Notification Statuses
ACM Alerts uses status codes to indicate the outcome of a notification. These codes appear in the “Appointment Details” field.
Here’s how it works:
- When you create a new appointment, the patient’s name automatically appears in the “Details” field in the schedule.
- Two-letter codes are added to this field to indicate the notification status (e.g., “CF” for confirmed, “CA” for cancelled). Important: Do not alter these codes, as they are essential for the system to function correctly.
Visual Indicators: Along with the codes, you’ll see visual cues on your schedule:
- Confirmed Appointments: A “Practice Solutions confirmed” icon appears next to appointments confirmed through ACM Alerts (CF).
- Cancelled Appointments: Cancelled appointments display the “CA” status code but remain on your calendar so you can reschedule, call back the patient, or take other appropriate action.
| Code | Meaning |
| <RS> Notification-Sent | The notification has been sent out and is awaiting a response |
| <CF> Notification Confirmed | The notification has been confirmed |
| <NA> No-answer (voice only) | May mean a short call, or one that will be retried for other reasons. If the system leaves a “We’ll try later” message, the appointment will also show <NA>. |
| <PU> Picked-up no answer (voice only) | A person responded by pressing 1 to continue but did not confirm or cancel. |
| <LM> Left Message (voice only) | The system left a message (or attempted to – answering machines can be tricky to use) |
| <CA> Canceled | The system received a cancel response. The appointment will remain in your calendar to allow you to action this patient/appointment time. |
You can easily set how each patient prefers to be contacted about their appointments. To do this, add a simple code to their record in Practice Solutions. Go to Patient Demographic Page > Comments and add the preferred preference code.
Important:
- Type the code in CAPITAL letters exactly as shown in the list of available codes.
- You can place the code anywhere in the “Comments” field.
| Code | Meaning |
| PR:N | No Notification |
| PR:V | Voice to number found via the configured search order |
| PR:VH | Voice to home number |
| PR:VC | Voice to cell number |
| PR:T | Text message to number via the configured search order |
| PR:TH | Text message to home |
| PR:TC | Text message to cell |
| PR:TB | Text message to business number |
| PR:E | Email Notification |
Patient preference code example:
A daily report can be sent via email upon request. The report can be used to verify patient responses to each notification:
| Notification Status | Attempt Code | Meaning |
| Notification Sent | RS | The notification has been sent out and is awaiting a response |
| Notification Confirmed | CF | A ‘Confirmed’ response was received. |
| No-answer | NA, NAS, NAB, NAM | Generally means that the call was not answered:
In the NAM case, the system left a short “We’ll try later” message. |
| Picked up no answer | PU | A person responded by pressing 1 to continue but didn’t confirm or cancel |
| Left message | LM | The system left a message (or at least tried to – answering machines can be tricky to work with). |
| Canceled | CA | The system received a cancel response. |
| Please Call | PC | The system received a please-call response. The meaning depends on its use in the template. For example, this response can be used to indicate that the patient would like the clinic to call them to reschedule the appointment. |