Notifications & reminders: the complete guide

RafaNest sends appointment confirmations, reminders, cancellation and reschedule notices, video visit links and receipts automatically, by email and by text message. You edit the wording in Templates, patients keep control of their own reminder preferences, and no text goes out without the patient's consent. This guide covers what is sent, when it is sent, and what you can change.

What patients receive

• Appointment confirmation when a booking is made.
• Pending approval notice when you have turned on appointment approval and chosen to notify the patient.
• Appointment reminder ahead of the visit (see the timing below).
• Cancellation and reschedule notices when an appointment changes.
• Video visit link for telehealth appointments.
• Payment request and receipt when a payment is asked for or completed.
• Intake form invitation and superbill notices.

Appointment messages go by email and text by default. Receipts, intake form invitations and superbills go by email only unless you change it.

When the reminder goes out

The reminder is sent once per appointment, about a day ahead. A scheduled job runs every three hours and picks up appointments that start roughly 24 to 28 hours later, so the message lands in that window rather than at an exact hour. The reminder carries a Confirm or cancel link, so a patient with a conflict can answer from the message instead of ignoring it. Email and text reminders are part of the free Starter plan.

Email, text, or both

Each message type has its own email and text switch, and patients manage their own notification preferences and text reminder consent in their portal. You get a separate set of alerts for yourself under Notifications in your admin, covering new bookings, patient cancellations and reschedules, new inquiries and account reminders. Those go by email by default.

Consent and per-patient controls

A text is sent only to a patient who has agreed to receive appointment texts. Consent is recorded when the patient ticks the box while booking or registering, or when you record it on their patient record. The patient CSV import has an optional SMS consent column, and you should put yes there only for people who already agreed. A patient without consent still receives the email. You can also switch email or text off for one individual patient, for example when they ask for a different way to be contacted. Text messages are delivered only when text messaging is enabled for your account.

Privacy-safe wording by default

A text message travels over carrier networks, and standard email is not covered by a HIPAA business associate agreement unless your provider has signed one. For that reason the default messages are written to be privacy-safe. They leave out the patient name, the clinic name and the service, and carry the date, the time and a link to sign in to the patient portal. A default text reads like this.

Reminder: you have an appointment on Tue, Oct 6 at 10:45 AM EDT. Reply STOP to opt out.

For background on how the platform protects patient data, see how RafaNest secures patient records.

Edit the templates

Open Templates under Communications to edit the text and email wording for each message. Every template is pre-written. Merge fields such as {date} and {time} are filled in for each patient, and the privacy-safe email templates use {date}, {time} and {portal_link}. The page lists the available fields above each group of templates, and the privacy-safe email versions are the ones being sent.

Tips for reminders that work

• Keep texts short, because they are read in seconds.
• Make the next step obvious. A reminder a patient can confirm or cancel in one tap turns a possible no-show into an open slot you can refill.
• Pair reminders with a clear rule. Our late cancellation and no-show policy template gives you wording to start from.
• Read how reminders reduce no-shows for timing and wording ideas.