When the University of Oregon moved an appointment reminder text from one hour out to three hours out, students started canceling in time for the clinic to refill those slots. A small change produced real, meaningful results.

That story was one of many shared during our recent webinar on texting best practices for campus clinics. Medicat’s Chief Evangelist Ruth Patten and CEO Lauren Pragoff were joined by Erika Boyers, Senior Assistant Director of Patient Services and Health Information Management at the University of Oregon.

Here’s a recap of what we covered, plus a free AI prompt guide to help you write better texts!

Why Texting Students Works

Students rarely put their phones down. Emails pile up and get buried, but a text shows up as a quick notification they can read and act on in seconds. And to be honest, that’s true for all of us, not just students.

Texting is already part of daily life. We get texts about flight changes, dentist appointments, and deliveries. Most of those texts include a link to take the next step. Campus clinics can use the same pattern for:

• Appointment reminders for medical, counseling, and wellness visits
• Immunization compliance nudges tied to campus deadlines
• Event outreach, like mass flu and COVID vaccine clinics
• Portal alerts when a secure message, lab result, or visit summary is ready

Keep It to 160 Characters

Medicat’s texting uses the “short code” model with a 160-character limit built into the system. Longer messages can split into several texts depending on the carrier. Spaces, numbers, and emojis all count, so every character needs to earn its place.

Use AI to Write Warmer, Clearer Texts

Fitting a helpful, friendly message into 160 characters is hard. That’s where AI can help. Lauren’s advice: the more specific your prompt, the better your result.

Tell the AI tool exactly what you need. Try asking it to:

• Rewrite for warmth and clarity: “Your appt is at 10 am tomorrow. Don’t be late” can become something kinder.
• Lower the reading level: Many news outlets write for easy reading. You should too.
• Ease anxiety: Some visits feel stressful. The right words can help.
• Skip internal or clinical slang: Ruth noted that campus shorthand can confuse new and international students.

Here’s a sample prompt from the session: “Rewrite this to sound warm and student-friendly. I work at a college health center, and I’m texting a college student. Keep it under 160 characters.”

Want more prompts like these? Download our free AI prompt guide and put them to work on your next round of texts.

Protect Privacy and Get Consent Right

In our live poll, managing opt-in and consent tied for the top challenge, along with making sure students read their texts. Both matter, and both start with trust.

Keep Health Details Out of the Text

A text should never reveal protected health information. Ruth reminded attendees that notifications can pop up on a lock screen where anyone might see them. Avoid:

• The clinic’s full name or the provider’s name
• Test results, even negative ones
• Anything that hints at why the student is visiting

Instead, keep the text generic and link to the secure patient portal. At the University of Oregon, texts name the clinic type (like “immunization clinic”) but not the campus health center. Every text points students back to the portal for details.

Know Your School’s Opt-in Path

Start with your institution’s privacy and communication policy. If enrollment paperwork already allows texting and you manage immunization compliance in Medicat, you may be able to opt in the full student body. If not, a mass opt-in isn’t appropriate.

Ruth also shared that scheduling an appointment is generally treated as implied consent for that clinic to text the student. Check with your compliance team to confirm what applies on your campus. ACHA is a helpful resource for peer guidance on student health operations.

In Medicat, students can opt in or out through forms at each visit, a standing portal form, or a checkbox in their portal profile. They can also text STOP at any time to stop receiving text messages from your clinic.

How University of Oregon Reworked Reminder Timing

During the 2023-24 school year, Oregon sent appointment reminders 24 hours and one hour before each visit. Students weren’t canceling in time, and many arrived late. So, Erika’s team tested a new texting cadence. Here’s what they tried:

The result: more timely cancellations and more students arriving within the check-in window. In fact, Oregon saw a 170.5% increase in timely cancellations over three years after beginning this experiment!

Beyond appointment reminders

Oregon and other schools now use texting students for more than visits. Erika shared a few ideas that other campuses can borrow:

• Referral recalls: A text nudge led more students to follow up with outside providers.
• TB screening follow-ups: High-risk results trigger a text pointing to next steps in the student portal.
• Student input: Erika works with her student health advisory board to test AI-drafted messages to increase survey completion rates.

One more tip: Oregon asked Medicat to protect the cell phone field, so nightly data feeds don’t overwrite the phone numbers staff update in person. Any Medicat customer can request this for particular fields through a support ticket.

Key Takeaways

Texting students works best when every message is short, private, and tied to one clear action. Timing matters too, as Oregon’s 24-hour, 3-hour, and 20-minute schedule shows.

Ready to start or sharpen your approach to texting students? Download our free AI prompt guide and request a live demo with our team.

A 2024 study covered by the American Medical Association found that primary care physicians spend an average of 36 minutes in the EHR for every 30-minute visit. Much of that time goes to work that happens after the student leaves the room. Coding is one of the biggest parts of it.

Note Agent in MedicatOne offers ICD-10 and CPT code suggestions based on the visit itself. Providers spend less time searching through codes and more time with students.

Why Coding Is a Hidden Time Drain on Campus

College health clinics see waves of demand. Flu season, midterms, and final exams often result in demand peaks! After each visit, a provider still has to turn the conversation they had with the student into the right diagnosis and procedure codes.

That step may seem small, but it adds up over a full clinic day. It often means searching code sets, remembering the right level of detail, and checking that each code lands in the right part of the note. Some common pain points:

• Time pressure: coding pushes documentation into lunch breaks or end of the day
• Missed detail: under stress, it’s easy to capture the main complaint and leave out related diagnoses
• Inconsistent data: when codes vary from provider to provider, patterns in student health visit types and demand are harder to see. For clinic directors and VPSAs, consistently coded data helps surface what students need and make the case for adding additional resources

How Note Agent Suggests ICD-10 and CPT Codes

Note Agent listens to the visit (with the student’s consent) and drafts the clinical note. Once the note is generated, the Coding tab fills with suggested codes. Both ICD-10 and CPT codes appear when they apply.

The provider stays in control the whole time. Nothing gets added to the chart until the provider chooses it. Here’s how the workflow goes:

1. Review the suggestions: Look over the list of ICD-10 and CPT code suggestions in the Coding tab.
2. Check what fits: Use the checkboxes to select codes matching your clinical judgment. You can also select all.
3. Submit each set: Submit ICD-10 codes to the Diagnosis section and CPT codes to the Plan section. Each set is sent separately.
4. Confirm the result: A pop-up tells you whether each code was added, or if it’s already in the note.

The process takes seconds, not minutes. It also cuts down on retyping since the codes go straight into the note’s building blocks.

See the Reasoning Behind Every Diagnosis Code

AI tools earn trust when you can see how they reach their answers. That’s why each ICD-10 suggestion includes a Show Evidence option. One click shows why Note Agent suggested each code based on the visit recording.

This helps providers make quick, confident decisions. If the evidence matches what happened in the visit, select the code. If it doesn’t, leave it unchecked and move on.

Example: A Midterm Headache, Coded in Minutes

Picture a student who comes to the health center with a persistent headache during midterms. They mention long nights of studying, poor sleep, extra caffeine intake, and hours spent consecutively on their laptop and phone. The provider focuses on the student, not on typing, while Note Agent records the conversation.

After the note is generated, the Coding tab suggests several options. These include tension-type headache (G44.209), stress due to work schedule (Z56.3), and sleep deprivation (Z72.820). A CPT code for an established patient office visit (99213) appears.

The provider clicks Show Evidence on the stress code. It notes that the headache is linked to stress during midterms, a work-related stressor for students. The provider selects the codes that fit, submits them, and reviews the final note before locking it.

The result is a fuller clinical picture. Sleep and stress factors that might have been skipped in a rush are now part of the record. That supports better follow-up care and clearer trend data across campus.

Counseling and wellness centers can benefit too. When a note type is set up with Note Agent, counselors can review suggested codes after a session instead of starting from scratch.

Key Takeaways

Coding shouldn’t be the reason your providers stay late. ICD-10 and CPT code suggestions in Note Agent turn the visit conversation into codes that providers can review, check, and submit in a few clicks. Show Evidence keeps every decision clear, and providers always make the final call.

To see how Note Agent could fit (and even improve) your clinic’s workflow, request a demo.

Most campus health leaders aren’t shopping for software; they’re trying to close gaps between systems never built to talk to each other. Medical over here, counseling over there, immunization compliance in a spreadsheet, accommodations in another.

Every disconnected system increases the risk of a student falling through the cracks. That’s the problem MedicatOne was built to solve. And here’s what makes it different from other college-specific EHRs.

It’s One Platform, Not Four Bolted Together

Medicat is one of the only college-focused EHRs that unifies medical, counseling, immunizations, and accessibility on a single student record. Not four products with an integration layer.

For a student, that means accessing care feels like walking through one door instead of four. For your staff, it means a counselor and a nurse practitioner are working with the same information when caring for a student.

Many vendors in the EHR space are point solutions that do one job well. Medicat is the consolidation play, and on a campus where student well-being touches every department, that consolidation is the whole game.

Modern Architecture, not a Legacy System

Medicat is cloud-hosted and web-based. There’s no fat client to install on every machine, no on-prem server for your IT team to babysit, no VPN gymnastics to see a record from the counseling center.

Campuses can’t afford the risk of running their sensitive student data on locally installed, client-backed, on-prem servers, an architecture designed for a different era of campus IT. If your current platform requires a local install and a server in a closet, you already know the upkeep (and security risk) that adds up over time.

Security That’s Actually Certified

Medicat is SOC 2, Type II certified. For an EHR provider, that’s not a nice-to-have; it’s essential. When you’re the one deciding where sensitive student data lives, “we take security seriously” means nothing if standardized audits and reviews don’t back up that claim.

Built for Students, Connected to the Clinic

Students live on their phones. MedicatOne gives them a full student portal where they can schedule appointments, complete forms, upload immunization records, and reach the clinic in one place.

Text message appointment reminders go out automatically, which is the simplest lever there is for cutting no-shows. Some EHRs leave students without a comprehensive student portal, so your front desk stays on the phone doing what the software should be doing.

Reporting and Benchmarking, Built In

MedicatOne has robust reporting built in, so you can pull utilization, immunization compliance, and diagnosis data without exporting to a spreadsheet and rebuilding each report by hand.

For counseling teams, MedicatOne supports the CCMH Standard Data Set, so your center’s outcomes line up with the national mental health benchmarking that CCMH members rely on. You can see how your students compare to peers across the country, using data you’re already collecting.

31+ Years of Supporting College Campuses

Medicat has spent 31+ years building for college health and counseling clinics. That focus shows up across our large, experienced support team, who know clinical workflows like the back of their hands.

The people behind our product are known names in the college health and counseling community. When you submit a support ticket or call our team,

In fact, nearly 25% of Medicat employees come from a background in clinical care or student health operations. They’ve run a front desk during immunization season, sat in on a counseling intake, and closed out end-of-year clinic reports in May. So, when you call our team, you’re talking to people who have done your job, not just supported the software that does it.

AI That Saves Real Hours, at a Price That Makes Sense

Medicat offers two AI-powered tools, both priced to be predictable and accessible. You pay a flat license fee, so you know the cost up front and can budget for it. Many AI products bill by usage instead, which means the price can climb significantly the more your team leans on them.

Here’s a bit more about each of our AI-powered tools:

• ICM Agent automates immunization review. What used to take staff hours of manual document checking now happens in seconds. During compliance season, that’s the difference between a major backlog and a free Friday afternoon.
• Note Agent handles clinical documentation and coding using the power of ambient listening technology. Get time back for your clinicians, at a fraction of the cost of traditional scribing technology.

Built for How Campuses Actually Buy

Not every clinic needs every bell and whistle on day one. Medicat’s pricing is modular, so a counseling or medical team can start where the need is most urgent, prove the ROI, and expand their use of Medicat’s tools as budget and services grow. You don’t have to buy everything to get immense value from MedicatOne.

Onboarding and Training Opportunities

You’re not expected to set up and learn a whole new EHR system alone. Onboarding is configured according to your institution’s needs and is led by one of our Customer Onboarding Specialists. Our vast library of educational content and regular training events help set you and your team up for success.

Plus, when you implement MedicatOne, you’re joining a network of 500+ clinics across higher ed that also use our tools. That peer network is often the source of some of the best ideas for maximizing the value you get out of MedicatOne.

Here’s how the platforms line up on the capabilities campus teams ask about most:

Competitor data sourced from publicly available sources.

The Bottom Line

If you’re treating student well-being as one connected experience, your technology should too. One modern record, securely hosted, built by a team that has done nothing but serve college health and counseling for three decades, and trusted by campuses of all shapes and sizes. That’s the difference.

We’d love to show you how MedicatOne works. To see our integrated EHR platform in action, reach out to our team.

Buying great software is only the beginning. Research shows that customers who receive post-sale education are 20-30% more likely to adopt a product fully, and 86% say training makes them more likely to stay loyal. At Medicat, we believe your team deserves reliable and thoughtful support long after go-live.

That’s why ongoing training sits at the heart of how we partner with campuses. From articles and product walkthroughs to live sessions with real Medicat experts, we build resources that help your clinic turn features into outcomes.

Why We Invest in Education, Not Just Software

A powerful EHR is only as valuable as your team’s ability to use it. When staff feel confident in a system, they spend less time troubleshooting and more time with students. That confidence does not happen by accident. It’s built through intentional, ongoing education.

Education and training also protect the investment your institution has already made. Unfortunately, turnover is common, and new hires need to get up to speed quickly. Strong educational resources keep knowledge from walking out the door.
 
For campus and clinic leaders, this matters at a strategic level. Better-trained teams mean smoother operations, stronger compliance, and measurable improvements in student care quality.

Self-Paced Learning and Enablement

Every campus works on its own schedule, so we create resources your team can access anytime. These materials meet staff where they are, whether they’re onboarding a new coordinator or exploring an advanced feature for the first time. Our self-paced Help Center is designed to be clear, practical, and easy to search. We focus on real workflows your clinic uses every day, not abstract feature lists.

Resources clinics use regularly include:

• How-to articles that walk through specific tasks step by step, from patient intake to secure messaging, to immunization compliance tracking.
• Product walkthroughs that show exactly where to click and why, so staff can follow along in their own environment.
• Short video tutorials that make it easy to learn a new workflow in minutes rather than hours.
• Release notes that explain new features in plain language, so nothing gets missed.
• Webinar recordings that let staff revisit live sessions on demand, whenever it fits their schedule.
• Biweekly product tip emails enable continued discovery and better efficiency.

Clearly, education doesn’t stop after onboarding at Medicat. It follows our clients through the rhythm of the academic year. Our End of Year Wrap-Up Guide, for example, walks clinic admins through a smooth, stress-free closing each summer, while our Super User Prep Packet gets key staff ready to hit the ground running when the fall semester begins.

These helpful resources ensure our clients feel supported no matter where they are in their Medicat journey. You can explore many of these materials in our Help Center, which we update regularly as our product evolves.

Live Training That Connects People to Answers

Written guides are powerful, but sometimes your team needs a real conversation. That is why we complement our library with live, human-led sessions throughout the year. These sessions give staff space to ask questions, share challenges, and learn from peers on other campuses.

Additionally, our live software trainings include structured onboarding for new clients and role-based sessions to teach specific workflows. We also host refreshers before busy seasons of the year, so your team feels ready when appointment volume spikes.

Live training formats we offer include:

• Guided onboarding to help new clinics configure and launch with confidence.
• Role-specific workshops for front-desk staff, clinicians, counselors, and administrators.
• Seasonal webinars covering topics like immunization season, telehealth trends, and end-of-year reporting tips.
• Office hours during which clients can bring topic-specific questions and know they’ll walk away with answers.

Support Tickets Provide Another Opportunity for Learning

Not all learning happens from a webinar or a help article. Some of the most valuable teaching moments come from a routine support ticket. That’s because this kind of learning is timely — it happens at the exact moment the client needs it, not weeks later in a training session they may or may not remember.

Our team is trained to “forward resolve” wherever they can, so a simple request doesn’t turn into a second ticket later. Rather than simply fixing the issue, our support agents will walk the person through the fix themselves, so they leave the conversation able to do it on their own next time.

That might mean pausing to explain why a setting works the way it does, or handing back the keyboard so a superuser can enter the change themselves with guidance rather than watching it happen. It’s a small shift, but it adds up. Fewer repeat tickets, more confident clients, and a support relationship that builds capability instead of dependency.

One client put it well: “The support agent was so helpful! She walked me through what I needed to do and had me enter the information myself with minimal guidance so I could learn how to do it on my own. I feel confident I can handle this myself in the future.”

Tailored Value for Every Clinic

Education only works when it speaks to the people using the system. We design our educational resources so each audience finds clear, relevant value.
 
For college health centers, that might mean mastering patient intake, streamlining immunization compliance, or launching telehealth visits. For counseling clinics, it often means smoother scheduling, easier secure messaging, and confident documentation of mental health appointments.
 
For VPSAs and other campus leaders, the payoff is operational. When teams use our college health solutions to their full potential, institutions see better data accuracy, healthier compliance rates, and stronger student outcomes. According to the American College Health Association, well-supported campus health and counseling services play a direct role in student retention and success.

Where We’re Headed Next

We’re proud of how far our education program has come, and we’re not standing still. The next chapter of our roadmap brings more learning directly into MedicatOne itself, so guidance shows up right when and where your team needs it rather than in a separate tab or help article.

We already do this well through our Help Center, live sessions, and everyday support moments, but we see real room to continue growing. Bringing support inside MedicatOne is all in service of the same goal we’ve always had: making confident, capable use of our EHR the natural default for every person on your team.

Key Takeaways

Great software delivers its full value only when the people behind it feel confident and supported. Medicat builds articles, product walkthroughs, videos, and live sessions so your team can turn our tools into better student care. Whether you lead a health center, a counseling clinic, or student affairs as a whole, ongoing education is how you protect your investment and improve student outcomes year after year.

Ready to get more value out of Medicat? Explore our Help Center to see all that’s available to your team today.