What’s the best way to manage your client contact information?
Owl has introduced Circle of Care, a dynamic contact information storage system that provides extensive benefits for therapists.
Circle of Care allows you to:
- Organize all of your contacts and contact information
- Store multiple Alternate Contacts
- Specify the exact relationship type, including a fully customizable field
- Create Linked Accounts
- Select your Bill-To contact and Emergency contact with an always visible checkbox
- Set up Multiple Appointment Reminders for members of the Circle of Care
What Makes Circle of Care Unique?
Now you’ll be able to manage your contact lists much more accurately. We’ve integrated one of our favourite features, Linked Accounts, with new functionality to include non-clinical relationships and unlimited Alternate Contacts.
Previously, the system required that you add one Alternate Contact for each individual client and it wasn’t possible to specify a relationship. We listened to your feedback and have updated the system. This inclusive contact list has been much requested, particularly for clinicians who deal with minors or clients with a complicated and extensive contact list.
Minors & Large Treatment Teams
The new Circle of Care update is especially useful for therapists who work with minors and for those with clients who have a large number of people on their treatment team, such as doctors, support workers, parents, etc.
Multiple Appointment Reminders
In the case of minors or clients who have a third party responsible for their attendance, the ability to set Multiple Appointment Reminders is a definite bonus. These reminders can be customized for any member of your client’s Circle of Care and can be sent out between 2-72 hours before the session.
It’s also important to note that if you set an appointment reminder for an Alternate Contact they will receive a notification for every session. Linked Accounts with multiple reminders will also receive appointment reminders for every session the primary client is attending, even if they themselves are not invited to the session.
When to use Alternate Contacts vs. Linked Accounts
Now you can store two types of contacts: Linked Accounts and Alternate Contacts. Before you set them up, it’s important to understand the difference between the two:
Alternate Contacts may be used for contacts who are not clients themselves or who are clients but will not be added as a Linked Account to this particular client. This includes parents, guardians, teachers, lawyers, social workers, doctors, nurses, and any other contact who is important to the health of your client.
Linked Accounts are contacts who are also your clients. You may see these clients individually, but using Linked Accounts allows you to describe their exact relationship to your client and then maintain accurate records. This is useful for Couples, Family, and Group Therapy sessions.
How to Set Up a Circle of Care
You will find the Circle of Care on each Client Account, under CONTACT & CLINICAL.
Add Contact or Add Linked Client.
Add Contact is appropriate for all Alternate Contacts.
Selecting Add Contact allows you to enter in the following contact information:
- First name, middle name, last name
- Relationship
- Date of Birth
- Phone Numbers (Adding in a phone number will allow you to also select a primary phone number, and to set up SMS reminders for the client’s future appointments, to be sent to the primary phone number.)
- Email address
- SMS Notifications (SMS notifications can be set anywhere between 2 and 72 hours.)
- Email Notifications (email notifications can be set anywhere between 2 and 72 hours.)
- Emergency contact
- Address
Make sure to fill out all of the relevant fields.
Add Linked Account is appropriate for all of the Linked Accounts you’ll be seeing for family or couples therapy. You’ll first need to link the client profiles together. Once you’ve entered the Linked Account’s contact information into the system, you won’t need to enter it again.
You can specify:
- The Existing Client
- Relationship
- Phone Numbers (Adding in a phone number will allow you to also select a primary phone number and to set up SMS reminders for the client’s future appointments, to be sent to the primary phone number).
- Email address (email notifications can be set anywhere between 2 and 72 hours).
Once you’ve added all of the Alternate Contacts and Linked Clients, your Circle of Care is ready to go!
Multiple Reminder System
When you’re entering in your Circle of Care, you can set up appointment reminders which will go to specific members of your client’s network. This is especially useful for minors and clients with a contact who is responsible for their attendance.
Once you have your reminders set up for any of your client’s contacts who are in the Circle of Care, you can set it up so that they’ll receive session reminders in the same format that your clients do. Note that this is turned off by default, as we want to ensure that you control how you contact your clients, but you can choose to turn on this feature when appropriate.
If you set up a reminder for an Alternate Contact or a Linked Account, be aware that these contacts will receive a reminder for every session that this client is supposed to attend, not only the shared sessions.
For a demonstration showing exactly how to set up a Circle of Care, follow along with Customer Advocate Steve as he sets up a Circle of Care in this video.
Give it a Try!
At Owl Practice, we’re dedicated to continuously improving the way that you manage your practice. We think you’ll find the dynamic new Circle of Care feature to be beneficial to your practice. Give it a try and give us your feedback!
As always,
Practice Wisely
