A reminder the family should never have received
A daughter phones to say her father, a patient for many years, has died. The receptionist is kind, notes it, and cancels his next appointment. Three weeks later, the recall system sends him a reminder. The following month, an unpaid invoice from his last home visit is chased by email to his son. The family is upset, and rightly so.
Nobody was careless. The news was recorded in one place, but the reminders, recall, invoicing and home visit planning each had their own copy of the patient.
Why messages keep going
- Recall, reminders, invoicing and round planning each hold their own list of patients.
- Cancelling one appointment does not stop future recall.
- Payment reminders run from the accounts package, not the clinic system.
- Home visit rounds may still include the patient.
- Family contacts and payers are held separately and not updated.
What it costs
Distress for families at a hard time. Upset that reflects on the clinic, often shared with others in the community. Staff who feel terrible when they find out. And podiatrists, who may have known the patient for years, hearing the news late or by chance.
| System | What keeps happening | What the single step does |
|---|---|---|
| Recall | Reminder sent | Patient removed from recall |
| Booked appointments | Some left | All future bookings cancelled |
| Round planning | Still on the list | Removed from rounds |
| Invoicing | Automated chasers | Chasers stopped, balance flagged for a person |
| Contacts | Family still receives messages | Messages stopped for all linked contacts |
| Practitioner | Hears late | Told straight away |
How we build it
- A single action, from the patient record, marks the patient as deceased with the date and who informed the clinic.
- Every automated message stops for that patient and their linked contacts: reminders, recall, marketing and payment chasers.
- Future bookings are cancelled and the patient is removed from round planning and care home visit lists.
- The patient's podiatrist is told, so they can decide whether to send a personal note.
- Any outstanding balance is flagged for a named person to handle with care, rather than being chased automatically.
- Plans, packages or credit balances are listed for the practice manager to resolve.
- The record is kept, closed to new activity, for the period your retention policy sets.
How to handle outstanding balances and what to say to families is your decision. The system makes sure nothing automated interferes.
The same care applies when the news arrives indirectly, such as a returned letter marked deceased or a message from a care home. Those arrive in a queue for a person to confirm, so the record is only changed once someone has checked, and the family is not contacted to ask.
Families sometimes ask for a copy of records or want to settle an account. Both are logged against the closed record, so whoever answers the phone next time can see what has already been agreed.
What changes
Families are not sent reminders or chasers after they have told you. Podiatrists hear promptly. Balances are handled by a person, with judgement. The record is retained properly. And staff can take the call knowing that one action will stop everything.
Has this happened at your clinic?
- A family has received a reminder or invoice after telling you a patient had died.
- Recall and invoicing run from different systems.
- Home visit rounds are not updated straight away.
- Podiatrists sometimes hear late about a long-standing patient.
- You have no single step for recording a death.