When sending messages to patients you can either manually type a message, or pick one from a list.
Patients are notified about your message by email as default. If your area has enabled our SMS module, you will also see a 'Send as SMS' option.
When manually typing a message, you have the choice of the message being:
- Reply required: patients can respond to your message.
- Reply not required: patients can acknowledge your message.
- Reply not required - save to clinical system: patients can acknowledge your message, and the message is immediately saved to the clinical system
What do patients see when you send them a manually typed message?
If you send a reply required message, this is what the patient sees:
They can type their response and press submit.
If you send a reply not required message, this is what the patient sees:
They can only click Close message to acknowledge they have seen your message.
Patients see one message at a time
We don't advise asking multiple questions or sending multiple bits of information in one message, because patients may miss them. Instead, you should send multiple messages to patients one after the other. Patients are shown the next message in sequence after they have responded to or acknowledged the first one. This is for safety reasons, to ensure patients can reply to every question you ask, and acknowledge every bit of advice you send them.
Therefore it’s important to only send messages as ‘Reply required’ if you actually need a response from the patient. Because if the patient doesn’t reply, they won’t see any messages you sent afterwards.
'Send in body of email / SMS'
- If the 'Send in body of email / SMS' box is not ticked the patient will be sent a link to view your message in Patchs. If the patient has a Patchs account, they will need to log in to view the message. If they don't have a Patchs account, they will need to enter their date of birth to view the message. This option is recommended if you are sending sensitive information as it is most secure. Your practice name will be added by Patchs when the message has been sent and the patient will see your name in the Patchs chatbot - so there's no need to add these yourself.
- If the 'Send in body of email / SMS' box is ticked your message will be sent as an email and/or SMS. The patient won't need to access Patchs to view your message. This option is recommended if you are not sending sensitive information as it is the least secure. Your practice name will be added by Patchs when the message has been sent - so there's no need to add this yourself. This option is currently not available for 'Reply required' messages, as patients still need to access Patchs online to reply to messages.