Follow the steps below to send SMS Messages or Emails manually to your Patients.
Hot Tips
Manual message are useful if a Patient has booked an appointment after the automated reminders have been sent but would still like to receive an email or SMS Message for the booking, or for occasional communications if the Patients prefers messages to calls.
Sending a Message From the Calendar
1. In the Calendar, click on the Appointment to open the Appointment window.
2. In Classic view, click on Communications, then Send Message.
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In Fresh view, click on Communications.
Select Send Message and click Next.
3. Select the type of message to send, Email or SMS.
Hot Tips
Emails are free to send, SMS Messages cost 1 credit per 160 characters.
4. Select a Template or type the message. Templates created in the Manage > Communications section will be displayed in the dropdown list.
5. If sending an email, enter a Subject.
6. When the message is ready to send, click Send Email or Send SMS.
The message will be added to the system message queue and will appear in the Patient > Messages section once it has been sent.
Important!
Consent boxes to receive SMS or Email Reminders needs to be ticked before messages can be sent to Patients.
Sending a Message From Patient Messages section
Important!
Appointment details can't be generated in messages sent from the Patients section as they are not linked to a booking. Therefore we strongly advise against using template with Appointment placeholders as the information will be missing in the message.
1. Click Messages in the Patient Profile.
2. Click Send Email or Send Message.
3. Fill in the relevant fields.
Hot Tips
It is possible to tick Exclude next to Greeting to remove the below default salutations.
When sending a Message to a Patient that does not have a title selected in the Patient profile. It will address the Patient as shown above, "Dear [Patient Name]". If you are sending a Message to a Patient that has a Title allocated, it will address the Message to include the Title.If you are sending a message to an email that is outside of Nookal it will be addressed "To Whom it May Concern".
4. Click Send.
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Please note that opening a sent email in the Patients > Messages section only displays the text that has been sent - not the styling, formatting or any html elements.
Sending a Message to the Patient Portal
If your account has the Patient Portal enabled you can message Patients and they will receive these messages in the Patient Portal.
1. Navigate to Patients > Messages.
A red dot will be displayed next to Messages if there are unread chat messages from the Patient Portal.
2. On the Messages page, click Patient Portal.
3. Select “From” from the dropdown, selecting either the Location or the logged in user.
4. If required, you can attach a document to a message by clicking the Paperclip icon. Please note:
Only a single document can be attached
Only PDF and DOC files can be attached
The selected file should be able to be removed by pressing the cross next to the file name
4. Write the new message to the Patient and click Send.
5. The sent Patient Portal message will display in the Patients > Messages list.
Patient Portal Tips
Unread messages will have a red background
The latest message will appear as the “Message” in the row
The “To” will be either a location name or User’s name
If the latest message has an attachment, it will show in the attachment column
Clicking a Patient Portal item in the table will open the blue side panel to the right
Clicking the “View Messages” in the side panel will open the messages modal
If the message is unread, clicking the “View Messages” button and opening the modal will mark it as readUpon sending a new message, any messages previously sent to or from that person or location, should now appear in the modal