What this means for your practice
Choose the appointment diary the practice trusts and agree when its details are checked before a reminder is sent. Set the timing around the service's actual communication process.
An example to discuss with your team
Reschedule a fictional appointment before the reminder runs.
A practical conversation with your supplier
Ask to move a fictional appointment after a reminder has been prepared. Inspect the resulting date, time and any cancellation of the old message. Your team should own timing and wording decisions. Avoid assuming the supplier's default schedule matches your opening hours or administrative process.
Plan the first improvement
Begin with the reminder's purpose. Is it helping someone remember the appointment, find the location or know how to change their arrangement? Timing and content should follow that purpose and the practice's real process. Identify the appointment record the team trusts and ask how close to sending its details are checked. A message prepared earlier may need rechecking because the appointment has moved.
Consider appointments made shortly before their scheduled time as well as those booked weeks ahead. Your service owner should decide the appropriate communication pattern for those situations, rather than accept a timetable simply because it is convenient to configure. Use fictional appointments around the relevant timing boundaries during the demonstration. Agree who can pause reminders when the source information is unreliable, and how staff will know a pause has happened. Review outdated reminders as a process issue: finding which change failed to reach the message is more useful than repeatedly correcting individual templates.
How to check the result
Count reminders referring to outdated appointment details.
Turn reading into a next step
Your action checklist
Work through these checks with your team or supplier. Tick the ones you have resolved and leave unknowns open.
Record what you know, what is still missing and the answer you need from your team or supplier.
Use project decisions only, without personal, patient or confidential details. Entries stay in this page and are not submitted to Kay & Co. Copy or download before leaving; this page does not save your notes.
Further reading
These sources provide background for the topic. The practice examples and checklist are illustrative planning suggestions from Kay & Co.
Related guides
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