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 configuring Appointment Triggers, you will build several appointment reminders. 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 Triggers 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 Triggers. 

• 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 Triggers. 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 Trigger or manually by a user. 

When the patient clicks the link, Artera routes them to a browser page with a Google map of their appointment's 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 Show Patient a Map of Appointment Location Default Setting displays a Google Map for the patient. This helps them verify the location before confirming their appointment. This setting is enabled by default.

If disabled, the map is hidden until the appointment is confirmed. Once confirmed, patients will see a "View Map" link that opens their device's native map app and pinpoints the office address. Click here to learn more.

When Merged Messaging is enabled, patients receive a single link for all appointments scheduled on the same day. Patients can use the arrows to navigate between appointment details. Note that any action taken applies to the entire group: confirming or canceling one appointment will automatically confirm or cancel all others in that merged message.

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 view the screens in Spanish instead.

When navigated to the "Scheduled" view, here is what you will see in Artera for each of the selections made by a patient:

Appointment Viewed

Appointment Confirmed

Request to Reschedule

Request to Cancel