Scheduler, Email and Text Notifications FAQs

Scheduler, Email and Text Notifications FAQs


Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How long will it take for changes made in zHealth to appear in Google?

A: Almost instantly. However, if the changes don't appear instantly, wait for a few seconds to minute and refresh the Google Calendar for the zHealth appointment changes to reflect on the Google Calendar.

Q: What happens when I make a change to an appointment in zHealth Calendar?

A: All changes made to an appointment in zHealth, whether your rescheduled it or deleted the appointment, will be reflected in Google Calendar. Please note that any changes made to your appointments in Google Calendar will not get transferred to zHealth Calendar.

Q: What appointments will show once I connect my zHealth calendar to my Google calendar?

​A: Only new appointments created AFTER you've signed in to your Google account will show in the Google Calendar.

Q: Can I schedule more than one person for the same time slot?

A: Yes, this is a customizable setting to allow X overlapping appointments. Once set, you can go to the ‘gear’ icon in the daily view and “add new” to schedule a new appointment.

Customizing Provider's Details to Allow Overlapping Appointments:
1. Hover the cursor over your name on the top right corner. Click Update Info.
2. Click Provider > Business Hours.
3. On the section saying "Maximum number of Appointments that can be booked for the same time", enter the number you want. For instance, if you want to book 2 overlapping appointments at the same time, then enter 2.
4. Click Update to save the settings.

Booking Two Patients for the Same Time Slot:
1. On the Scheduler dashboard, click on any time slot.
2. In the patient lookup field, enter the patient name and search.
3. Click Select to select the patient name from the search results.
4. One patient appointment is added for the given time slot.
5. Now click the small gear icon (  ) at the end of the patient appointment you just added.
6. Click Add New.
7. Again in the patient lookup field, enter the second patient name and search.
8. Click Select to select the second patient.
9. Enter the appointment details for the second patient (if required).
10. Click Confirm to add the second patient appointment for the same time slot.

Q: What if I schedule an appointment that falls on the same day? Will the software send out text reminders to the patient?

A: Currently - the first appointment reminder for all 1 and 2 day appointments is sent between 9:30 to 11:30 AM Pacific time. So if the appointment is made on the same day, the first text reminder will not be sent.
The second text reminder will be sent if the appointment is booked before the text reminder minute setting (e.g. if 30 mins, then the appointment should be booked before that). 

Q: Can I turn off reminders for specific appointment types (or if a patient has more than one appointment in a day)?

A: The reminder notifications can not be disabled/enabled for specific appointments. However, the appointment reminders (text and email) only go for the first appointment if there are multiple appointments for the same patient for the same facility on the same day.

Q: What happens if any patient unsubscribes from the email notification?

A: The patient unsubscription is the same for both email and text. zHealth won't send email or text reminders if the patient unsubscribes.

Q: Is there a way to resubscribe a patient to text message notifications once they have opted out via the actual text?

A: Legally, a business cannot add back someone who has opt’d out. The patients need to do it themselves - i.e. opt back by sending a text "START" or "YES" to the number: 4159801890 (or one of the numbers highlighted at the top of this section).

Q: Does zHealth have the ability to send email and/or text reminders?

A: Yes, zHealth can send out reminders either 1 or 2 days in advance (text and email) and same day texts either 30, 60, 90, or 120 minutes prior to the appointment.

Q: Can we turn off reminders for specific appointment types (or if a patient has more than one appointment in a day)?

A: The reminder notifications can be turned on or off for your facility. They can not be disabled/enabled for specific appointment types.

Q: Do cancelled appointments still get a reminder?

A: No, cancelled appointments will not get any reminders.

Q: We want to remove an appointment type from a Provider's appointment options. I don't see a Delete option, is that something that engineering needs to do?

A: Correct. We don’t provide the delete buttons for the appointment types as there might be older appointments using that type. Please let zHealth know which appointment type you’d like to delete - and our engineers can take care of that. This is the same for other areas of the site as well (Insurances, patient types, etc.).

Q: Stop replies to texts…when patients want to opt out texts and reply “stop”, I was told they would be removed but when going into their charts the box is still checked to receive - please confirm they are getting taken off of texts.

A: Yes, our software automatically does not send a text message if a patient has replied with a "Stop". We do not update the preference in the patient's chart when somebody replies with ‘stop’.

Q: Can a clinic have different hours for different providers?

A: Yes, each provider can have their own business hours (as well as specific hours for online appointments).

Q: Can we change the view of our scheduler to different columns for rooms, Provider, or treatments?

A: Yes. Please reach out to zHealth support and they can help provision how you’d like your scheduler to look and function.

Q: How or why would duplicate patient charts be created when booking online?

A: Here is the flow when a patient books an online appointment and clicks “first time users click here” from the new online portal (allowing first time users is an option that zHealth can turn on/off):

The first check we perform is if there is already an existing patient within that organization or portal based on the following mapping field:
1) first name, 2) date of birth, 3) email, and 4) phone number (any of the 3 phones).

If all 4 mapping fields match, we then check if there is a username already created
  1. if a username has been created for that patient, we give the error “Patient already exists.Try ‘forgot password’ to proceed”. 
  2. if a username hasn’t been created for that patient, we'll allow the patient to set a new username (if unique) and password for the existing patient.
If any of the mapping fields are not present or don’t match, we check any patient with just the same date of birth and email
in that organization or portal.
  1. if no matches exist, we assume they are a new patient and let them proceed.
  2. If a match does exist, we give an error “Email already exists for this DOB”




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