When to respond to a patient via SMS
It is not always appropriate or necessary to message a patient via our post-consult email messaging functionality. You may want to send a short message that is received by the patient more quickly, or you may want to message a patient who has not completed an eConsult.
Perhaps a patient has consulted for something that they can find on the NHS website or go to their local pharmacy for, or you’d like them to send another eConsult in a few weeks to see how they’re progressing (e.g. completing a review questionnaire – asthma, contraception, blood pressure etc).
Sending your patient an SMS (text message) is perfect for patients who need a quick response.
How to use the SMS feature from the toolbar
The SMS functionality is currently only available through the eConsult Toolbar.
When inputting a mobile number
You can input a patient's phone number and send them a message through the 'Messaging' icon on the eConsult toolbar. You can either write your own message or amend one of the templates provided for you (you have 1,000 characters of text to play with).
Once you've written your message and are happy with the content, you can send your message. You'll also be prompted to copy the message so that you can save it to the patient's clinical record. The sender name on the SMS your patient receives will be 'GP Surgery'.
From the 'Messaging icon' on the toolbar, you'll be asked to input the 6-digit consultation PIN from the eConsult report. You'll then be shown your available response options - email or SMS.
Clicking the SMS response option allows you to input a telephone number and to select whether you want to write your own message or adapt an existing template.
Once you've inputted a valid telephone number and have written your message, you can then click 'Send Message'.
When reading a mobile number from the clinical system
This feature is currently only available for EMIS Web and S1 customers, but we are working to deliver this for all clinical systems.
You can choose to read the patient's number from their clinical record, or you can input a phone number and send them a message through the 'Messaging' icon on the eConsult toolbar.
First, you'll need to follow the relevant steps for syncing your clinical system and the toolbar:
In the 'Messaging' icon on the toolbar, you'll see a range of options for how you can respond to the patient. Any telephone numbers in the patient's record will show as options for sending an SMS.
If the patient doesn't have any phone numbers in EMIS or S1, this option won't be available. You can still choose the 'Send SMS to any number' option to send them a text to the number provided within their eConsult.
If you chose to input a phone number, you can do so on the below screen. This number won't be saved to the record.
You can either write your own message or amend one of the templates provided for you.
Once you've written your message and are happy with the content, you can send your message. You'll also be prompted to save the message to the patient's clinical record. The sender name on the SMS your patient receives will be 'GP Surgery'.
Future developments
Our SMS feature initially supports a one-way message from the practice to the patient, no response is allowed. However, we're working on expanding the SMS functionality to include:
Two-way SMS (a message to the patient and a response from the patient to the practice).
The ability to use SMS to send patients a link to a specific eConsult questionnaire (e.g. to signpost them to the eConsult questionnaire that you would like them to complete).
Improved Messaging from the Smart Inbox
Our Smart Inbox gives you the ability to respond directly to patients after an eConsult and save the sent message straight into your clinical system.
The Smart Inbox now supports the below messaging features:
Two-way messaging: allow patients to reply to your email or SMS from the Smart Inbox by using the Allow patient to reply once toggle in the messaging panel.
New Message: send an email or SMS to patients that haven't submitted an eConsult.
More Templated Responses: select from a range of existing templates and create custom templates.
You can learn more about messaging patients in the Smart Inbox here.
Upgrading to the Smart Inbox is free and included in a standard eConsult contract. To find out more and sign up, visit our page here.
If you have any questions or you feel that this article could be improved, please feel free to give us some feedback by emailing us, pressing the emojis below or using the chat button on the bottom right-hand side of this page to speak to one of the eConsult team.