Follow-ups & recalls

Setting a recall

"See me in two weeks" shouldn't depend on the patient's memory. A recall is a dated reminder to bring one patient back, and there are three places to set one:

• From the visit — the natural one. Schedule the follow-up while you're finishing the encounter and it carries the visit with it.
• From the patient's chart — the Recalls card shows what's already scheduled for this patient and lets you add one.
• From the Recalls page — New recall, search for the patient, pick a date. This is the front-desk path, for when someone asks at the counter with no visit open.

The reason is optional and short ("blood pressure check") — it's what the desk reads when they phone, so write it for them.

What happens on the due date

Every morning Angel messages the patients whose recalls came due, on WhatsApp, from the clinic's own number. If online booking is on, the message carries the booking link so the patient can rebook in two taps; otherwise it carries the clinic's phone number.

Sent means sent. A recall only moves to Sent when a message actually left for that patient. That's what the Reminded count on the Recalls page is counting.

The lifecycle

A recall is Pending until its date arrives and the reminder goes out, which moves it to Sent. From there the desk closes it:

• Completed — they booked and came in.
• No response — they were reminded and never came back. Angel does not age recalls into this state on its own; someone decides the patient has stopped answering.
• Canceled — plans changed.

Open is the default view: everything Pending or Sent, i.e. the work left to do.

Rescheduling

Dates move. Reschedule on any recall changes the due date and the reason — a patient who calls to push the check-up past Eid doesn't need a second recall on top of the first.

Moving the date reopens the recall: it goes back to Pending, and the reminder goes out again on the new date. That's also how a canceled or long-dead recall gets a second life — give it a new date rather than creating a duplicate.

When there's nobody to message

Two recalls can come due with nowhere to send: the patient has no phone number on file, or the clinic hasn't connected WhatsApp (see WhatsApp messages).

Angel doesn't pretend those went out. The recall stays Pending, gets flagged Needs a call, and the desk gets a notification the same morning — "3 recalls came due that we couldn't send on WhatsApp". Call them from the Recalls page and close each one as you go. The flag remembers the first time the recall was due, so you can see what's been waiting longest.

Without WhatsApp connected, recalls still work exactly this way — as a call list.

On the patient's chart

The chart shows this patient's open recalls, so "is she already booked back in?" is answerable with the patient standing at the desk — and you don't schedule a second recall on top of one that's already there. You can add one, or mark one completed, from here. View all opens the full history for that patient.

Who works it

The whole desk. Scheduling, rescheduling and closing a recall are all open to every staff role — a recall is a booking, not a medical record, and whoever phones the patient should be able to move it. The clinical judgement ("come back in three months") is the doctor's and lives in the visit.

Turning recalls off

Recalls are switched on per clinic in Clinic Settings → Features. With the feature off, no new recalls can be scheduled and none are rescheduled — but the existing list stays readable and closable, so a clinic that turns recalls off can still empty its worklist instead of stranding patients on it. The same applies if a subscription lapses.