❔ What is it?
Some Hippo recall messages include a short online questionnaire that patients can complete.
Patients may see a message like:
Every year we are required to update some basic information about you and your health. Rather than come into the practice you can complete a few questions here.
This form normally takes under 3 minutes to complete.
The questionnaire allows patients to submit simple health information remotely, helping practices collect routine data without needing an appointment.
Responses are sent securely back into the patient record when approved by a member of the practice staff.
📋 Who gets the questionnaire?
Not every patient will receive the questionnaire.
For a patient to receive it:
✅ They must be eligible for an indicator included within a campaign you are running
✅ They must also have one or more of the following outstanding:
Height & Weight
Blood Pressure
Smoking Status
Smoking Status with second-hand smoke exposure
Alcohol consumption
✅ The questionnaire must be included in the recall template being used
❗️The questionnaire link is included in Hippo’s default template.
❗️If your practice uses custom templates, the questionnaire will only appear if the questionnaire placeholder has been added to that template.
The questionnaire never triggers a recall on its own — campaigns decide who gets contacted. The questionnaire is then added for eligible patients who also have relevant data outstanding.
Examples:
Campaign for cervical screening
Patient is due for screening and also has BP outstanding
→ Screening booking link and questionnaire
Campaign for an asthma annual review
Patient is due the review and has smoking status outstanding
→ Review booking link and questionnaire
Campaign for childhood immunisations
→ Booking link only
Campaign linked only to BP or smoking
Patient is eligible
→ Questionnaire and booking link
Patient has BP overdue but isn't eligible for any campaign indicators
→ No recall sent, no questionnaire
🦛 Practical rule: The campaign decides who gets contacted. The questionnaire rides along if relevant information is also due.
✏️ What information can patients submit?
Depending on what they are due, patients may be asked for:
📏 Height & Weight
Used to calculate BMI automatically
🩸 Blood Pressure
Systolic and diastolic values (for example: 120/80)
🚬 Smoking information
Current smoker
Ex-smoker
Never smoked
Cigarettes per day (if applicable)
Second-hand smoke exposure
Yes / No
🍷 Alcohol consumption
Units per week
Patients are also asked to confirm their date of birth as a security check.
🔒 What happens after submission?
Once submitted:
The form is securely submitted
The patient's date of birth is checked against the EMIS record
If the dates match, the entry will appear in the Unapproved Basic Health Data worklist
A member of practice staff can review the entry and save to the patient record
🚨 If the date of birth does not match, the submission is rejected and will appear in the cancelled column within the worklist.
This helps prevent recall links from being used by the wrong person.
👀 What will practice staff see?
When a patient submits the questionnaire, their responses do not go directly into the clinical record.
Instead, submissions appear in the Unapproved Basic Health Data worklist for review by practice staff. You can read more information on this here.
How it works
Patient completes and submits the questionnaire
Submission appears in the Unapproved Basic Health Data worklist
A member of staff reviews the submitted information
If the information looks correct → Save to record
If something doesn't look right → Cancel
Only approved submissions are written back into the patient’s EMIS record.
Before the submission reaches the worklist, Hippo automatically handles a few calculations:
✅ BMI is calculated from submitted height and weight
✅ Combined blood pressure values are generated automatically (e.g. 120/80)
✅ Patients won't be asked to complete the same questionnaire again during the same recall cycle if the information has been saved to record
💡 Tip: Treat this the same way as any other patient-submitted information. Nothing is written into the patient record until a member of staff reviews and approves it.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
Can a patient ignore the questionnaire?
Yes — completing the questionnaire is optional.
If a patient chooses not to complete it, they will remain outstanding for those actions and may continue to receive future recall messages.
The message also includes wording advising patients to ignore it if they have already recently completed the questionnaire.
What if a patient has trouble completing the form?
Each message within the default template includes the practice phone number so patients can contact reception and arrange to complete checks another way if needed.
Why can't I see a patient's submitted information?
The most common reason is a date of birth mismatch.
If a patient says they completed the form but you cannot see their responses, ask them to complete it again and carefully confirm their date of birth.
Does every patient get the questionnaire?
No.
A patient only receives a recall if they are eligible for an indicator included within a campaign you are running.
Within that recall, the questionnaire is only added if the patient also has Height & Weight, Blood Pressure, Smoking, or Alcohol information outstanding.
If you want to proactively collect one of these items — for example blood pressure — you would do this by running a campaign linked to an appropriate BP-related indicator.
Can we switch this off?
Yes — if you'd prefer not to use the questionnaire, create a custom template and remove the online questionnaire section.