What this means for your practice
Link reminders to an owned task and an agreed completion record. The responsible equipment team should determine maintenance requirements; software should make those decisions traceable.
An example to discuss with your team
Disable the owner's account before a reminder is due; the task should reach the designated fallback owner.
What to ask before you choose
Ask to demonstrate a reminder when its usual recipient is unavailable. Where does the task go, and how does the manager see whether it has been accepted? Your equipment lead should decide maintenance requirements and acceptable evidence. Email delivery should not be counted as completed work.
Decide what the reminder should lead to
A useful reminder gives the recipient enough information to identify the item, understand the work and know where to record the outcome. Ask your equipment team to specify those details and the appropriate schedule. The software's role is to carry their agreed process through, with unfinished work visible to the people responsible.
Think about absence and changes of responsibility before the reminder is due. Does the deputy receive an owned task, or only a forwarded email that can disappear into an inbox? Use a fictional example to follow acceptance, a delay and completion. If work is disputed or cannot be completed, it should remain distinguishable from work that has been finished and checked. Review a small sample of reminders with the team and ask what happened afterwards. A high delivery rate says little if nobody can connect those messages to the work undertaken or explain which tasks still need attention.
How to check the result
Count reminders without an accountable task owner.
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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