The first Monday of the month
Someone runs a report from the practice system, pastes it into a spreadsheet, deletes the patients who have already booked, and mail-merges letters. They print them, fold them, stuff envelopes and take them to the post. It takes most of a day, and the person who knows how to do it properly is the only one who ever does.
When that person is off, recalls slip a month. When patients do not reply, nobody has time to chase, so they fall off the list. Six months later someone notices the diary for routine reviews is thin.
Why manual recalls keep drifting
The recall process looks like a letter-writing job, so clinics solve it as one. The real job is a list that is always up to date and a follow-up sequence for the people who do not respond. A monthly batch cannot do that. The list is stale the day after it is printed, and follow-up depends on someone remembering.
The data usually exists. Your system knows when a patient was last seen and what kind of review they are due. What is missing is anything that reads it regularly and acts on it.
Paper also hides the outcome. Once a letter is posted, the clinic has no idea whether it was opened, ignored or sent to an old address. Without that feedback, the process never improves, and the same patients go unrecalled cycle after cycle.
What drifting recalls cost
| What happens | The effect |
|---|---|
| Recalls go out late | Patients who should have been seen are not |
| Non-responders drop off | Nobody chases, so the patient quietly leaves your books |
| Diary gaps | Routine slots sit empty while the recall list sits in a drawer |
| Postage and printing | Paper letters for patients who would have answered a text |
| Key-person risk | One person knows the report and the spreadsheet |
The empty routine slots are the cost you can see in the diary. The patients who drift away are the one you cannot, because they never ring to say they have gone. They simply stop appearing, and the first you hear of it is when they re-register somewhere else.
How we automate recalls
- We connect to your practice management system through its API or a scheduled export and build the recall list daily using the rules you define: review type, interval, who is excluded.
- Each morning staff get a short list of patients due to be contacted, and can remove anyone who should not be, for example because of a note on their record.
- Approved reminders go out by SMS or email with a direct link to book the right appointment type. Patients with no mobile or email get a letter through a print-and-post service, or a printed batch for your team.
- Patients who have not booked get a second reminder, then a third by a different channel, on a schedule you set.
- Anyone who still has not responded moves to a call list for reception, with the history of what has already been sent.
- Bookings made through the link update the recall status automatically, so nobody is chased after they have booked.
The wording of every message and the rules for who is recalled are yours. We build the machinery, not the clinical policy.
A recall process that runs itself
Recalls stop being a monthly event. They happen every day in small numbers, which is easier on reception and smoother for the diary. Non-responders are chased without anyone remembering to do it. The person who used to spend a day on envelopes spends ten minutes checking a list.
You can also see who has been recalled, who responded and who has not, which is a view most clinics running recalls by hand simply do not have.
Signs this is you
- Recall letters are produced from a spreadsheet or mail merge
- Only one person really knows how the recall report works
- Nobody chases patients who do not reply
- Recall letters go out by post even to patients with mobile numbers
- You are not sure how many patients are overdue right now