(See also Contacting SINGLE Patients by SMS (on page 33))
1. Select the SMS button from either:
o The Recalls window
(Administration > Manage Recalls > Double-click on a recalls list), or
o The Contact Lists window
(Administration > Contact Lists > Double-click on a list)
The Contact by SMS window launches:
2. Select the Multiple SMS option.
The Group by Family checkbox will apply to SMS as it does for letters, and allows email to family
members to be sent together. It is greyed out and unavailable if the Single SMS option has been clicked.
The Tick as complete when message sent checkbox will flag the recall procedure for the SMS recipient(s)
as completed once the SMS is sent.
3. Click OK to display the Contact Patients (see "Contact Multiple Patients Window" on page 39) window. You can either untick all options to include everyone on the recall / contact list, or select options according to your preferences.
4. Once you have selected your list of patients and clicked , you will be presented with the following screen, if you have set up staggered recalls in your email configuration:
At this point, you can either:
o Click the Send all SMS straight away to send the SMS messages. o Accept the staggered SMS settings, as listed.
o Change any of the delivery times by clicking on a line, and then delete the line using the Delete button.
A new delivery time can then be added via the Add button.
o Accept the delivery times, but change the delivery frequency.
Once you have reviewed (and edited the staggered settings, if required), click the button.
5. The SMS Details window is now displayed, to enable you to enter Provider and/or Specialist codes, if there are pertinent merge fields that need to be included in the SMS:
If you wish to also send an SMS to a specialist, select their code in the Specialist field, then tick Email the
Selected Specialist checkbox.
You can also choose an SMS template if you wish to use a preset message as a basis for the SMS. If you do so, the Description field is automatically filled, but may be edited if required.
Similarly, the Category field is usually defaulted but can be changed or deleted if you wish.
The Category becomes important in the Patient Contacts Tab, where we can sort by Category column to see what kind of contacts have been made with the patient:
6. Click the button; the Create SMS window will now be displayed, as for the single SMS option.
If you have selected an SMS template, the text from the template will be displayed, but you may still edit the details of this if you wish, by clicking in the field.
Note the following:
o The Flash box is checked for Flash SMS messages; do not delete the FLASH inserted at the beginning of the message - this tells the SMS provider to send this as a Flash message.
o The text in the box is counted in the Character count field below it, to let you know how long the message is.
This will not be accurate if any merge fields are present, so you will have to estimate how long each merge field is likely to be, based on what it represents.
7. Clicking the button on this window will create the SMS messages for the selected patients in EXACT, and either send the SMS messages or queue them to be sent, depending on your settings.
The contact list entries will be updated with the appropriate SMS status icon in the Type column. For an SMS message, one of the following icons may appear, depending on the status:
SMS appointment reminder sent to recipient (delivered) SMS message received by gateway (sent, but not yet delivered)
SMS delivery failed (where SOE is the SMS provider; password is wrong, insufficient credit, etc.) Reply received (for SMS reminder sent to patient)
SMS status is now available
SMS status unknown (TXTConnecxions / Icetrak / 4Production) SMS failed or not sent to gateway
SMS status unavailable (other SMS providers)
A tooltip displays when you hover your mouse cursor over each of the icons.
8. The SMS messages will also appear in the Email Outbox until they are sent, when they will be removed and will appear in the Sent tab.
In each case they will have the appropriate icon in the Status column. Only email replies will appear in the Email Inbox.
If staggered recall settings are in effect, the column marked with a clock icon will have a corresponding icon for any items in the Outbox that are subject to the settings.
If you hover your mouse cursor over the icon, a tooltip will tell you when the SMS is due to be sent, as in this example:
Contact Multiple Patients Window
To configure the Contact Patients window to specify who will be contacted
This window is displayed when you select to contact multiple patients or print multiple labels for a recall list or contact list.
The same window is used for letters, labels, emails, and SMS messages, with slight changes to the prompts and options.
This window will allow you to choose certain criteria to create a sub-list of patients from the list to send letters to. The options are controlled by checkboxes and any combination of these checkboxes can be selected to create the required list of patients. Unticking all options will simply use the entire recall list and not limit the range in any way.
Option/Field Details
These options refer to the recall "marked as completed" status of the patients in the list.
This option will be set to 0 by default but you can alter this number as required. It will filter the list based on how many times a patient has been contacted by any method available in EXACT e.g., email, SMS or letter.
This option will default to "Letter" when sending letters, "Email" when sending email, and "Mobile" when sending SMS messages but can be changed to another from the drop-down list if required.
[Labels only] This field allows you to select patients who had
letters created on a certain date, so that you can print corresponding address labels for the envelopes.
To select a range of patients, choose the first and last names in the list; all patients between (and including) the two listed names will be selected
Use this to select patients for one or more providers, or for
providers with a specific category. Click the button to
select more than one provider
You can use this field to select patients who have a recall due (set, but not yet actioned) by dentist recall only, hygienist recall only or both.
This checkbox will be enabled only if the "Group by family" checkbox has been ticked on the previous (Contact by Letter) window . If you tick this option, only those patients that are part of a family will be selected.
If your selection criteria produce no patients as a result, a warning of “There are no patients that match the selected criteria” will be displayed.
Once a valid selection is obtained and the button is selected, you will then be presented with the
‘Document Details’ window, if you are creating letters / emails / SMS messages, or the 'Label Details' window for mailing labels.
TIPS:
- Printing a long list of letters may take a long time, and once it has commenced the process cannot be stopped.
- Rather than print all letters at once, break them into batches using the "From Patient" and "To Patient" fields. For example, select patients from A-F, then G-M, N-R, and S-Z.