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This chapter explains how to create messages that patients can submit to care staff.
Patients will inquire about their care during their hospital stay. They may inquire about when they will see their doctor, have procedures done, and be discharged. Although they may have similar inquiries, the replies will differ from patient to patient. Patient FAQs cannot address individual answers so another solution is needed.
Patient Messages is a feature of Admin View that allows you to create care-related messages that patients can submit in Patient View to care staff. Those messages are displayed on Care Team View for the care staff. The care staff replies to each message. The replies appear in both the Notifications and Messages screens of Patient View.
Note Patient Messages should not be confused with Patient FAQs. Patient Messages are inquiries about an individual patient’s care not general questions about the hospital. “When will I have my surgery?” is an example of a Patient Message since the reply will differ from patient to patient.
Patients only view and submit messages that are appropriate for their age and gender as well as the hospital unit (e.g. Clinical Care, Obstetric Care, Pediatric Care, Orthopedic Care, Rehabilitation, etc.) to which they are assigned. For example, patients in the Trauma unit should only be able to submit messages about treating their injuries; they should not submit messages about dialysis or childbirth. This is accomplished by mapping messages to a department ID so those messages are only delivered to patients in that hospital unit. Department IDs are pulled from EMR and appear in the drop-down menu located on the upper right corner of the Patient Messages page.
Messages can be further targeted to a specific gender or age group within that unit. For example, the Oncology unit may want a message related to care for testicular cancer. You would choose “males” from the gender drop-down menu to restrict those messages to male patients.
The Patient Messages page, like the Patient FAQs and Patient Requests pages, has bulk import functionality. The format of the file that you need is provided in the Actions menu. Choose Download Messages to download the csv file to your desktop. Add new messages to the file and then import the revised file back into Patient Messages using the Import Messages button in the Actions menu.
The bulk import functionality is also useful when you need to edit multiple messages. Download the csv file, edit the entries, save the file, and import the saved file back into the Patient Messages page.
To add a message to Admin View:
Step 1 Choose Patient Messages from the Patient TV menu of Admin View.
Step 2 If the message is specific to a unit/department, choose the appropriate unit/department from the drop down list in the upper right corner of the Patient Messages pane. If you do not choose a unit/department, the message will be shown to all patients (if age or gender is not specified either).
Step 3 From the Actions menu, choose Create Message.
Step 5 If the message should be restricted to gender and/or age, choose the appropriate value(s).
That message will now appear in the Messages screen of Patient View.
The bulk import feature of Patient Messages is useful if you have many messages to add or you want to modify a number of existing messages.
Step 1 Choose Download Messages from the Actions menu.
Step 3 If you are adding messages, add rows to the spreadsheet and enter one message per row. Modify the messages as desired.
Step 4 Save the spreadsheet as “CSV (comma delimited)” to your desktop.
Step 5 Choose Import Messages from the Actions menu.
Step 6 Find the spreadsheet, and click the Open button.
Use the buttons in the Action column if you need to modify (blue button with a pencil) or delete (red button with an X) messages.