If you're using patient forms, you may find that you need to send a one-off form to someone—this would be different than automating the sending via an appointment confirmation email.

For example, maybe a patient has misplaced their confirmation email, and can't find the link to the form. Or maybe you want to send a follow-up form for feedback, after the appointment is complete. There could be any number of reasons to send a one-off form to a patient!

In this guide, we'll walk you through how to create and send a one-off form to your patients. There are going to be a few different options for how you can do this:

To get started, find the patient you want to send the form to. Select the Forms tab:

Once there, press the Add form button in the top-right:

That will open up a window that asks you to select a form template and an appointment. It's not required that you select an appointment, but if you want this form to be linked to an appointment, then you'll want to make sure to pick a date there:

Assuming you want to send it at that moment, select "Email" or "SMS" underneath where it says Send via. Then, press the Create form and send button.

You will be brought back to the main "forms" page, where you'll see the newly-created form in the overall list of all forms.

Relating to the above, if you created the form following the steps above, but didn't yet send it, you can send it whenever suits you. On the right, you'll see an Actions button. Pressing that will open a menu that lets you select Send to patient:

From there, you can either send via email, send via SMS, show a QR code at the clinic, or copy the link and send it outside of Cliniko (such as from your own email address):

Now, onto the actual sending of the new form, if you had not sent it at the time of creation!

If you opt for the "send via email" option, you'll see something like this:

The email address will default to whatever the patient has on file, and if you have multiple businesses, you can choose which business it's sent from. The patient will then get an email that looks something like this:

When they click the link to the form, they will be able to fill it out and submit it back to you. That's all that needs to be done! 📧

If you opt to send the form via SMS, you'll see something like this (you will also see how many credits it will use):

Once sent, the patient will see something like this on their mobile phone (note that the number at the top of this example is random):

When the patient clicks the link in the SMS, they will then be able to fill out the form on their mobile phone and submit it back to you. Easy-peasy! 📲

If you go the QR code route—which is handy for having the patient fill out the form when they arrive at your clinic—something like this will be generated on your device (please do not offer a patient the below QR code, as it's only an example):

You can then show that to the patient, who can scan it with their mobile device when they arrive at the clinic. They can then open the form in a new window in their device's browser, and fill out/submit it (this would be similar to how it would occur if they clicked the link in an SMS, if you had texted the form to them).

If you choose to copy the form's link, as in the below example:

You will simply press the "Copy" text to the right of the unique link, and you can send it off via whatever means necessary (such as from your personal email address, or your clinic's main admin address—or, if you'd like, from Cliniko's letter function).

For more information on patient forms, head over here!