Set up an appointment reminder hosting service

We have been trying to figure out an appointment reminder solution for hospitals and doctors. We were very excited to find out about the Auto Reminder capabilities so we downloaded the software and configured it to find out that we can’t test the REAL appointment reminder message configured by us, no support for custom messages in trial version.

Actually, you should be able to use the Message Designer to create and test your own customized reminder message. The only limitation for the trial version is the trial message that will be included in each phone call. In addition, you can also test reminder message using text message (SMS).

In a multi tenancy setup, can each user access their account via Web? If web access works then would it be correct to assume that we would not need remote clients?

Web access is pretty limited so it is better to use the remote client. But if all you need to do is view a list of appointments, then the web access is will just be fine.

Can we rebrand the enterprise solution to individual customer name, for different hospitals/doctors?

We offer rebranding for our reseller customers who reaches certain sales volume.

Do we need 20 lines if we need to make 20 simultaneous reminder calls?

Yes

If there are 50 reminders to be triggered at 3 PM and only two line licenses then would the announcements be triggered in a sequential manner? How many lines are recommended for 20 users?

Yes, Voicent software has a queue for calls to go through. It will not make a call is it is later then the appointment start time. The valid time for reminder call is configurable if you want to use programming interface. The number of lines depends on the call volume, assuming each reminder message is 30 seconds, then a call, on average, will last about 1 minute. The overhead is mostly spent on waiting for someone to pick up the phone, waiting for an answering machine beep, etc. So based on that, you can assume a single line makes about 60 calls per hour.

How to integrate the solution with existing appointment management solution? Suggest some database integration ways without having to change the way appointments are added to the hospital CRM.

Voicent AutoReminder has command line and web (HTTP) API such that appointments can be added from other software programs, such as the hospital CRM. For more details, please take a look at Appointment reminder developer info.

The demo message we received was a majorly a prerecorded Voicent message and wasn’t very clear for the text to speech portion? What is the best way to achieve highest quality clear announcements? We would like to test a message from the software installed on our system locally.

The default system message for reminder call is a mixture of pre-recorded audio and text-to-speech items. For example, the patient’s name is announced using TTS. When you send our message from AutoReminder, it is sent from your local computer, using the TTS voice on that computer. For Windows vista or windows 7, the TTS english voice is called “Microsoft Anna”. But you are free to use any other TTS voice.

We tried to configure a local SIP provider but the gateway failed to register? We could get it to trigger call from a Skype. Eventually we will configure the SIP provider on our Cisco router, is the software tested with such a deployment?

Yes, you should be able to configure Voicent to use any VOIP provider that is SIP based. In today’s environment, that’s almost all VOIP providers. If you are not sure why the gateway failed to register, please see whether you can register your SIP provider using a free softphone called X Lite. Most VOIP providers are familiar with this softphone, and there are many configuration help if you just google it. Once it is working with X Lite, you can use the same configuration info to set up Voicent gateway.

Not sure what you mean by configure SIP provider on your Cisco router. All Voicent deployment depends on Internet connection to reach a SIP provider, which in turn must pass through a router. So what you referred to is probably the normal configuration.

Also, do the options to confirm, cancel or reschedule an appointment update live into the system? I guess we need to ensure that the DTMF pass through to the auto reminder across the path to and fro?

Yes, it is updated in real time. If you are going to use programming interface, all confirmation can be queried once a call is finished.

The DTMF tone is important for the confirmation. So please make sure your SIP provider does pass through the DTMF tones using the standard SIP message. In the US, provider like RingCentral does not pass through DTMF tones.

How does reschedule option work? Can change appointment time live via digit inputs or it just provides an announcement to call the specified number and reschedule the appointment manually?

For the standard system message, the reschedule is simply an option a patient can choose. The choice will be reflected in AutoReminder and confirmation status such that receptionists can call them back to reschedule. However, if you want to automatically reschedule an appointment, then you will need to do some customization. For example, if your appointment is set in a hospital CRM system, then you’ll need to be able to query the available appointment slots etc. Then you’ll need Voicent IVR Studio to create an interactive application to link the system. Reschedule is more complicated, it can be done, but requires more work to create an IVR application for that.