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Appointment Reminders

CareLaunch sends automatic appointment reminders to patients and providers by email, text message (SMS), and in-app notification. You choose the channels and the send times once, at Settings > Reminders, and every booked appointment gets reminders from then on. There is nothing to set up on each appointment.

Quick setup​

  1. Go to Settings > Reminders.
  2. Turn on each channel you want: Email, SMS, In-App.
  3. For each channel that is on, choose one or more times under Send notifications.
  4. Click Save.

Only Platform Admins and Organization Admins can open Settings > Reminders. Appointment reminders are included on every plan, Solo included.

Channels and default times​

ChannelDefault for a new organizationSent to
EmailOn, 24 hours beforeThe patient's portal account email, and each provider's login email
SMSOn, 2 hours beforeThe phone number on the patient record, and the phone number on each provider's user profile
In-AppOff. 1 hour before is selected when you turn it on.The notification bell in the patient portal and in CareLaunch

Send times​

You can pick any combination of these times for each channel:

  • 15 minutes before
  • 30 minutes before
  • 1 hour before
  • 2 hours before
  • 4 hours before
  • 24 hours before
  • 48 hours before
  • 1 week before

For example, you can send an email 48 hours before and 24 hours before, and a text 2 hours before. "Immediately" is not a reminder time, because the booking confirmation is sent on its own when the appointment is booked.

Times are counted back from the appointment start. A reminder whose time has already passed when the appointment is booked is skipped. If a patient books 3 hours ahead, the 24-hour reminder is not sent, but a 2-hour reminder is.

Who receives reminders​

Reminders go to the patient and to the providers on the appointment. Both get the same channels at the same times. The patient side and the provider side are sent separately, so a problem with one does not stop the other.

Patients​

  • Email goes to the email on the patient's portal account. If the patient has a proxy or guardian with an account, such as a parent managing a child's care, the email goes to the proxy instead. Each recipient gets their own email, so addresses are never shared between recipients.
  • SMS goes to the first phone number on the patient record. The patient does not need a portal account to get texts.
  • In-App appears in the patient portal's notification bell for the patient or their proxy. If they turned on browser notifications, they also get a browser alert.

A patient who has no portal account, and no proxy with one, gets SMS reminders only.

Providers​

Every provider on the appointment who has a CareLaunch login receives reminders on the channels you turned on: email at their login email, a text at the phone number on their user profile, and an in-app notification.

Providers use the same send times as patients. There is no separate provider schedule. To stop provider reminders completely, see Turn reminders off for patients or for providers.

Time zones​

The time in a patient's reminder is shown in the patient's time zone when one is set on their record. Otherwise it uses your organization's time zone. Provider reminders use your organization's time zone.

What the reminder says​

The built-in reminder email shows your logo (or your organization name), the appointment date and time, the provider, the appointment type, the location when there is one, links that open the appointment in the patient portal, and your organization's phone number and email. For a virtual visit it also has a Test Connection Now button.

The text message and the in-app reminder are short: the appointment time and the provider's name, unless you change the wording.

Change the wording​

Reminder wording lives in Settings > Notifications, under Appointments, on the Appointment Reminder row. There are two rows: one with the patient recipient and one with the admin recipient, which is the provider version. Click a row to edit it.

FieldWhat it changes
Subject Line (Email tab)The subject of the reminder email
Email Template (Email tab)Sends one of your own email templates instead of the built-in reminder email
Message Body (Email tab)The text of the in-app reminder. The built-in reminder email has its own fixed layout and does not show this text.
SMS Template (SMS tab)The text message

Use variables in curly braces to fill in appointment details. The most useful ones for reminders:

VariableFills in
{firstName}Patient's first name
{providerName}Provider's name
{appointmentDate}Appointment date
{appointmentTime}Appointment time with time zone, such as "2:30 PM EDT"
{reminderTimeframe}How far away the appointment is, such as "tomorrow" or "in 2 hours"
{location}Appointment location
{joinUrl}Virtual visit link, when the appointment is a virtual visit
{detailsUrl}Link to the appointment in the patient portal
{contactPhone}Your organization's phone number

See Notification Settings for the full list.

Keep reminders HIPAA-friendly​

Text messages and email previews can be seen by anyone who picks up the patient's phone. Keep reminders to the date, time, provider, and a way to reach you. Leave out the reason for the visit, diagnoses, and test results. If your appointment type names are sensitive (for example, a specialty or a condition), leave {appointmentType} out of your SMS template.

When reminders are scheduled, changed, or cancelled​

What happensReminders
An appointment with a time and a provider is booked, by staff or by the patientReminders are scheduled for every channel and time that is on
The appointment is cancelledReminders that have not gone out yet are cancelled
The appointment is moved to a new timeThe old reminders are cancelled and new ones are scheduled from the current settings
A cancelled appointment is reinstatedReminders are scheduled again from the current settings
You change Settings > RemindersApplies to appointments booked or moved after you save. Appointments already booked keep their reminder times.

Appointments without a set time, or without a provider assigned, do not get reminders.

Appointments that need payment​

If your booking flow requires payment, a reminder is skipped while the appointment is still unpaid. Once the patient pays, the remaining reminders go out as scheduled.

Opt-outs​

  • A patient who replies STOP to your texting number stops getting texts from that number, and CareLaunch skips SMS reminders for a patient whose record is marked as opted out of texts. Email and in-app reminders continue.
  • Clicking Unsubscribe in an email stops your campaign and automation emails. It does not stop appointment reminder emails, which are messages about care the patient has booked.

Turn reminders off for patients or for providers​

Settings > Reminders turns channels on and off for everyone. To stop one audience only:

  1. Go to Settings > Notifications and open Appointments.
  2. Find the Appointment Reminder row with the recipient you want to stop: patient or admin (providers).
  3. Turn off Enabled, then click Save.

That stops every reminder channel for that audience. Providers turning off Appointment Reminder in their own notification preferences does not stop reminders, so use this setting instead.

Delivery and retries​

If a reminder email fails for a temporary reason, such as a full mailbox, CareLaunch tries again 1 hour later, and once more 4 hours after that.

Texts come from your organization's own texting number when CareLaunch support has set one up for you. Otherwise they come from CareLaunch's shared number.

To see which reminders are scheduled for upcoming appointments and whether sent reminders were delivered, use the Appointment Reminders Report. It is available on the Practice and Enterprise plans.

  • Late reminder resend: Settings > Scheduling > General, under Late/No-Show Management. Emails the patient another reminder a set number of minutes after the start time (5 by default) if the appointment is not marked Arrived, Checked In, or Fulfilled. Off by default. See Appointment Scheduling.
  • Confirmation requests: asking the patient to confirm, with its own Max Reminders limit, is a separate feature on Settings > Scheduling > Confirmation. It is marked Coming soon.
  • Staff reminders: the Reminders page in the main navigation is a to-do list for staff follow-ups. It does not message patients. See Reminders.

Troubleshooting​

A patient did not get a reminder​

  1. Open Settings > Reminders and check that the channel is on and has at least one time selected.
  2. Check Settings > Notifications that the patient Appointment Reminder row is enabled.
  3. For email or in-app, check that the patient (or their proxy) has a portal account. For SMS, check that the patient record has a phone number and the patient has not opted out of texts.
  4. Check that the appointment has a provider and a start time, and that it was booked before the reminder time.
  5. If the appointment needs payment, check that the patient has paid.
  6. If you changed the reminder times after the appointment was booked, move the appointment to a new time to schedule reminders with the new settings.

A provider did not get a reminder​

  1. Check that the provider is on the appointment and has a CareLaunch login.
  2. For SMS, check that the provider's user profile has a phone number.
  3. Check Settings > Notifications that the admin Appointment Reminder row is enabled.

Providers are getting too many reminders​

Providers get every reminder the patient gets. Remove send times at Settings > Reminders, or turn off the admin Appointment Reminder row in Settings > Notifications to stop provider reminders and keep patient reminders.

Last updated: October 2026