Guide to Patient Communication Preferences
This guide is an overview of how to manage patient communication preferences within the Adit platform.
How Adit Determines Opt Out Status
Before July 12, 2024, the Adit platform relied on the data from your practice management software (PMS) to determine if a patient had opted in or out of text or email communication. This method worked, but it was limited in many ways. Patients could not manage their own preferences or opt out on their own; your practice staff had to manually update each patient's opt-out status in the patient's file as their needs changed.
Starting on July 12, 2024, Adit moved all opt-in and opt-out functions fully into the Adit platform. This change allows both patients and practices more control and flexibility when it comes to what messages are received. Not only can patients manage their own communication preferences, they can do so on a granular, message-type level to ensure they get the messages they need, like appointment reminders, and avoid anything they don't want. Practices can also see and manage these preferences on their patients' behalf when needed.
As part of this change, Adit no longer reads the opt-in or opt-out status from your PMS for any patient communication. Any changes to opt-in or opt-out of email or text messages must be done within the Adit platform in order for our platform to utilize that information.
How to Manage Communication Preferences
Patients can opt in or out of communications from your practice at any time. For detailed instructions on how patients can manage their own communication preferences, please see How To: Manage Communication Opt Outs (for Patients).
For detailed instructions on how practices can manage communication preferences on their patients' behalf, please see How To: Manage Communication Opt Outs (for Practices).
Communication preferences and opt-in/opt-out are specific to the phone number, not to the patient. If multiple patients use the same mobile phone number (i.e. a parent and their children), changing the preferences for one will update the preferences for all of the patients who use that phone number.
When a patient receives an automated text from your Adit platform, it should contain a “Reply STOP to opt out” disclaimer message. If it doesn’t yet, you can easily update the template for each auto-reminder within your Adit platform. Go to Engage > Auto-Reminders and edit each template according to your needs.
The patient can reply STOP to that automated message when prompted, or they can simply text STOP to your practice number at any time. This will immediately opt the patient out of all text communication from your office. They will receive a confirmation message that they have been unsubscribed from all texts from your number and a link to manage their preferences further. You can control the content of this confirmation message by going to Engage > Preferences > Opt In/Out Settings. See the section below for more information.
Likewise, an opted-out patient can text START to your practice number at any time to be immediately subscribed to all text communication from your office.
When the Adit platform sends an automated email, it will have a link in the footer to manage their communication preferences.
If the patient clicks the link in the text or the email, they will be taken to a screen that looks like this, assuming they are on a mobile device. If they are on a computer, it will look slightly different but have all of the same options.
Here, the patient can individually opt in or out of each type of message that can be sent from the Adit platform. There are separate tabs at the top for texts and emails, so they can control those preferences separately - for example, a patient can opt in for appointment reminders only by text, and everything else by email. Each message type has a brief description so they know what they are opting in or out of. Once the patient has made their choices, they can click Save at the bottom to save their preferences.
Adit will then send the patient a confirmation message, letting them know their message preferences have been updated and providing the link to make additional changes if needed. You can control the content of this confirmation message by going to Engage > Preferences > Opt In/Out Settings. See the section below for more information.
In addition to giving patients control of their message preferences, you can also view and make changes to your patients’ preferences on their behalf. You can see a patient’s preferences in two useful places within your Adit platform - in Engage, and in the Patient Card.
On the Patient Card, the icon beside the patient’s name will tell you if they have opted out of some communications (red circle with a dash) or all communications (red circle with an x). You can hover over the icon to see exactly what messages they have opted out of. To access their preferences, you’ll navigate to Patient Info, then scroll down to Communication Preferences and click Manage beside the Opt Out Settings. From here, you can opt a patient in or out of each type of message and click Save.
When your practice makes changes to a patient’s communication preferences, the patient will receive a confirmation message letting them know their settings have been updated and providing them with the link to make additional changes if needed. You can control the content of this confirmation message by going to Engage > Preferences > Opt In/Out Settings. See the section below for more information.
When you open up a conversation thread within Engage itself, the right side panel will show you the same icon and Opt Out Settings that you had in the Patient Card. In addition, we will show a log in the conversation thread itself every time the patient’s communication preferences are updated. This will tell you who updated (if it was the patient or a logged-in member of your staff), what they changed, and when. This information will be useful when troubleshooting why a patient did/did not receive a specific reminder.
Communicating with Opted Out Patients
If a patient has opted out of a type of message, the Adit platform will notify you when you try to send that patient that type of message.
For example, if a patient has opted out of Manual text messages, when you go to Engage to text them you will see a message in the conversation window alerting you that the patient has opted out of manual messages. You may also notice that the message box is missing; you are unable to text a patient if they have opted out.
If you try to send a Quick Text to a patient who has opted out of that type of message, you will get a pop-up when you try to send that message letting you know the patient has opted out of that type of communication.
For mass texts and email campaigns, you will see a warning when you go to send the campaign, letting you know that some patients will not receive the message because they have opted out. If a mass text or email campaign is scheduled to go out later, we will check the patient's opt-out status at the time the campaign is scheduled, NOT when it sends.
If a patient makes changes to their opt-out preferences between when you schedule a mass text or email campaign and when it is sent, we will obey the opt-out setting at the time the campaign was scheduled. This also applies to mass texts sent in batches over multiple days.
Opt In / Opt Out Settings
There are a few preferences that you can set regarding the Opt Out messages Adit sends to your patients.
To customize opt-in/out confirmation messages:
- Navigate to the Engage module.
- Go to Preferences.
- Select Opt In/Opt Out Settings.
On this page, you can customize two types of confirmation message.
The top section of the page allows you to customize the text sent when a patient texts START or STOP to your practice phone number, including when they reply to a message with STOP or START.
The bottom section of the page is where you can decide if you want to send a confirmation message every time a patient's preferences are updated. You can choose to send this confirmation when a patient updates their own settings, when you update settings on their behalf, both, or neither.
Related Articles
How To: Manage Communication Opt Outs (for Patients)
Patients can opt in or out of communications from an Adit practice at any time. For detailed instructions on how practices can manage communication preferences on their patients' behalf, please see How To: Manage Communication Opt Outs (for ...How To: Manage Opt Outs (for Practices)
Patients can opt in or out of communications from your practice at any time. For detailed instructions on how patients can manage their own communication preferences, please see How To: Manage Communication Opt Outs (for Patients). Adit's granular, ...How to log all communication within the EHR/PMS
Adit enables you to log all communication with your patients into their respective patient file in the Practice Management Software. When enabled, this feature will log all historical and new data such as calls, texts, emails, and payments logged ...How to Use Adit Patient Forms Library
Adit Forms Library contains a robust and diverse set of templates for your practice to utilize in creating and sending patient forms. - Navigate to the Patient Forms module, then the Form Builder option at the top, then select Library to access. You ...How To: Automatically assign a patient form
By automating the assignment of patient forms, your practice can ensure patients are getting the correct forms at the correct time without it being a constant manual process. Common examples of when our clients automate patient forms include: Sending ...