It happens all the time. An appointment time opens up in next week’s schedule that you need to fill, but you can’t seem to find a spare minute to call patients who could fill it. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could contact multiple patients at once from the Unscheduled List or ASAP List—the patients who are the most likely to be able to fill the open time at short notice? You’re in luck! With Dentrix G6.6 and higher and Patient Engage, you can contact patients via text message to let them know you have an appointment time available—and have them call you to schedule!

Here’s how it works:

1. Right-click an open appointment time in the Appointment Book, and then click Fill Appointment.
2. Select which list(s) of patients to target, such as Broken Appointments, Will Call, or ASAP. Then select other search criteria, including the provider, date range, and appointment length.
3. Click OK to generate a list of patients that match your criteria.
4. Select up to 40 patients on the list, and then click Text Setup.
5. Type the text of the message you want to send to patients, informing them of the opening in your schedule, and then click Send.

Your selected patients receive a text message telling them to call your office and claim the available time. You can fill the open time with the first patient who calls you back, and as additional patients call you back, you can schedule them for other open times you may have open on your Appointment Book. Your office will receive an email notifying you of the number of patients that were successfully sent a text message via Fill Appointment.

For more details on how to use the Fill Appointment feature, read A Faster Way to Fill Appointments in Dentrix Magazine.