What is bulk messaging?
Bulk messaging allows you to save time by sending messages to a cohort (group) of patients at the same time using either email or SMS (where available).
Is there a limit to how many patients I can send a bulk message to?
You can send a message to 10,000 patients maximum. This is to ensure the PATCHS system doesn't get overloaded and slow down too much when sending.
How do I access bulk messaging?
When bulk messaging is enabled at your practice, you can access from the Bulk Messages link from your main menu.
The Bulk Messages landing page shows a list of all previously sent bulk messages, with the most recent ones at the top of the list.
How do I send a bulk message?
To create a new bulk message, click the Create new Bulk Message button.
Step 1 Add a patient list
- Enter a name for the list of patients you want to message
- Choose a .csv file containing the list of patients you wish to send a message to.
- And then upload the .csv file. The following links show how to your .csv file in your clinical system:
Step 2a Compose and send a free text message
- Type your message text
- Choose how you want the messages to be sent, either by SMS (where available) or Email
- Choose the message timing
- Send now to send the message straight away
- Send later to send the message at a time in the future
- If required, choose which SNOMED code you want to be saved to the clinical system, along with the message when it is sent to the patient
- Saving to the clinical system will save the message and any chosen SNOMED codes to the patient's record when the message has been successfully delivered.
...then Send the message.
You will then be taken back to the Bulk Messages page, where you will see your most recently sent/scheduled bulk message at the top of the page.
or Step 2b Compose and send a message template
Once you have uploaded your list of patients,
- Search for and select the questionnaire message template you want to send
- Choose how you want the messages to be sent, either by SMS (where available) or Email
when sending as SMS, PATCHS will show how many SMS segments will be used - Choose the message timing
- Send now to send the message straight away
- Send later to send the message at a time in the future
- If required, choose which SNOMED code you want to be saved to the clinical system, along with the message when it is sent to the patient
- Saving to the clinical system will save the message and any chosen SNOMED codes to the patient's record when the message has been successfully delivered.
You will then be taken back to the Bulk Messages page, where you will see your most recently sent/scheduled bulk message at the top of the page.
Sending and saving bulk messages to the clinical system
When you create your bulk message, you can choose to save the message, along with any chosen SNOMED codes, to the clinical system.
Saving to the clinical system will save the message and any chosen SMOMED codes to the patient's record when the message has been successfully delivered.
What does the Bulk Messages page show?
For each bulk message, the Bulk Messages page shows:
- The date the message was sent
- Who sent the message
- The first line of the message
- How the message was sent (SMS or email)
- Who the message was sent to (list of patients)
- The delivery status of the bulk message:
OK - the message was sent to all recipients without any errors.
Error - errors were encountered when sending to one or more recipients.
How can I see the recipients who may not have received the message?
When you View the bulk message details, you will see the message details and a list of the messages that were delivered and those with errors.
The Only patients with errors tab shows just the patients who may not have received the message.
You can use the Try sending message again button to re-send those messages that failed to deliver.
Receiving replies to bulk messages - the 'Bulk Message Replies' inbox
When a patient responds to a bulk message their reply will be sent to the Bulk Message Replies inbox. If this inbox doesn't already exist at your practice, it will be automatically created when you receive your first patient response to a bulk message.
If you send bulk messages that patients can reply to, you should keep an eye on this inbox for responses. You can set yourself to be notified when a patient replies to a bulk message by following the instructions in this article.
⚠️ Bulk message replies are not currently ordered automatically by urgency unlike when using Urgency AI ⚠️
