Ass under GDPR patients will need to opt in to communications eg e-mail, I assume R4 will be adding fields/ check box for us to note this against each patient
Great idea and absolutely an enhancement that we are planning for a version release early 2018, our initial thoughts around it are options on the patients personal or comms screen which state:
"I agree to receive communication from the dental practice via:"
text
letter
email
With a tick box for each one so the user can tick all options the patient agress to.
Is this along the same lines as your initial idea?
We also need an options for recieving general messages (eg a mailshot of some sort)
and an option for "marketing mailshots"
This would allow a degree of control so can recieve no messages, specific messages, general messages (may be holiday opening times etc) and more marketing types (eg new treatments, open evenings etc)
Currently if pts object to recieving some types of communication we have no way of removing them (or opting them in)
I like the idea of options for different levels of contact in tick boxes by the different forms of communication. A patient may prefer a text reminder for appointments, but email would be more cost effective for marketing purposes and less invasive to the patients life.
As the date approaches for when the new Data Protection Act starts I was wondering if you could give an indication of what is planned at your end. As it seems patients have to give consent to methods of communication and if this can only be done when they attend an appointment it will take a significant time to update all patients preferences. There may of course be ways to do this by email however as many practices uses texts and email for correspondence it is a matter that perhaps needs to be addressed.