As we round the corner into fall, MedMe has enabled our Flu Module Waitlist Mode, allowing pharmacies to start capturing interest in flu vaccine appointments ahead of the start of flu season in October.
The waitlist is a powerful tool that serves two main purposes:
Gather patient interest for flu vaccine before receiving supply
Notify patients in one simple step after each shipment of supply is received
Together, these two features greatly elevate the scheduling capabilities within your pharmacy. Once supply hits the fridge, you can rapidly invite patients on your waitlist -- all-together, or in groups - to book their spot. This will rapidly fill up your schedule and ensure minimal missed opportunities for flu vaccinations!
⭐️ New This Year for Flu 2022/2023 ⭐️
Patients will be able to remove themselves from the waitlist by following the link in either their confirmation email or booking link email
High dose waitlist patients are screened for their acceptance of the regular flu shot at intake allowing you to filter for patients willing to switch waitlists
What We Cover In This Guide:
Time-Saving Tip: You can click onto the linked titles above to navigate directly to each section.
1 - Setting Up Your Flu Waitlist(s)
STEP 1: Decide which waitlists you'd like to have open for patients to join
The flu module includes 3 separate waitlists:
Flu (Regular)
Flu (High-Dose)
Flu (Nasal Spray)
Depending on your expected inventory, you may choose to let patients join specific waitlists. For waitlists you would like patients to see on your booking portal (e.g._____.medmeapp.ca/schedule), please move to step 2 to turn the waitlist on.
STEP 2: Enable your public intake for public visibility. (Note: You will have to complete this step for each waitlist you choose to turn on for your patients)
Access your appointment-specific settings by going into Settings > Appointment Types and click into your desired appointment type - Flu Vaccine (Regular), Flu Vaccine (High-Dose), FluMist.
When you click into your desired appointment type, go to the VISIBILITY settings. Make sure that the "Enable public intake for this appointment type" toggle is BLUE (BLUE = on). This will allow patients to see the waitlists you have opened up on your scheduling page.
If turned on correctly, your patients will be able to go to your patient-facing link (e.g._____.medmeapp.ca/schedule) and see the appointments.
2 - Joining Your Waitlist: From the Patient's Perspective
To test the Flu Waitlist patient intake out yourself, access your patient scheduling link (e.g._____.medmeapp.ca/schedule), making sure that your waitlists are enabled for public intake.
Note: Are you trying to access the patient scheduling link, but you keep getting redirected to your Pharmacist Dashboard? Try one of the following methods:
Log out of your Pharmacist Dashboard, then access the patient scheduling link.
If you would still like to be logged in to your Pharmacist Dashboard, open an "incognito" window and access the patient intake link through this window.
3 - Inviting Patients to Join Your Waitlist(s)
There are 3 scenarios for inviting patients to join your waitlist:
Invite patients to join your waitlist: This is the recommended method for returning pharmacies who used MedMe before for flu season +/- COVID-19 Vaccinations. With this workflow, you can initiate a "Send Waitlist Invite" link to existing patients within MedMe, en-masse. This helps leverage your existing patient database to generate awareness of upcoming flu services at your pharmacy and continue the pharmacy-patient relationship into the flu season.
Adding patients manually to your waitlist: If patients express interest in joining the waitlist, but cannot complete online booking themselves, you can add them to the waitlist from the pharmacy side.
Patient self-joins via online portal: Through your booking portal, patients can directly join the waitlist for themselves and for their family. Then, you can send them booking links once supply arrives.
Time-Saving Tip: You can click onto the linked titles above to navigate directly to each section.
Scenario #1: Invite patients to join your waitlist (UPDATED for 2022/2023)
If you are a returning MedMe pharmacy, this is the preferred method for inviting patients to your new Flu waitlists. By leveraging your existing patient list, you can skip the phone calls and invite your existing MedMe patients to directly self-join your Waitlist with a click of a button.
Benefits:
Patients will not have to re-enter any of their personal information
It will not create a duplicate patient record
STEP 1: Decide which waitlists you'd like to invite your patients to.
In order to be able to invite patients to any given waitlist, you must first ensure that your waitlist is enabled for public intake. See our article for Setting Up Your Flu Waitlist.
STEP 2: Filter for which patients you'd like to invite to your flu waitlist
In the left menu, click on the "Appointments" tab.
In the top right dropdown, switch to "List View".
In the top middle, click on the "Filter/Sort" button.
Under Canadian Anti Spam Legislation (CASL) regulation, you are allowed to contact any customers who have done business with your pharmacy in the last 2 years (i.e. patients who booked an appointment). This includes any patients who did not provide CASL consent via their patient intake (i.e. they did not checkmark the option about opting in to receiving future communications).
These are the recommended groups of patients to filter for:
Appt date: choose a start date as early as you can go back to (14 months).
Appt status: checkmark "Arrived", "Completed", "Scheduled".
Age: Select 0 to 64 for regular dose or 65 to 121 for high dose.
Click the "Apply" button at the bottom.
COMING SOON: in the future, a new field will be added to this screen to allow you to filter for only patients who are allowed to be contacted.
STEP 3: Send the Waitlist Invite to your selected group of patients!
Click the first checkbox to select all patients.
Click on "Select all X appointments."
Click on the "Send Waitlist Invite" button.
Select your desired appointment type (regular dose or high dose).
Click the "Send" button.
Patients will receive an email with a link to join your flu waitlist!
Note: they will not have to re-enter any of their personal information, and it will not create a duplicate patient record.
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Scenario #2: Adding patients manually to your waitlist
If you find that there are patients who have not previously used MedMe in the past for other services, and who may not know how to use the online booking system, you can add patients to the waitlist yourself.
STEP 1: Choose your desired waitlist.
Go to the desired waitlist, and click the "Add Patient" button.
STEP 2: Enter in the primary patient information to add to the waitlist.
Search for an existing patient, or use the + Create New Patient option to add in a new patient profile. As MedMe supports the ability to join the waitlist as a group for the same waitlist type, you will also be prompted to enter in the estimated number of patients that will be booking for this appointment type alongside the primary patient. You can indicate up to a maximum of 6 patients per group, including the primary patient.
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Scenario #3: Patient self-joins via online portal
The most common way patients will join your waitlist is via the online portal where your pharmacy-specific appointment links will be visible. Your online portal is set up as ______.medmeapp.ca/schedule, and this link can be posted on your Google Business page, social media, or as a QR code in your pharmacy marketing materials.
To make your appointment type accessible to your patients, see our instructions in our Setting Up Your Flu Waitlists section.
4 - Managing your Flu Waitlists
Once your waitlists have been set up, and patients have started to join, there may be additional actions you need to take, like sending booking links, removing patients or sending custom messages. Click on the articles below to learn more about how to manage your waitlist:
🚨 Experiencing High-Dose Flu Vaccine Supply Issues? (New for Flu 2022/2023)
Starting Flu 2022/2023, patients joining the High-Dose Flu Vaccine waitlist will be screened for their acceptance of the regular flu shot. When patients register, they will be asked "In the absence of the high dose Flu Shot vaccine due to limited supply, are you open to receiving the regular dose Flu Shot, if it’s the first vaccine available?"
This will allow you to filter your high dose waitlist and identify patients who would be interested in receiving either flu shot if supply is unavailable. You will then be able to send a booking link by selecting the type of booking link as "Flu Vaccine (Regular Dose)". A step-by-step guide can be found by clicking into the article linked below:
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Have questions or looking to add new modules to your MedMe platform? Email us at care@medmehealth.com, or message us via live chat!