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Set up Reminder Protocols

Increase reminder compliance with customizable protocols.

Updated over 2 months ago

Setting up reminder protocols in Digitail is essential for ensuring that your clients stay informed and up to date with their pet’s healthcare needs. Whether it’s a vaccination, annual check-up, or treatment follow-up, sending timely reminders will help improve compliance and ensure pets receive the care they need, while also increasing client engagement.

This guide will walk you through the process of setting up reminder protocols in Digitail, ensuring you can create, manage, and automate reminders for various treatments, appointments, or services offered by your clinic.

Check our our latest webinar on Reminder Protocols 👇

How to set up a new Reminder Protocol

Click on your user Profile Icon in the upper right hand corner of the screen. From the flyout menu, select the Administration page. You will see the Administration navigation menu on the left hand side of the screen. Scroll down to the "Medical" section, and from here you can click on Reminder Protocols. On the Reminder Protocols, page you will be able to set up the templates and the corresponding rules for each reminder that you create.

You can add as many protocols as you need, but we recommend using unique names that will make it easy for the entire clinic staff to find them and the pet parents to understand their next due date.

Protocol Information

  • Protocol Name - give your protocol a clear and descriptive name, such as “Annual Vaccination Reminder” or “Dental Check-up Reminder.” This makes it easy for your staff to identify and manage.

  • Recurrence Period - you can set up multiple recurrences for a protocol (in days, weeks, months, or years); the first period will be the default one, but you'll be able to change it to any other of the recurrences pre-defined or even a specific date.

  • Services / Products - the protocols will be triggered based on the items (services or products) used in the Records for a given patient.

Overwriting Rules

Default Overwriting

If multiple products/services from the same Reminder Protocol are used within the same visit, they trigger only one reminder.

When using another service/product from the same Reminder Protocol, the system will overwrite the old reminders and update them with the new due dates.

Custom Overwriting

For each Protocol, you can set another Protocol that you want to get overwritten. You can also see at a glance if this Protocol is already overwritten by another existing Protocol. This is helpful for Protocols such as Rabies, where you want 'Rabies 1 Year' to both overwrite and be overwritten by 'Rabies 3 Year'.

If Protocol A overwrites Protocol B, when using a service/product from Protocol A, the system will overwrite the old reminders from Protocol B and update them with the new due dates.

If Protocol A overwrites Protocol B, but also Protocol B overwrites Protocol A, in the Record you will see both reminders being generated, and you can disable which one you want.

Protocol Category

This is an optional field, that is recommended for multi-locations/clinics setup. As each clinic/location might add custom names to their Reminder Protocols, this category helps map different protocols to the same category, so they appear grouped across locations from the same clinic group.

For example, if Location A has 2 Rabies Protocols mapped under the 'Rabies' category, and Location B has other 3 Protocols mapped with the same 'Rabies' category, all the Rabies administration across the 2 locations will be displayed in the patient's Health Card in both locations, and the client also won't receive more than 1 reminder/notification for the same category. If the first vaccine was done in Clinic A, and the second vaccine was done in Location B, Location A will see that this Reminder Protocol was overwritten by the Rabies Protocol done in Clinic B.

Reminder Channels and Intervals

Decide how you want to notify your clients. You can choose from several channels including:

  • SMS: Send text message reminders directly to the client’s phone.

  • Email: Send detailed email reminders with appointment or treatment information.

  • Push Notifications (via the app): Notify clients who use the Digitail app with push notifications.

To ensure that clients are reminded multiple times, you can set up multiple reminders at different intervals. For example, you may want to send:

  • A reminder 30 days before the due date (for advance notice).

  • A second reminder 7 days before the due date (as a closer follow-up).

  • A final reminder 1 day before the due date to reduce no-shows.

Learn more about customizing Channels and Intervals for Reminder Protocols (and other notifications and reminders) here.


How to deactivate/disable Reminder Protocols

You can disable an entire Protocol from the Admin by using the toggle. An alert will pop up, asking you if you are sure.

Client notifications will no longer be sent for disabled protocols; the services or products linked with that protocol will no longer trigger it. Disabled protocols can be reactivated or deleted completely from the admin.

Deactivate a Protocol for a Patient

You can also decide to deactivate a Reminder Protocol for a particular patient, that became allergic for example to something.

To do this, you need to mark the Reminder Protocol as Inactive, either directly from the SOAP, or the Patients' Health Card > Preventive tab.

Marking a Protocol as Inactive will remove its due date. If you want to undo the action, you can Set it as 'Active', which will reset the original due date.

If another item (product or service) from the same Reminder Protocol is used in the future, the Reminder Protocol will be automatically marked as Active again.

How to delete Reminder Protocols

If a protocol was added by mistake and is no longer relevant, you can delete it entirely. You can only delete Protocols that are deactivated first. You will also be asked to confirm this action.


How to use/trigger the Reminder Protocols

When using a specific service or product (standalone or part of a service) in a Record (anywhere in the Plan, Services & Products or Medications, or in Billing), the triggered Reminder Protocol and its next due date will be automatically displayed.

If there are multiple due dates defined for this protocol (such as a 1-year and a 3-year recurrence), you can easily choose between them, or you can select a specific date from the calendar picker (or remove it completely if you don't want to generate a reminder).

You can also add a historical treatment outside the Record directly from the Health Card. Click on the purple button and fill in the information required (select a Reminder Protocol, type in the item name, date of administration, and next due date, if relevant).

How to check upcoming reminders for a patient

The patient's Health Card will display all the associated protocols, due dates, and reminders. Each Reminder Protocol will display the last item that triggered it (a service or a product), the date it was administered (and a link to the record), and the next due date.

Due dates are displayed in red if they are overdue, in orange if they are 5 days before the due date, and in green otherwise.

You can update the due date or mark the Protocol as Inactive, without opening the Record again simply by clicking on the edit icon next to the date.

Reminder Protocols Due Date Status

🟢 Green - all upcoming reminder protocols that are due in more than 14 days

🔴 Red - all reminder protocols that are overdue

🟡 Yellow - all reminder protocols that are due in less than 14 days

🔘 Grey - all reminder protocols without a Due Date or Inactive

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