore the different areas of the Engage Portal. We'll cover each of these other areas in the following sections. If you ever need to return to the Home Page, you can simply click the Home button.
Whenever you see a Patient's Name underlined, you can click that Patient's Name to be brought to the Patients Page with this patient selected, which is useful if you're trying to discern what communications have been sent to that particular patient.
The Home Page also contains an Alerts Inbox, the SMS Inbox where incoming messages are displayed, and any Appointment Confirmations received. Clicking on these sections will open up a Popup window with more details regarding that section. Let's cover each of these in turn, starting with the SMS Inbox.
SMS Inbox
On the Home Page, you'll only be able to see 4 received SMSes, which means you'll need to click on the SMS Inbox to review all received SMS messages. The Inbox will show you the Patient Name, the number they are texting from, the received date of the message, and a short preview of the received message.
You can also respond to received SMS messages by clicking the Reply button. You can click the blue message to open up the whole conversation if needed.
When responding to a text from the SMS Inbox, the Practice SMS Name will automatically be included, as shown in the below image. You can use the SMS template drop down to select from your available SMS Templates. You'll be able to see how many characters you have available to use at the bottom.
We strongly recommend archiving all messages that have been seen that do not require further action. You can use the checkboxes to the left to select which messages to archive, then use the X button in the upper left to archive those checked messages.
If you need to access archived messages, you can click the "Go To Archives" link at the top. However, you cannot unarchive messages that have been archived.
Appointment Confirmations
The Appointment Confirmations Inbox is structured very similarly to the SMS Inbox, with a few additions. You'll note that there is an "In PMS" column with green checkboxes. This indicates whether the Reminder Status option in the MacPractice Schedule is displaying. Keep in mind that the Appointment Status in MacPractice is not updated, just the Reminder Status for the purposes of Reminder colors.
MP Engage is able to parse confirmation responses and automatically mark an appointment as confirmed if the following is received from that confirmation prompt: Y, Yes, OK, okay, confirm, confirmed, and "si" (Spanish for yes). However, MP Engage does not recognize emojis.
If you receive a confirmation response that doesn't fall within this range, such as "I'll be there", you'll need to check the Appointment in the leftmost column, and then use the Pencil Icon in the upper left hand corner. The Pencil Icon is "Confirm in PMS", which marks the appointment as confirmed in the Portal, and will mark the Appointment's Reminder Status as confirmed in MacPractice. Keep in mind that the Appointment Status in MacPractice is not updated, just the Reminder Status for the purposes of Reminder colors.
Much like the SMS Inbox, we strongly recommend that you archive all appointment confirmation messages once they are resolved. You'll need to check this periodically to ensure that you are handling responses as needed. You can absolutely archive replies to confirmations that indicate they will not be showing to an appointment, although you will need to address this change in MacPractice's schedule.
You can access archived confirmations by clicking the Go To Archives link at the top. However, confirmations cannot be un-archived.
Sidebar
On the left pane as shown in the above screenshot, you can see today’s appointments, tomorrow's appointments, and stats for the day. Clicking on the corresponding link for today or tomorrow's appointments.
One thing to note is the link in Tomorrow's Schedule, when clicked, will take you to an Unconfirmed Breakdown of the following day.
This is a useful tool to review the patients that have not confirmed yet. It may be prudent to check each individual patient to ensure that your contact methods are properly set, and that they have received confirmation notifications. It's good to remember that not all patients are going to be timely when confirming. The best you can do is to ensure that notifications are indeed going out as expected via the Patients Page.
Next, we'll break down the additional pages that you can reach from the navigation buttons at the top of the Portal.
Appointments Page
The Appointments Page at the top of the portal will provide the office with a schedule breakdown. By default, when you first enter the Appointments Tab, it will display today's scheduled reminders and confirmations.
You can use the date range and provider/appointment filters to narrow and expand the results further. Clicking the "Go" or "Filter" buttons will populate the lower table with the results for that date range or filter respectively.
Right above the Schedule Breakdown, but below the calendar, you'll see buttons to Print and Export the list of appointments in the Schedule Breakdown. The exported breakdown will be an Excel file.
You'll note that there are contact buttons on the leftmost column for each patient. The buttons will be displayed IF the patient has the appropriate contact method details in their patient record in MacPractice. For example, if an e-mail address is not entered into the patient record, the @ email button in the Contact column will be missing.
If a Contact method is greyed out here, that indicates that the patient has opted out of that communication method. We'll go more into patients opting out in the Patients Page.
Below the filters, you can use the "Send Message to All Patients Below" button to send a message to all patients in that list in the event of a cancellation for a day, specific provider or specific appointment type. Whomever is displayed in the schedule breakdown will be a recipient for this message, so you'll want to ensure that your search criteria is correct before using this feature. When you click this button, you'll be taken to the Communications Center Page where you can complete the message.
Clicking a patient's name will take you directly to the Patient Tab for this patient's information. You can also manually confirm an appointment by moving the mouse over the Unconfirmed status in red, and clicking the Confirm button that pops up. This will update the Appointment Status in MacPractice to Confirmed as well, so there's no need to bounce back and forth between the software and the Engage Portal.
If a Confirmation is received, the confirmation method will be displayed here as well. You can mouse over a confirmation to verify the method in the tooltip, as shown in the below screenshot.
It is important to note that MacPractice confirmations and MP Engage confirmations are two separate systems and they do not interact with each other. If you confirm an appointment in MacPractice's schedule, you'll also need to separately confirm that appointment in MP Engage!
Patients Page
The Patients Page is where offices can search for and pull up details of a specific patient. You can use the search field or the available filter criteria to pull a corresponding list of patients.
The list of patients can be filtered by those with invalid information (such as email, cell or home phone) for use when ensuring patients all have appropriate contact methods filled out.
There is also a link below the Quick Filter, "Show patients who sent an Opt-Out Message". This list contains any patients who have sent a STOP or CANCEL message after receiving a reminder, indicating that they wish to opt out. MP Engage will automatically opt out patients who send this kind of response.
When patients are listed, you'll be able to see their Patient ID (this may not necessarily correspond with the MacPractice Patient ID), their home phone, cell phone, email, age, and gender. By clicking on a patient's name, you'll be taken to that patient's details.
You can also export this list, or you can click the "Send Message to All Patients Below" to be taken to the Communication Center to craft a custom message to go out to these patients generated in the list.
Refreshing Patient Data
It's important to note that patient details shown on the left hand side of the Patients Page will update from MacPractice every day at 4 PM Central Standard Time. If a change is made earlier in the day, it may not be reflected immediately until this time. If you have need to update a patient's information immediately, you'll need to use the Refresh Details link above the Patient's name, as shown in the below screenshot. This will update MP Engage's information with anything changed on MP side.
Patient Tags
On the left side of the Patient Page with a patient selected, you'll see a section called Patient Tags. This is where you can assign particular tags to a patient, such as if they are a Spanish speaker, or any other purpose. To add a tag to a patient, simply toggle the desired tag on or off as needed.
You can add or adjust Tags in the Settings Page > Advanced Settings > Patient Tags.
There is no bulk method for tagging patients. This must be done individually.
Communication Preferences
Below Patient Tags, you'll see Communication Preferences. This is where you can control whether the patient receives emails, texts, or phone calls. It will also control the types of messages that are allowed for this patient, as shown in the screenshot below:
If a patient responds to a message or confirmation with "Unsubscribe", "Stop", "Cancel" they will automatically be sent a message confirming they are opting out, and these communication methods will be toggled off.
Communication History, Scheduled Appointments, Previous Appointments
In the center of the Patients Page with a patient selected, you'll see the Communication History table, which displays all reminders and confirmations sent to the patient. This is a great place to verify that reminders have gone out to this patient appropriately, and the status of said messages.
Scheduled Appointments and Previous Appointments are relatively self-explanatory, and will also help you identify general trends on whether this patient confirms appointments or not.
Communication Center Page
The Communication Center is where offices can go to send custom-created messages to specific patients based on filtered criteria. If you're trying to track communications that have been sent out, you can look at either the individual Patient Page or the History Page.
This tab is split into three sections:
At the bottom of each of these tabs will be a set of fields devoted to sending test messages to confirm your crafted message will display as intended. You can set a specific address to send the test to.
Recall Wizard
In the Recall Wizard Tab, you can filter the list of patients by their recall date to customize a message to your patients. This will typically include information for missed recalls or anything they would like to send to them en masse.
The Recall Wizard will search for patients that have a Recall Date that falls within a custom date range. This is separate from MP Engage's automatic recall notifications, and thus should be used sparingly.
It's also important to note that if the patient does not have a recall date tied in MacPractice, patients will not populate here. Therefore, it is important to still run Recall Reports in MacPractice to ensure you don't miss any patients who should have a Recall Date!
For more information on how MacPractice handles Recalls and Follow Ups, click here.
Once you've selected the patients you wish to send a new Recall notification to, click Continue to be taken to the message editor.
Select Specific Patients
In the tab to Select Specific Patients, the office can filter their list of patients by Appointment or by Patient Detail. You select either method by clicking the drop down by "Find Patient By" at the top of the Tab.
When the office chooses to find patient by appointment, they can filter the list by date range, appointment type, provider, office (clinic), gender and age. This will diplay a list of patients to generate a message for. Using the checkbox, they can select the patients they prefer to send this communication to. The office can click continue to customize their message, as shown in the screenshot below.
If the office prefers to search for specific patients by patient detail, they can enter a Last Name, First Name, Email Address, Phone Number or Patient ID to filter the list of patients to choose. Important note: information entered here will search all fields. In the screenshot below, I searched “georges” and it shows everyone with “georges” in the email and name. The office will check the ones they want to add to the list and click Add Checked. They can remove by checking the patient in the right list and clicking Remove Checked. The office can click continue to customize their message, as shown below:
All Patients
The office can also search all patients by Gender or age and the first letter of their last name. Once they’ve selected their parameters, the office can click continue to customize their message.
Customizing Messages
On any of the aforementioned tabs, once you click Continue, you'll be able to customize the message you wish to send to the corresponding patients shown. You can customize an email, SMS or voice message to send to those patients selected in the tab.
Office can select a template or customize the message they want to send to their list of patients. They can enter a test email address (or phone number) and display name at the bottom to receive the message they are about to send.
It's important to note that if you select a template then make changes to the template in this view, the changes will not be made to the selected template. Customizations here are solely for this message only. If you'd like to adjust your Templates, you can do so in the Settings Page.
Once you're satisfied with the message and you've conducted a successful test, you can use the "Send to X Patients" button at the upper right. You can use the "Override Opt Out" checkbox in the case of an emergency closure, but we strongly recommend not using this feature except as a last resort.
Settings Page
The Settings Page is the hub for all of your reminders and confirmation schemes. Many of these are initially configured when you go through the Express Wizard, but the Settings Page is where you can fine-tune MP Engage to meet your practice's reminder needs.
Here, you'll be able to adjust the frequency and content of your reminders and confirmations. You'll also be able to adjust your Email and SMS Templates here in the Settings Page.
You'll note that there are three tabs. These tabs display the overall flow of your Automated Messaging, your Automated Recalls, and any Family Messaging you have configured. To make changes to a type of reminder, you'll want to use the Settings Sidebar on the side, under Message Settings. Expanding that menu will display all the different types of reminders and confirmations that can be sent.
This is a great place to get an overview of how your reminders are set up and to identify any potential issues with that scheme. You can also click a particular notification type to bring up that particular notification and customize them, which is covered in Configuring Reminders.
Let's break each tab down further down further:
Automated Messaging
The first tab in the Settings Page is Automated Messaging. This is where the office can see the timeline of their automated messaging. This provides information about what is being sent when and which communication method is used via the icons on each reminder.
Clicking on the Color and Icon Key link will display a legend for the information being displayed.
Automated Recall
The Automated Recall tab shows the same timeline like Automated Messaging but applicable to recalls. Just as you can with Automated Messaging, the office can click on the recall reminder to make any adjustments they’d like without navigating to it in the settings sidebar!
Family Messaging
Engage has the ability to send messages for family members! Setting the ability to send to guarantors and multiple appointments for family members can be found in Advanced Settings in the sidebar.
Specific templates can be set for family messaging in Family Message Settings in the sidebar. This current view displays the timeline for those notifications. The same color and icon key can be found as a legend to what the colors and icons mean! Clickin on the notification will allow the office to make changes to what is being sent and when without navigating to that message settings to make adjustments.
Settings Sidebar
The Settings Sidebar is where you'll go when you want to adjust the configuration of how MP Engage is working.
This is where you'll go to adjust the details of reminders, how they're set up, when they'll be sent, etc. via the Message Settings.
General Settings
Office Settings: Office Settings is where the office can add/update their settings that are specific to the office. This includes the ability to customize the email images!
Email Widgets, Reviews, and Surveys: Email Widgets, Reviews & Surveys allow offices to add links to their email messages for social media, referral links, reputation management links and map links to find the office.Unfortunately, http://Grade.Us cannot be integrated in MP Engage's widgets.
Refresh PMS Data: The "Refresh Practice Management Software Data" option allows the user to update the Engage Portal with the latest information from MacPractice This data is normally refreshed quite consistently, but if you notice something hasn't loaded, this option will refresh data manually. Remember that data is normally refreshed at 4 PM Central Standard Time every day.
When you click this link, a status message will appear indicating how many records were updated!Change Password: The Change Password option will allow you to change their Engage Portal password. The old password is required to change passwords to a new one.
Message Settings
Birthdays: In the Engage Portal, offices will have the capability to send birthday emails and/or texts! They will be able to customize the email/text messages and select a template to start with! They can choose what time they would like to send these at!
Early Reminders: Early Reminders are typically reminders set well in advance of the Patient’s Appointment. This is just reminding them about an upcoming appointment with no call to action. If responded to, they will not confirm an appointment like a Confirmation would.
Early Reminders can be either Email, SMS or Voice. Many offices prefer Email and/or SMS. These can be enabled or disabled per the office’s preference. Offices can set how early in advance to send the message, specify the time at which to send the message and apply this to all/set providers and all/set appointment types.Same Day Reminders: Same Day Reminders are sent the day of the appointment to remind the patient that their appointment is today! They will not confirm an appointment if responded to. This reminder can be enabled or disabled per the office’s preference as well as the communication method for these - email and/or SMS. The office can customize how far before the appointment but also specify that they would like to not send these reminders before a specific time. It is important to note that if an office would like to send a reminder 1 hour before an appointment, their “Not Before” time matters. In the screenshot you will see that they have an hour before appointment but have the “Not Before” time set to 7:30 AM. This means that appointments at 8 or 815 AM will not receive a same day reminder. It can also be applicable to all/set providers and/or all/set appointment types.
Confirmations: Offices will be able to customize their frequency for sending confirmation reminders. This email does have a call to action: to confirm their appointment.
Pre/Post Appt Msg: Engage has the capability of sending messages before or after a patient’s appointment. Many times, offices want to send a welcome letter to a new patient before their appointment, or send something like a review request following their appointment. They can also set up Pre and Post Op messages with the many templates available! These can be sent via email or text in a set time before or after the appointment and at a certain time in the day!
Day Of Appt Msg: Similar to Pre and Post Appointment messages, Day of Appointment messages are sent before or after the appointment except these messages are sent within hours of the appointment (before or after) and not before a certain time of the day.
Continuing Care: Engage offers the ability to inform a patient if they are due for a periodic exam of some sort. This is a reminder for recalls/followups that might not have an appointment scheduled. These messages have a call to action which requests that the patient calls to get their appointment scheduled and is based off their last appointment date.
Recall: Recalls are similar to Continuing Care (above) and can even have the same templates set - the difference is that the call to action to get their appointment scheduled is based off their recall date.
Email & SMS Templates: The office can create their own email and SMS templates or duplicate existing ones to modify. The office will use a basic text editor to create the template and can use “template keywords” as pull fields in the subject and body (or message for SMS). Once they are happy with the message to send, they can send to a test email or phone number to ensure they like the message before they use it!
Voice Templates: Voice templates are similar to email and SMS but they can craft a voice message to send to patients if they choose! The office will enter the voice message that they would like sent out and can use “template keywords” to act as pull fields for those messages. Once this is set, they can test a number to call to ensure the message is what they want!
Delayed Messaging Status: The Delayed Messaging Status area contains all messages that have been marked as "Send Later" when drafting messages in the Communications Center. You can select a day to pull up to see what messages are slated to be sent that day. You can change the time or cancel these delayed messages.
Stop Messages: Stop Messages allow an office to stop all confirmations and reminder messages for appointments on a specific day. They can choose the day(s) and select for the whole office or by provider.
Family Message Settings
Family Message Settings will allow an office to add/customize messages sent for family messaging. When reminders/confirmations are sent for a family, the wording needs to be adjusted for more than one person - this is where these settings will help the office better communicate multiple appointments! There are a few additional settings for how the office would like to handle these messages in Advanced Settings.
Each option within Family Message Settings is similar to the options under Message Settings except they can set them up to tailor to the messaging needs for the family instead of the individual. For information on how this is set up, click the links to review information previously documented in Message Settings.
Early Reminders
Same Day Reminders
Confirmations
Email & SMS Templates
Voice Templates
Advanced Settings
Advanced Settings will allow an office to adjust settings to fit their needs. They can also manually send messages if needed from within this area.
Popup Settings: Popup Settings apply to the popups received for notifications. Having these enabled and visible will take away the worry about seeing important messages from their patients! They can adjust these settings to whatever is most convenient for them from the position of the popup, focus and visibility.
Voice Settings: Voice Settings allows offices to change the days where an office doesn’t want voice messages to go out to patients. Most common will be setting their weekend days to call patients on a weekday.
Patient Status: Patient Status is a report for the office where they can see validity in the contact methods entered in MacPractice. This screen will display active patient count, patients with valid emails and patients with valid cell. Below the overview, it will display a list of any patients that have some type of data error. This list will contain the patient ID, last name and first name for easy identification in MacPractice. They can also see the reason for the data error and the information entered in the corresponding field.
Patient Tags: Offices can set up tags to add to their patients in the Engage Portal. This will allow offices to easily filter in the Patients and Appointments tabs by a tag they create. These can be set per patient on the patient page.
Send Messages Manually: Offices have the option to send messages manually at any given time. In this area they can choose SMS and/or email and which notifications they would like to send out.
Advanced Settings: Advanced Settings is where an office can make adjustments to how data is handled. In here they can:
Select date format
Enable/Disable incoming appointment confirmations to be written back to MacPractice
How to handle if cell numbers are saved in the home number field
How to handle if home numbers are saved in the cell number field
Enable/Disable using guarantor contact information when sending notifications
Enable/Disable sending 1 message for the first of multiple appointments in one day
History Tab
The History Tab contains a breakdown of all communications sent and received through the Engage Portal. You can use the filter fields and buttons to identify how many confirmations, reminders, and other communications have gone out during that time period. This is mostly useful to ensure that reminders are being sent out as expected.
Support Button
The Support Button will display the contact phone number and email address for the MacPractice Support Team, should you need assistance. Don't hesitate to reach out if you're having issues!
Configuring Reminders
So now that we've gone through each of the features within the MP Engage portal, let's talk specifics about how to adjust reminders and notifications. You'll find these under the Message Settings on the Settings Sidebar, located in the Settings Page.
You can have up to ten of a specific reminder/confirmation type. For example, you can only have up to ten Early Reminders configured in MP Engage.
To add a new Notification, you'll select the type in the Message Settings sidebar on the left, then click the "Add New Notification" button in the upper right, as shown in the below screenshot.
If there are already reminders or confirmations of that type, they'll be listed in the same area. You can scroll down to review each of these in turn. To edit a particular reminder, you can see an Edit button in the top middle of a reminder.
When you add or edit a Reminder, the configuration window will appear, as shown below.
At the very top, you'll see the Email, SMS and Voice toggles, where you can adjust what methods are used for this particular notification. In the upper right, you'll see an Enabled toggle. You can disable or enable a reminder as needed.
By default, the Notification Name will display "x of 10", indicating how many notifications of this type have already been made. You can change this name as needed so you can easily distinguish the purpose of a specific notification.
The Send Out drop down allows you to set when this reminder will be sent. In the above example, this particular reminder will be sent three weeks prior to an appointment. You can also define the time of day this reminder should be sent.
The Filters section allows you to narrow down which providers or appointment types that this reminder should be sent for. By default, notifications are set to be sent to appointments for all providers and all appointment types.
Note: If you change a particular notification to target a specific provider(s), any new providers added to the system will not automatically be added to a notification.
We strongly recommend that you NEVER delete a Reminder, and simply toggle the Enabled toggle in the upper right hand corner!
You can also use the Edit Template link, also in the upper right hand corner, to edit the message that will be sent with this Reminder. IF YOU MAKE CHANGES, we strongly recommend duplicating the template prior to making those changes! You can scroll down and read more about templates in the appropriate section.
Using Tags
You'll also note the Include Patient Tags and Exclude Patient Tags. Tags are very powerful in that you can target specific notifications to go to certain subsets of your patient base. One of the most common uses of tags is if you serve Spanish-speaking patients.
In that example, you would first add a Patient Tag type in Settings Page > Advanced Settings > Patient Tags. Once that tag is added to the MP Engage Portal, you can then turn on that Tag on a Patient via the Patients Page. With your Patients properly tagged, you can then utilize these in reminders.
In the example of a Spanish tag, you'd first want to ensure that those Spanish-speaking patients do not receive the English reminders. This is where you could include the Spanish tag in the "Exclude Patient Tags" field in a given Notification.
Then, you could add a new Notification intended for Spanish speaking patients. (We'd recommend giving it a suitable name so you can identify these at a glance) With this new notification, we could then use the "Include Patient Tags" field to include that newly created Spanish Tag. This will ensure that this reminder ONLY goes to Patients with the Spanish Tag.
Creating and Editing Templates
While you can easily custom create every communication that is sent out, templates save a tremendous amount of time for frequently used responses and communications. You can access your templates in Email & SMS Templates, located in the Settings Page sidebar.
Here, you can make adjustments to new or existing Message Templates. Templates are organized into different Message Types. First you'll need to select the Message Type via the Choose Message Type drop down menu, then you can choose to either create a new Message Template by choosing "New" in the "Choose Message Template" drop down, or you can select a pre-existing template in the same drop down. Selecting an existing template will populate the remaining fields with the contents of that template. By default, you should have several templates already pre-loaded, but you may want to adjust these to meet your specific needs.
We strongly recommend duplicating existing templates that you wish to make changes to! This can save you a headache if you accidentally make a change you didn't want to make. You can duplicate a template via the Duplicate button with an existing template selected.