Stony Brook Dermatology values operational efficiency to support our physicians and to improve every patient’s outpatient journey in Dermatology. We believe it’s important to let our patients know “how we do things” to level-set expectations and bring certainty through simple information sharing. Our goal is to inspire trust!
Our technology sends text messages and emails to deliver important reminders and links to ensure we connect with our patients as seamlessly as possible. Every patient has the choice to “opt out” at any time (we do not encourage this).
Below is how our texts are configured so you can best partner with us to create more value and drive great experiences together!
Visuals are very helpful for association - this is a sample text with the actual sender number you can expect to receive and recognize for legitimacy for future visits.
Remember:
Our goal is to make sure we have connected with you, so any time a text is sent requesting some action on your part that is not taken, the program is designed to repeat itself to receive your response by toggling SMS and VM messages!
Tip:
The program will make the first outreach at noon and if unsuccessful, a second attempt at 5:00pm. If you choose not to respond to the texts or voicemails, you could potentially be contacted as many as 5 times if your appointment has been scheduled at least one week in advance!
- 7 day interactive text – press 1. to confirm, 2. to reschedule (this cancels the appt.), 3. Cancel (if pressed inadvertently please call right away to recover your appt.)
- 4 day interactive (you will ONLY receive a 4 day reminder IF you have not responded to the 7 day attempt)
- 1 day straight reminder of appointment irrespective of whether patient has interacted prior or not
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Please Keep in Mind:
Each question in the form has been carefully curated to ensure you have an opportunity to provide what we need on your time and conveniently.Bypassing sections of the form defaults these workflows to in-person tasks which adds time to the registration process when you arrive.
The more information you provide, the greater we optimize our technology!
- 3 days in advance
- 1 day in advance
- 30 min. ahead of the appt. (only if any sections remain incomplete)
You will be asked to confirm your appointment (1)(2)(3) so the system knows to trigger the paperless registration link. You will be asked to identify yourself through a 2-step authentication process (4) and once you have moved through the interactive form, you will receive confirmation of receipt with a “thank you” (5). The system will ultimately send you another “time to check in” (6) text 30 minutes ahead of your actual appointment ONLY if you have missed any required sections of the form to give you the opportunity to update and add the information you may have left out on the first pass:
- If you left any demographics information uncompleted which includes consents.
- If you updated some demographics but not all, only the demographic section left incomplete will populate on a repeated text/email cadence that follows 3 days, 1 day, and 30 min. before arrival until completed.
- If you left your medical history form uncompleted
- Please note the software will never be able to adjust for or remember responses to “skipped” questions which will ultimately affect the time you spend and your experience the next time it triggers a new link for any appointments across our Stony Brook Medicine outpatient practices.
- If you pay your copay but demographics are not updated, only the demographics section will populate on a repeated text/email cadence that follows 3 days, 1 day, and 30 min. before arrival until completed.
- If you prefer not to pay online, you MUST select “pay cash or check in office” or “speak to an associate” to bypass the 30 min. text/email check-in reminder.
If you complete the form in its entirety on either day 3 day or day 1, you will NOT receive a 30 min. text/email check-in reminder the day of your appointment; this is our #1GOAL!
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- If you have multiple appointments across the outpatient practices, each specialist appointment will trigger texts since we don’t share appointment schedules – sometimes knowing what to expect can ease frustration.
- Once you have completed an online registration for the first time, the system will “remember” your responses and present them for you to acknowledge whether any changes need to be made (just as you would do normally when checking in with one of our staff upon arrival).
- Your registration information will be exported to your medical record when you hit “submit”, however standard medical practice is for nursing to validate all of your responses in real time to manage risk and provide excellent care.
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Often the most difficult thing to recall are the medications we take, but more importantly, the strength and frequency (dosage) of how they have been prescribed. When patients are prepared either with a medication list or a picture of their medication bottles when they come in, these critical details which are difficult to capture in a questionnaire drive completeness of your health record which is critical!Technology can be amazing, but it requires engagement and tuning to become a fine instrument. Know we are invested in and committed to making the quality of these experiences a moving target to stay fresh, so please be patient with us and give us your feedback!