In this article:
Gentu offers two kinds of SMS - automatic and ad hoc.
Automatic SMS messages are configured to send automatically to patients to remind them of an upcoming appointment.
Ad hoc SMS messages can be manually sent to patients on a per-need basis.
For more information on sending SMS messages of either type, please see the SMS Messaging & Appointment Reminders article.
Please note that all SMS messages are sent unencrypted. Genie Solutions does not recommend sending personally identifying information via SMS.
- Navigate to Settings > SMS Reminders
- Tick Enable SMS
- Press Save.
If you wish to use both ad hoc and automated SMS messaging, you should tick both options, and then select Save.
Automated appointment reminders
- Navigate to Settings > SMS Reminders
- Tick Send SMS Appointment Reminders
- Press Save.
If you wish to use both ad hoc and automated SMS messaging, you should tick both options, and then select Save.
- Navigate to Settings > SMS Reminders.
- Untick the Send SMS Appointment Reminders option to disable automatic SMS appointment reminders.
- This will remove all SMS Reminder functions previously displayed in the Appointment Book, as well as access to the SMS Report.
- Deselect Enable SMS to disable ad hoc SMS messaging.
- You can prevent Gentu from sending an SMS message to a specific patient by ticking the Do not SMS checkbox in Patient Details screen, located to the right of the Mobile Phone field.
- If this checkbox is ticked, the patient will not be able to receive any SMS, including automated SMS appointment reminder messages and ad hoc messages.
If you have disabled SMS messages for a patient, the SMS History window will inform you that the patient cannot be messaged.
This will also remove the input box from the window preventing users from sending an ad hoc SMS message.
Any previous messages will still appear in the SMS History.
You can check your available SMS credits in Gentu:
- Navigate to Settings > SMS Credits
- Your credit balance is displayed here.
When you first subscribe to Gentu, you will receive 20 free SMS credits to trial Gentu's SMS reminders.
To purchase additional SMS credits, please contact our Accounts team:
- Email accounts@geniesolutions.com.au
- Call 1300 889 362 (select Option 3 for Accounts when prompted)
If emailing, please include your GTU number in the subject line.
Your GTU number can be found in the top right hand corner of your Gentu app along with your name and practice name. In the example below, the GTU number is GTU99999.
The purchase price for SMS messages is as per the list below:
| 0 – 999 credits: | $0.22 per credit |
| 1000 – 2499 credits: | $0.20 per credit |
| 2500+ credits: | $0.18 per credit |
You can edit the automated SMS appointment reminder template to suit your needs.
As of October 2019, you can customise the automated SMS appointment reminder message sent to patients.
The customised message will be used for all providers in your practice.
You can edit your SMS reminder template in Settings > Appointment SMS Reminders.
In the SMS Message box, you can type the message you wish to be sent to your patients as an automated SMS appointment reminder.
It is recommended that you type the message, rather than copy & paste from an external source, as pasted content may contain invalid characters.
Underneath the SMS Message box you will see the credit count. This is how many SMS credits will be consumed when this SMS is sent to each patient.
All characters, symbols and spaces are included in the character count when determining how many credits are used per message.
Please note: The number of credits used can fluctuate depending on the length of the Location and Practitioner references.
If you are typing your own message from scratch, you can use the Insert Reference menu to add details referring to the patient's appointment.
The options you can enter, and how they will display when entering the message, are:
| Reference | How it Appears |
|---|---|
| Practitioner (Provider) |
{{practitioner}} |
| Date | {{date}} |
| Day | {{day}} |
| Time | {{time}} |
| Location (Site of Service) |
{{location}} |
| Phone (Site of Service) |
{{phone}} |
- While all references are optional, it is recommended that your message contains, at minimum, the Practitioner, Date and Time references, which will populate the details of the patient's appointment.
- The Location reference will populate with the location that is selected in the patients appointment window. If an appointment has no location specified, this space will be blank when the message is sent.
- The Phone reference can be used to display the practice phone number as specified in Settings > Practice Preferences.
Note: the Location used is dependent on the Provider's available Sites of Service. This can be reviewed in Settings > Manage Users > select a user > Practitioner Details > Sites of Service.
After entering your customised SMS reminder message, its preview is displayed on the right-hand side of your screen.
This can be used to identify any problems with the message you have entered, such as references not populating correctly.
Under the Scheduler heading, you can specify when the appointment reminder SMS will be sent out to patients.
You can choose to send reminders from between one to seven working days (business days) prior to the date of the patient's appointment.
Gentu will begin sending automated SMS reminder messages at 9:00 AM, and will continue to check for new appointments that require a message to be sent every 15 minutes until 5:00 PM.
Do not send a reminder for appointments with a Status
Under the Scheduler heading, you will find another setting:
Do not send an Appointment Reminder once an Appointment Status has been applied.
This setting is enabled by default, which means SMS appointment reminders will only send if the Status is left blank on appointments; any appointments which have an Appointment Status applied will not have a message sent.
If an appointment is moved, and the patient should receive a new reminder, you must ensure that the Appointment Status is set to None.
If you do not change an updated Appointment's Status to None, the patient will not receive a new reminder.
When this setting is disabled, Gentu will send a reminder message for all appointments regardless of their status (unless the patient is marked as Do not SMS). This includes the Appointment Statuses for Cancelled and Confirmed, and appointments without a status set.
> I get an error when typing my SMS message / I cannot save my SMS message.
This can occur if you have manually typed or edited references in the SMS Message box.
Each reference should open with two braces, {{ , and close with another two braces, }}. If the braces are incomplete, an error text in red will be presented beneath the message input box.
You will also receive a red error text if the reference is not valid, e.g. it is typed in capital letters or contains a typo. 
If you wish to remove a reference, you should ensure that the braces, or {{curly brackets}}, are also removed completely for that reference.