In 2017, Mayden worked together with the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) to collaborate on a project to test whether a series of text messages to patients, whilst they are on the waiting list, could reduce the problem of patient dropout. The text messages provided regular updates from services, and reassurance that the service was working to keep the patient moving along the waiting list.

The results showed that sending text messages to patients between referral and the date of their second appointment being set increases their engagement with the service, and that these patients were more likely to attend their first and second appointments as well as subsequent appointments. Additionally, sending these messages to patients means they are less likely to drop out of treatment even at a later stage.

Whilst the trial was performed using the Bulk SMS feature, it was recognised that it would be beneficial to automate tasks involving regular communication to service users.

The Scheduler allows the service to set up a template of regular communication to its patients, and for that communication to automatically occur. The aim of the feature is to make it easier for the service to engage large groups of patients, with minimal administrative effort.

Scheduled Bulk SMS Process

iaptus allows you to send scheduled bulk SMS messages to patients. An outline of this process is detailed in the following pages.

How to create and schedule your Bulk Action

In order to schedule a Bulk Action, you will first need to create a search for this to be based on. 

Step 1 – Create Patient Search

Create your search using ‘Find Patients’ advanced search and the filters within this function.

	First, select your filters from the ‘Select Filters’ column. Apply the appropriate filters using column 2 and in column 3 you can check what criteria you have selected.
	Once you have done this, select the option ‘save search’ to save your search.
	You’ll need to give your search a name in order to do this. Click ‘Save as new’ to confirm this.

This example is showing a Find Patient search for patients with an appointment within the next two days which is Face-to-Face.

Once you have saved your search, you will be able to see this under ‘My Searches’. 

Step 2 – Create a Bulk SMS Template

You will then need to select the Bulk SMS Template option within the Superuser menu to create your SMS template. Click the ‘Add New’ option to create your new template. 

In the main text area, you can type in the contents as well as using tags which will retrieve information from the selected patients’ records and automatically populate the SMS text for you.

You will notice there is a character count for the SMS message. If this goes beyond 160 characters, the text message will be classed as two separate text messages and there will be cost implications.  

Tip: Please note that if the therapist name is longer than the number of spaces that the tag has (eg [APP_THR] counts as 9 characters) the actual character count will be higher than shown. 

Tip: If you only wish to send the recipient the same message content once per treatment episode, remember to tick the ‘This message is only to be sent once to the same patient’ option. 

Locking a template

It is possible to arrange for a template to be locked so it cannot be edited by other superusers within your service. In order to lock a template, please raise a support log within iaptus which your Mayden Account Manager can then action for you. You can also ask Mayden to unlock a SMS template.

Step 3 – Create a Saved Bulk Action 

Once you have created the SMS template, you can then set this up to be used within the Saved Bulk Actions feature. This is to indicate it is a Bulk Action which is performed regularly. 

To do this, click on the Bulk Actions icon towards the top of the iaptus page.

Once you click on ‘Add new’, the system will present you with the ‘Add new action’ window, where you will need to set an action name, select the action type (such as SMS) and select your SMS template. When you select a template, you’ll be able to preview the content that will be sent within the SMS message. You can then click ‘save’ to confirm this.

Once you have saved this, you’ll then be able to see this saved action within the ‘saved actions’ tab.

Step 4 – Schedule the Saved Bulk Action

Now that you have created your Saved Bulk Action using your SMS template, you can now schedule this to run daily. 

First, select the ‘Scheduler’ option in the Superuser menu then click on the ‘Schedule Action’ option to schedule a new action. 

You’ll then need to create your new scheduled action by selecting the action type (your Saved Bulk Action covered in Step 3) and choose your group of referrals. How to set this up is covered in Step 1.

Tip: Please note that the scheduled action will be effective from the day after you have set it up. A summary of this will appear in the superuser Scheduler section. Please see the image above. 

Once you are happy with this and have clicked the ‘Schedule’ option to save this, you’ll then see a list of any saved scheduled actions. These are all the scheduled actions which are active on the system. 

At any point, if you want to stop the action from running, you can simply delete the saved scheduled action from this list and it will not run from then onwards.

To check if your scheduled action has performed, you can go to the History tab in the Bulk Actions section. All scheduled actions that have been performed will show to have been created by “Automated User” and performed by “Automated User”.

Useful Examples

Example 1 – Send SMS to patients on waiting lists to increase engagement

This example is useful if you have patients who wait a long time between appointments or before their first appointment and you want to keep them engaged in between. 

You can read more about the research project undertaken by Mayden and the Behavioural Insights Team and how it showed that sending text messages to patients between referral and the date of their second appointment meant they were more likely to attend their appointments here.

To use the Scheduler to send SMS to patients on waiting lists, you first need to identify what a waiting list looks like for your iaptus service. In this example, we will look at using a waiting list care pathway stage. If you are not sure how to identify the patients within the waiting lists in your service, speak to your Account Manager.

To set up the search to identify the patients who have been in a particular waiting list care pathway stage a certain period of time ago, you can use a combination of two filters. Use the Care Pathway – Entered Stage(s) (relative) filter and set the relative date to the set time. In this example, it was set with a relative start and end date of 3 weeks. Additionally, use the Care Pathway – Current Stage filter, to indicate that the patient is still in this stage.

You can combine this search with other filters, such as treatment type or exclude closed cases.

It is assumed in this example that once the patient leaves the selected waiting list care pathway stage they have the next appointment. Additionally, it is assumed that the same waiting list stage is not re-entered again following the completion of the appointment. Speak to your Account Manager if you are unsure if this is correct for your service’s care pathway.

Below is an example of an SMS Template you could use.

Use the new waiting list SMS template to create a Saved Bulk Action as described in Step 3 and combine this with the waiting list saved search when creating the Scheduled Action as described in Step 4.

Example 2 – Send SMS to welcome patients to service

This example is helpful if you want to confirm to patients who have just been referred to the service that this is the case.

You can read more about the research project undertaken by Mayden and the Behavioural Insights Team and how it showed that sending text messages to patients between referral and the date of their first appointment meant they were more likely to attend their future appointments here.

You can use the Scheduler to set up SMS to welcome patients to the service when their referrals have been accepted to the service. To do this, you can use the relative referral date filter. In this example, we have set the date range to allow the scheduler to identify the patients who were referred to the service the day before they get sent the SMS (i.e. “yesterday”). 

Additionally, we are in this example using the No MDS Sessions Present and the No Future Appointments Present filters to ensure that the search only identifies those patients who have not yet had any sessions and who do not have any future appointments booked.

You can also combine this search with a specific referral source (i.e. to send different SMS depending on where they were referred from), as shown above, with a specific treatment type (i.e. to send different SMS depending on the treatment the patients about to undertake).

Below is an example of an SMS Template you could use.

Use the new waiting list SMS template to create a Saved Bulk Action as described in Step 3 and combine this with the waiting list saved search when creating the Scheduled Action as described in Step 4.

Example 3 – Send SMS to encourage discharged patients to re-engage

This example can be useful if you have a large group of patients who are discharged from your service because they have DNA:d or not engaged with your service.

You can use the Scheduler to encourage patients who have recently been discharged from your service because they have DNA:d or not engaged within your service. In this example, we will look at using a set of did not engage care pathway stages. If you are not sure how to identify the patients who have recently been discharged because they haven’t engaged in your service, speak to your Account Manager.

To set up the search to identify the patients who have been discharged due to disengagement through a care pathway stage, use the Care Pathway – Entered Stage(s) (relative) filter and set the relative date to the set time. In this example, it was set with a relative start and end date of 1 day ago (i.e. “yesterday”). You can also combine this with other filters, such as excluding closed cases or treatment type.

Below is an example of the SMS Template you could use, where you can enter the specific phone number used for the location you have used in the search.

Use the SMS template to create a Saved Bulk Action as described in Step 3 and combine this with the location specific saved search when creating the Scheduled Action as described in Step 4.