Bottleneck — Medical Clinics
Automated Appointment Reminders for Australian Clinics
Reminders sound like a solved problem — most PMSs ship with a basic SMS reminder built in. In practice, those built-in reminders are the reason no-show rates are still 15%. A modern reminder system is a small workflow, not a one-line SMS.
The reminder that comes with your practice management software has three problems. It sends at the same time to every patient regardless of appointment type. It cannot escalate — if the patient does not respond, nothing happens. And it does not offer a rebook path if the patient replies with a cancellation.
Every one of those is fixable with a properly-designed reminder workflow sitting on top of your PMS.
What a real reminder workflow includes
- 1Booking confirmation — SMS immediately after the appointment is created, with location, time, appointment type and add-to-calendar link.
- 2Preparation email — 3-5 days out, with parking, arrival instructions, forms to complete, and (where relevant) fasting or medication instructions.
- 324-hour SMS — 'You have an appointment with Dr X tomorrow at 10:30. Reply Y to confirm or N to reschedule.' This one line is the difference between a 15% and a 6% no-show rate.
- 4Two-way handling — replies of Y, N, cancel, reschedule, or free-text 'moving to next week' are all interpreted and routed correctly, into the PMS.
- 5Post-appointment — a thank-you and, if appropriate, a rebook nudge or a review request.
Voice reminders for higher-stakes appointments
For older patients, procedure appointments, or first-visit new patients, an automated voice call reminder is often more effective than SMS. Our AI receptionist can handle these — a friendly outbound call that confirms attendance or captures a reschedule request. See the AI Receptionist solution page.
PMS integration
Reminders trigger from real appointment status in your PMS — created, modified, arrived, DNA. This matters because the workflow needs to know when to stop. If a patient arrives, the post-appointment sequence fires and the no-show sequence does not. If they genuinely DNA, the rebook flow fires instead.
Where this sits in the bigger picture
This bottleneck is the engine that powers the no-show reduction workflow. The two pages describe the same system from different angles — one focuses on the outcome (fewer empty chairs), the other on the mechanism (the reminder chain). Return to the medical clinics hub for the full operational picture.
Common questions
Does it integrate with our existing SMS provider?
Yes. Most Australian clinics use MessageMedia, ClickSend or a similar gateway. We wire into whichever provider you already have a contract with, or set up a new one if your PMS-bundled SMS is expensive.
What is the cost per SMS?
Typically 6-9 cents per outbound SMS in Australia through a wholesale gateway. On average, reminder cost per appointment is 15-25 cents — trivial compared to the revenue of an attended chair.
Do reminders work for telehealth appointments?
Yes, with the addition of the video call link inserted into every reminder message.
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