Artera makes it easy for patients to communicate with you regarding their appointments. Your Practice can seamlessly follow up on reschedules and cancellation requests to ensure patients receive the care that they need. 

When creating Appointment Automations, you will build several Appointment Confirmation Request messages. These messages allow the patient to confirm an appointment or request to cancel/reschedule. This is accomplished within Artera by including one of the Smart Phrases below in a message to the patient:

• {eventConfirmText}

• {eventConfirmLink} 

Artera recommends using the {eventConfirmText} Smart Phrase in your Appointment Confirmation Automations for text and voice as this leads to higher patient response rates and confirmed appointments. However, some customers prefer to use {eventConfirmLink}. Click here to learn more about these confirmation Smart Phrases. 

{eventConfirmLink} Behavior

{eventConfirmLink} can be used in SMS, voice, or email Automations. 

• For SMS and email, the patient will be able to click on the link to confirm, cancel, or reschedule their appointment.

• For voice, the Smart Phrase behaves like {eventConfirmText} (e.g. "To confirm your visit please press 1, to cancel your visit please press 5, to repeat this message please press 9".) 

NOTE: {eventConfirmLink} must be used in email Automations. Patients cannot confirm, cancel, or reschedule their appt with {eventConfirmText} if used in an Email.

Let’s review how patients can interact with the confirmation link delivered to their mobile device via the {eventConfirmLink} Smart Phrase. 

Appointment Confirmation Message

The confirmation link is delivered to the patient by an Appointment Automation or manually by an Artera user. 

When the patient clicks the link, Artera routes them to a browser page with a map of their appointment location, any relevant details, and the opportunity to either confirm, cancel, or reschedule the appointment. The options available to the patient depend on how you have configured the Appointment Status Options Setting at the Default or Practice-level. 

When enabled, the Default Setting of Show Patient a Map of Appointment Location will display a map of the patient's appointment location. If the appointment is confirmed by the patient, they will then have the ability to select View Map which will then display a map of the appointment's location. Click here to learn more.

If Merged Messaging is enabled for an Automation, the confirmation link delivered to patients will encompass all appointments scheduled for that day. Opening the link will allow patients to navigate to each appointment scheduled on that day to view the appointment information. When the patient makes their selection, it will apply to all appointments related to that merged message. For example, if the patient selects "Confirm" for the first appointment, the second appointment will automatically be confirmed. Alternatively, if the patient selects "cancel," both appointments will be cancelled.

NOTE: If you would like the patient to be able to confirm or cancel appointments independently, do not merge messages containing the {eventConfirmLink} Smart Phrase. 

Here is what a patient will see if they confirm, reschedule, or cancel an appointment:

These pages can be rendered in English and Spanish. Patients with a language preference of Spanish will see these screens instead:

Here is what you see in Artera for each of the selections made by a patient:

Appointment Viewed

Appointment Confirmed

Request to Reschedule

Request to Cancel