Exigen Reminder allows you to use MS Word to easily create reminder letters for patients. The steps to get Exigen Reminder fully operational for your practice are:
| 1. | Create your reminder letters. |
| 2. | Specify the time before appointments that reminders should be sent. |
| 3. | Add patients. In order for a patient to receive a reminder the following
must be set:
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For the day to day operation of Exigen Reminder, you will need to
When Exigen Reminder is installed there are two sample patients already configured, John Smith and Jane Smith. These two patients allow you to try the basics of the program before adding your own patients. You may delete these patients when you start using the system (see how).
Exigen Reminder is installed with a sample reminder letter named "Standard Reminder". This letter can be used as the basis for your own reminder letter or may be deleted at a later stage. To update the "Standard Reminder" letter, select the "Manage Letter" option on the Reminders menu. Then select the "Standard Letter" that appears in the left hand letter list. Click the "Edit in MS Word" button. Exigen Reminder will open the reminder letter in MS Word.
Exigen Reminder uses the mail merge facilities of MS Word. Update the letter as required, using the "Insert Merge Field" to insert patient details into the letter. The merge fields will be populated with the patient details when the reminder letter is printed. When you are happy with your changes, save and close the letter.
Within Exigen Reminder use the "Close" button to close the "Letter management" form.
Click here to see how to add additional reminder letters.
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To view the reminders that are due to be sent, click on the Reminders button on the left of the main window. |
The reminder form gives the reminder letters that have been set up on your system, the number of patients that are due to receive each letter and the date the letter was last printed.
When Exigen Reminder is installed Jane and John Smith are both awaiting reminder letters, so the number of patients due to receive the "Standard Reminder" is set to 2. As the reminder has never been printed the "Last Printed" date is set to "Not yet printed".
The Reminders Preview option allows you to view the letter in MS Word. You can use Word's mail merge options to view the details for the patients.
Always print reminders using Exigen Reminder and not MS Word, otherwise Exigen Reminder is unable to manage patient details correctly.
The preview and print options are available on the tool bar. They are also available as options on the File Menu.
To preview a letter, click the select option beside the letter and then select preview.
When Exigen Reminder is installed Jane and John Smith are both awaiting reminder letters. Use the Reminders Preview button to view these two letters in MS Word. The MS Word mail merge allows you to view the merge tags or patient's details, the "<<abc>>" toolbar option alternates between the two. Use the navigation options to view the details for Jane and John Smith.
To print a set of reminder letters, select the reminder letter on the reminder form and click the print button. Letters will be printed on your computer's default printer.
If you print the reminders for the two sample patients, the patient count will then be set to 0. The "Last Printed" date will be updated to the current date.
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To add a patient click the "New Patient" button on the left toolbar or select the "Add new patient" option on the Patients menu. When a new patient is added the patient edit form is displayed. The minimum information required to add a new patient is their surname. |
The total number of patients held by Exigen Reminder is displayed at the bottom left of the main window.
The search option on Exigen Reminder's toolbar provides a quick method for finding a patient. The toolbar search only searches on a patient's name (see Using Quick Search), for greater flexibility use the advanced search.
To find a patient, type their name into the Patient search field and click the "Search" button (or just hit the enter key). If a single patient is found matching the given name, then the patient's details form will be shown. E.g. "John Sm" will bring up the details for "John Smith".
If more than one patient is found matching the given name then a list of these patients will be displayed. e.g. "J Smith" will list "John Smith" and "Jane Smith".
A patient's last appointment date may be changed on their details page. The Today button allows a speedy way to set today's date easily. A date may be typed in or you can use the "..." button to bring up a calendar to set the date.
When a button has an underlined letter this indicates that the button may be selected by typing "Alt+underlined letter". e.g. the "Today" button may be selected by just typing "Alt+t". This makes setting a patient's last appointment to today's date a very quick process. i.e. Type their name into Patient search field, hit the enter key (should bring up their details) - type "Alt+t" to set today's date, then hit the enter key to save changes.
Finally as John and Jane Smith are only sample patients you will probably want to remove them from your system. To delete a patient, display their details edit form, e.g. for John Smith type in "Jo Sm" to the search field and hit the enter key. Select the Advanced tab. On the Advanced tab there is a Delete button for removing the patient. As a safety check, Exigen Reminder will prompt you before deleting it.
If you just want to stop sending reminder letters to a patient but do not want to remove their details from the system, then on the patient edit form set the reminder letter to be sent option to "No Reminder".
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