What is the context?
Meddbase includes a feature that allows patients to send and respond to messages via the Patient Portal to Users within a set Role Group within your Chamber. This Online Messaging feature is available to patients via the Patient Portal. To use this feature, the chargeable Patient Portal functionality must be enabled in your chamber.
To learn more about the Patient Portal, please refer to our article: Patient Portal Setup.
What is the purpose of the article?
The purpose of this article is to provide guidance on enabling and using the Online Messaging feature in Meddbase, specifically through the Patient Portal. This article will explain:
- How to enable online messaging in the system.
- How to configure notifications for both patients and Meddbase users.
- How patients can access and use the messaging feature in the Patient Portal.
- How Meddbase users can view, respond to, and manage patient messages.
Enabling Online Messaging
To enable the messaging feature:
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Navigate to Start Page > Admin > Billing Rules.
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Select the appropriate charge band.
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Tick the option Allow online messaging.
Enabling Notifications
It’s important to set up notifications so that both your users and the patient know when a message has been sent.
Notifications for Meddbase Users
When a new message is sent by a patient, the notification is sent to a role group. Users in that role group will be able to respond from that notification. By default, the role group that receives new message notification is Appointment Reminder Admin. To change this:
- Go to Start Page > Admin > Configuration > Online Portal.
- Under General Settings, configure the Role for new messages option.
- This defines the role group notified when a patient sends a message.
Notifications for Patients
- In the same Online Portal configuration screen, go to New Shared Items Notification.
- Tick the option Enable new shared items email.
- This ensures patients are notified whenever a response is sent from Meddbase.
Please note, this will also send email notifications of any other shared items such as Documents or Medical Data.
Patient View in the Portal
Once Online Messaging is Enabled, Patients on the chargeband will have a new page available called Inbox.
The patient in the portal will be able to select this option to display the feed shown below. They will be able to reply to previous messages and start new feeds.
Where will these messages show in Meddbase?
Messages sent by patients will appear in Meddbase under the following path, Start Page > Patient > Find and Select patient > Patient Record > Feed.
In this section, you can:
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View and reply to patient messages.
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Choose who to share the message with by using the sharing options:
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Tick and also share with the patient to share the message with both the patient and selected roles.
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Use the dropdown menu to share messages exclusively with the patient or other roles.
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Review date
This article was last updated on 17th December 2024.