Patient recall and reactivation for allied health clinics

Patient recall means contacting active patients who are due for their next appointment or have stopped partway through a treatment plan. Patient reactivation means contacting people you haven’t seen in months to check whether they need care. Run them as two separate processes, with messages that focus on the patient’s care rather than offers, and follow the Privacy Act, which covers health service providers whatever their turnover, and AHPRA’s advertising rules.

This guide is for physios, chiros, osteos, podiatrists, psychologists and other allied health clinics. It covers how to define “lapsed” for your clinic, what to send and when, and how to run it without adding hours of admin.

Recall and reactivation are different jobs

Most clinics lump these together as “following up old patients”. They’re different problems with different answers.

Recall is part of clinical care. Reactivation is closer to keeping in touch. Keeping them apart helps with tone, with timing and with the rules, which treat care-related contact differently from promotion.

Defining ‘lapsed’ for your clinic

“Lapsed” means nothing until you put a number on it, and the number depends on the type of care.

• Acute injury rehab: no next appointment booked and more than one to two weeks past the planned review date.
• Ongoing or maintenance care: no visit in about twice the patient’s usual interval. Someone who comes monthly is lapsed at around eight weeks.
• Annual or periodic checks (podiatry reviews, orthotic checks, sports screening): a month past the due date.
• Completed and discharged: not lapsed at all. They finished. Recording discharge properly stops them being chased.

Write your definitions down, then look for a field in your practice software that captures the plan or expected next visit. Without it, your system can’t tell a patient who dropped out from one who was discharged.

Recall: patients who stop mid-plan

The most common gap is a patient who leaves the clinic without booking the next appointment, means to do it later, and doesn’t. A short, timely recall sequence fixes much of this.

1. At the end of each visit: book the next appointment before they leave. If they won’t, record why and when you’ll follow up.
2. Two to five days after the expected rebooking: a message from the treating practitioner, by name, about their progress.
3. A week later, if no reply: a phone call from reception or the practitioner. It suits patients mid-plan, where a conversation is more useful than another text.
4. Then stop, and record the outcome: rebooked, discharged, or chose not to continue.

Patients often stop because they feel better. That’s fine, and sometimes it’s the right call. The recall’s job is to make sure it’s an informed choice, not to talk them into visits they don’t need.

Reactivation: patients you have not seen in months

For people outside your lapsed threshold, a lighter touch works. Keep it to two or three messages over a couple of months, then stop.

• First message: a genuine check-in. How’s the knee? Anything you’d like us to look at?
• Second message, about a month later: something useful related to their past care, such as a reminder of the exercises from their plan or tips for staying on top of it.
• Final message: let them know you’re there if they need you and how to book.

Anyone who says they’ve moved, gone elsewhere or doesn’t want contact should be marked so they never get another message.

Messages that sound like care, not marketing

A patient who receives “We miss you! Book now and get 20% off” learns that your clinic sees them as revenue. A message that mentions their care, from someone they know, lands very differently.

Recall, mid-plan (SMS)

“Hi Chris, it’s Jess from Northside Physio. We’d planned to check your shoulder again this week. How’s it going? If you’d like to book, reply here or use this link. If you’re feeling good and want to stop here, just let me know.”

Reactivation, a few months on (SMS or email)

“Hi Chris, it’s been a while since we saw you for your shoulder. Hope it’s holding up. If anything’s flared up or there’s something new, we’re happy to take a look. Reply here or book online.”

Privacy and AHPRA rules to respect

This section is general information, not legal advice. Check the regulators’ guidance for your situation.

The Privacy Act applies, whatever your size

Most small businesses with annual turnover of $3 million or less are exempt from the Privacy Act, but the OAIC’s small business guidance lists health service providers among the businesses it covers regardless of turnover. A sole practitioner holding patient notes is covered.

The OAIC’s guidance on communications with patients says consent can generally be implied for recalls and follow-up related to a patient’s health care. Using health information for direct marketing is different: it needs the patient’s consent. If you can’t be confident a message falls within what the patient would expect, ask for express consent.

Spam Act for promotional messages

Under the Spam Act, enforced by ACMA, promotional texts and emails need consent, must identify your clinic and must include a working unsubscribe. A purely factual, care-related message is treated differently, but adding an offer turns it into a marketing message.

AHPRA advertising rules

If your practitioners are registered with AHPRA, your messages may count as advertising a regulated health service. AHPRA’s advertising guidelines set out several rules that matter here:

• Advertising must not use testimonials about the service.
• A gift, discount or other inducement must state its terms and conditions, in plain language and easy to find.
• Advertising must not encourage the indiscriminate or unnecessary use of health services.

A discount to lure lapsed patients back isn’t banned outright, but it needs its terms stated, and it sits awkwardly with the rule on unnecessary use. Most clinics are better off leaving offers out of recall and reactivation entirely.

Running it without adding admin

Recall and reactivation fall over when they depend on someone remembering to run a report every Friday. Set them up once and let the system do the remembering.

• Use your practice software’s recall features if it has them. Check what yours can do before buying anything new.
• Connect a CRM if you need more: sequences, reply handling, and a clear view of who’s in recall, who’s in reactivation and who’s been discharged. A proper CRM setup pulls appointment data from your practice software.
• Automate the timing, not the relationship. Automation can send the first message on the right day in the practitioner’s name. Replies should go to a person.
• Give one person ownership of the phone-call step and the weekly check that nothing is stuck.
• Respect opt-outs everywhere. One opt-out should stop every non-essential message, not just one sequence.

Getting the basics right before the patient leaves the building does a lot of the work. Our guide to reducing no-shows covers reminders and rebooking, and the approach to following up gym trial members uses the same idea of timely, personal check-ins.

Where to start

1. Write down your definitions of mid-plan, lapsed and discharged for each main type of care.
2. Run a report of active patients with no future booking, and of patients not seen within your lapsed window.
3. Draft the recall and reactivation messages, and have a practitioner check the tone.
4. Check your consent records and remove any offers from care-related messages.
5. Set up the timing in your practice software or CRM, with replies going to a person.
6. Review the results after three months and adjust the timing.

If you’d like help setting up recall and reactivation that runs alongside your practice software, our health and fitness page shows how we work with clinics.