Combi and family appointments: one message instead of several

Every appointment used to get its own message: two appointments on one day meant two reminders, and a family with three children got three separate messages on the same number. That led to a lot of reminders and was sometimes unclear for the patient.

Combi and family appointments now bundle this into one message: combi for the appointments of one patient, family for family members who share a phone number or e-mail address. Result: fewer, clearer messages for the patient, and fewer confused phone calls for you at the front desk.

⚙️ How it works?

Combi appointments: one patient, one day

Does a patient have more than one appointment on the same day? Then TurnUp groups these into one visit instead of sending separate reminders. The patient sees one message with each appointment as its own row: time, location, and its own Confirm/Cancel. A bar shows progress ("2 of 3 answered"), and there are buttons to confirm or cancel everything at once.

A few extra rules here:

Cancelling one appointment never cancels the other — the rest of the visit stays booked, and the cancelled appointment needs to be rebooked separately.
Does a patient have appointments on the same day at two different locations of your practice? Then this stays one message: each appointment simply shows its own address.
Can one appointment in the visit not be cancelled online? Then the whole visit is redirected to "call the practice" — nothing gets cancelled online in that case.

❗ Want to set yourself which appointments patients cannot cancel online? Read this helpdesk article.

Are all of the patient's appointments low risk? Then this becomes a purely informational message.

Family appointments: one contact, one day

Do several family members have an appointment on the same day, and do they use the same phone number or e-mail address? Then they receive one shared message about this, instead of each getting their own separate message. Each appointment stays labelled with the patient's name, so a parent can see which appointment belongs to which family member, and can confirm or cancel each appointment separately.

A few more things to know:

The grouping is based on the phone number or e-mail address actually registered in the practice's patient system.
Does one family member still need to confirm while another's appointment is already settled? Then the message always leads with what still needs a response.
In the TurnUp app this deliberately works differently: each patient gets their own card instead of one shared card, so an action on one card can never affect a family member's appointment.

High- and low-risk appointments mixed together

Does a patient have both a high-risk and a low-risk appointment on the same day? Then the whole visit asks for confirmation: each appointment gets its own Confirm/Cancel, including the low-risk appointment that didn't need any action on its own.

The same applies at family level. Does one family member have a high-risk appointment and another only a low-risk appointment on the same day? Then the family still only gets one message per day, and it's always the version that asks for confirmation: the appointment of the family member who didn't need to confirm anything is simply included in that message. That way, no one who needs to confirm is overlooked.

🏷️ Treatment names

By default, no treatment name is shown in reminders. Do you want to show a treatment name anyway?

Go to Settings › Treatments › Overview (for one treatment) or Settings › Treatments › Categories (to cover a whole category at once) and fill in the "Name shown to patients" field.

❗ Leave this field empty, and no treatment name is shown at all in reminders and confirmation requests.

🔛 On by default — how to turn it off

Combi and family appointments are switched on by default for every practice that uses TurnUp reminders. Most practices keep this on, since it prevents patients with multiple appointments on the same day, or families, from getting several messages per day.

Would your practice rather receive separate messages per appointment or per family member? Then contact TurnUp support.

🚀 What's in it for you?

Far fewer messages for patients: no more separate reminder per appointment, even when they need to confirm for themselves and their children.
Always immediately clear who has which appointment and what still needs a response, so no confirmation is overlooked.