Post Appointment Messaging

Post-Appointment Messaging brings one of CareMessage's most powerful automation capabilities directly into your dashboard, no extra configuration tools required.

Important Prerequisite: If you're seeing this feature in your account, it means your organization has an active HL7 integration with CareMessage, which allows us to automatically receive appointment attendance data from your EHR. That data is what makes this automation possible.

Post-Appointment Messaging lets you set up recurring, automated outreach to two patient cohorts that often fall through the cracks after appointments:

You configure each automation once, and it runs on autopilot, weekly or monthly, until you decide to pause or stop it.

Every week, staff at safety-net organizations spend hours manually following up after appointments: tracking down patients who no-showed and sending satisfaction surveys. Post-Appointment Messaging handles that work automatically, so your team can focus on the moments that require a human touch.

For no-show recalls: CareMessage data shows that patients messaged through this automation have a 50% appointment rebooking rate within 90 days. This automation ensures no one slips away without a follow-up.

For patient satisfaction surveys: Rather than manually sending surveys after visits, your team can set up a recurring automation that reaches every patient who attended, every week or month.

Together, these two automations save significant staff time while ensuring consistent, timely outreach to patients who need it most.

Patient Satisfaction Survey (PSS) Once configured, CareMessage will look back over the previous week (or month, depending on your schedule) and identify every patient who attended an appointment during that window. Those patients will automatically receive your selected message on the send date you choose. Each patient is messaged only once per automation run.

No-Show Recall CareMessage identifies patients who did not attend an appointment in the previous period and sends them an automated message. This is your opportunity to check in, ask why they didn't make it, collect social drivers of health data, or simply give them easy directions to rebook. Patients who are reached quickly after a missed appointment are significantly more likely to come back.

Both automation types follow the same four-step setup flow, accessible from the Appointments feature.

You'll see your default appointment criteria already pre-filled:

The one criteria you can adjust is locations. If you want to limit the automation to specific sites, you can search and select them here. Otherwise, all locations are included.

Next, set your schedule:

Once you've made your selections, you'll see a confirmation message showing your first send date, the patient cohort window, and a reminder that each patient will only be messaged once.
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CareMessage provides pre-built message templates for both automation types. Each template includes a title, description, and a live preview so you can see exactly what patients will receive. Templates are fully editable, they're starting points, not locked content. You can also choose Use your own template if you have an existing Outreach template you'd like to use, or if you'd prefer to build one from scratch.

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Once you select your template, you'll see it open in an editable form. You can update the title, message body, language(s), and for multiple-choice templates each response option. If you're building your own template, you'll have the same options available here as in the standard Create Outreach flow.
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Before launching, you'll see a full summary of everything you've configured: your patient criteria, schedule, and message content. Each section has an inline Edit button if you want to go back and adjust anything.

When you're ready, click Create Automation. A confirmation modal will summarize the automation in plain language and remind you that you can pause or edit it at any time. Once you confirm, your automation goes live.

After setup, your automation tabs and dashboard will show you everything you need to stay on top of your outreach:

At any point, you can click Edit Automation to return to the four-step setup flow, pre-populated with your current settings. Any changes you save will apply to the next scheduled send and all future sends.

If you need to take a break, click Pause Automation. A confirmation will remind you that messages will stop going out to new patients, your settings will be saved, and you can resume at any time. Your send history remains visible even while paused.

Will patients receive the same message more than once? No. The automation is designed to message each patient only once per send. Patients are only re-messaged if they have another appointment in the specified window.
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What counts as "attended" or "no-showed"? This is based on attendance data synced directly from your EHR through your HL7 integration. CareMessage uses whatever attendance status your EHR records for each appointment.
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Can I use my own message content instead of the pre-built templates? Yes. In Step 2, choose Use your own template to bring in an existing Outreach template or create one from scratch.
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What happens if I pause and then reactivate my automation? Your settings are preserved exactly as you left them. When you resume, the automation will run on its next scheduled date based on your original configuration.
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Can I have both a Patient Satisfaction Survey and a No-Show Recall running at the same time?

Yes. Each automation type is configured and managed independently, and both can be live simultaneously.

How are patients counted in the "Upcoming Messages" preview?
CareMessage syncs daily with your EHR. The patient count you see reflects everyone in the upcoming cohort window who meets your criteria as of the most recent sync. The number may shift slightly as appointments are updated.

Questions?

Reach out to our Support team through the chat icon in your dashboard, or email [email protected] for additional guidance.