Following up a treatment plan without pressuring the patient

The GDC's standards on consent say patients should be given a reasonable amount of time to consider the information about their treatment, and that they can change their mind at any point. That shapes the first follow-up: it should not land the next morning.

A few days is a sensible first gap for most plans, longer for major work like implants or full-arch treatment where people often want to talk it over at home. The point of the first message isn't to close. It is to make sure the patient knows the door is open and who to ask.

Keep it short, personal and specific to the plan, without repeating clinical detail in a text message. Something like:

"Hi Sarah, it's the team at Northgate Dental. We wanted to check in after your visit last week. If you have any questions about the plan Dr Patel talked you through, just reply here and we'll answer them. If you'd rather leave it for now, that's completely fine."

That message reminds, invites a question and makes saying no easy. It doesn't restate the price, it doesn't mention a deadline and it doesn't assume the answer. If the patient asks about cost or finance, answer that question properly, in reply to them.

• —"Spaces are limited this month", "last chance this quarter", "offer ends Friday", unless it is literally true. Rule 3.30 of the CAP Code treats a false claim that something is available only for a limited time as misleading advertising.
• —Anything that makes the patient feel judged for waiting, such as "you still haven't booked".
• —Clinical warnings used as leverage, such as "this will get worse if you don't act". If there is a clinical reason for urgency, a clinician should explain it, in person or on the phone.
• —The full plan value in an unprompted text. People share phones and read messages on lock screens.

The test is simple: would you be comfortable reading the message aloud to the patient in the surgery?

Two or three messages over a month or so is plenty for most plans: one to check in, one to answer anything outstanding or offer a time, and perhaps a final note that the team is there when they're ready. Spread them across the channels the patient actually uses.

Stop the sequence the moment any of these happens:

• —the patient replies, whatever they say (a person should pick it up from there);
• —they book;
• —they say no, or ask you not to contact them;
• —they have opted out of the channel.

Record the outcome against the plan, even if it is "decided not to go ahead". That is the only way to know later whether your follow-up helps.

ReplyOS has a Treatment Recovery feature built for exactly this job, on the Pro plan. It reads unbooked plans from the practice management system, so it depends on the Dentally connection, and that isn't switched on for any practice yet. Until it is, the method above is something you can run by hand from your own system, and we'd rather you did that well than wait for us.