The SMS date/time looks wrong
If your patient's questionnaire SMS sends on a date or time that doesn't look right, this explains how send timing and timezone work, what to check on the episode, and how to fix it.
The questionnaire SMS went out, or is scheduled to go out, on a date or time that doesn't look right. Send timing is driven by two things: the Days Before Appointment setting and the Appointment Date you entered. Get those right and the schedule follows.
How send timing works
i-consult doesn't send the link when you create the episode. It schedules it to go out a set number of days before the appointment.
- Days Before Appointment (0–30, default 3) controls when the link is sent. The default and recommended value is 3 days, which balances fresh information before a consult against rushing the patient.
- The send date is calculated as the Appointment Date minus the Days Before Appointment value. For an appointment on the 10th with the setting at 3, the link sends on the 7th.
- A value of
0means "Sending today": the link goes out on the appointment day itself.
You set a per-episode value when you create the episode, and a personal default under Settings → Profile → i-consult Preferences (Default Days Before Appointment). The default seeds new episodes; you can override it on any single episode.
What to check
Open the Dashboard, find the patient, and open the episode.
Check the Appointment Date (date and time). A wrong appointment date moves the send date with it, and this is the most common cause of an "off" send date.
Check the Days Before Appointment value. If it's higher or lower than you intended, the link sends earlier or later than expected.
Re-derive the expected send date yourself: appointment date minus days-before. Compare it to what the episode shows.
Look at the episode status stepper. SMS Scheduled means it hasn't sent yet (so you can still fix the schedule), and SMS Sent means it's already gone.
When creating an episode, the "SMS Reminder Scheduled" preview confirms the calculated send date ("An appointment reminder will be sent from {date}") with a badge like "3 day(s) from now". Use that to sanity-check the timing before you submit.
About timezone and time of day
The send date is calculated from the appointment date you entered, so if the appointment date or time is slightly off, the calculated send date can land on an unexpected day. Re-checking the Appointment Date resolves most reports of a wrong date or time.
The number of days before the appointment is what you control per episode. If the day the link arrives is wrong, the fix is almost always the Appointment Date or the Days Before Appointment value. Correct those and the schedule recalculates.
Fix it, then resend if needed
Correct the Appointment Date and/or Days Before Appointment on the episode and save your changes.
If the link hasn't sent yet (SMS Scheduled), the new schedule applies automatically, with no further action needed.
If the link has already gone out (SMS Sent) with the wrong timing, resend it so the patient gets the correct link. See Resending a questionnaire link.
Related: if the patient never received any SMS at all, start with My patient didn't get the SMS. To review how an episode is set up, see Create a patient episode manually.
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