In this article, we will cover what a pending patients or appointment "holds" means at Rula and how Support agents move patients from pending to active.
What does "pending patients" mean in a provider's schedule?
Pending patients are individuals who have placed an appointment "hold" but have yet to finish filling out their required registration forms.
Exceptions:
Sometimes, the registration form is complete, but the appointment doesn’t automatically convert due to technical issues. In these cases, the Support Team steps in to manually update the appointment.
What does Support do to move pending patients forward?
Support agents follow up with pending patients using a series of SMS reminders to encourage them to complete their registration:
- First message: Sent 48 hours after the patient first connects with us.
- Second message: Sent 48 hours after the first message if there’s no response.
- Third message: Sent 48 hours after the second message if the patient still hasn’t responded.
If the patient does not respond to any of these reminders, the next steps will depend on how many days prior to the appointment it is:
- Less than 6 days prior to appointment: The appointment will be cancelled 14 hours before the scheduled appointment time, unless a registration is completed.
- More than 6 days prior to the appointment: The appointment will be cancelled 6 days after our final automated message has been sent, unless a registration is completed.
What can providers do to help with pending patients?
Currently, providers cannot directly contact pending patients. The SMS team in Patient Support handles all communication with these patients.
Providers can only influence current patients they are bringing over to the platform, but have no role in managing pending patients at this time.
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