Bulk Outbound Patient Messaging (OPM) and Outbound Patient Messaging
The Bulk Outbound Patient Messaging functionality allows you to message all of your patients using Engage Consult, they don't have to have an account with Engage Consult to receive the message however patients will be encouraged to sign up.
You can use this functionality for the many campaigns you hold in practice or even just as a general communication platform as you probably do via alternative providers, the beauty of this feature is that it is all within Engage Consult therefore there is no requirement for multiple solutions and additional costs.
SMS is being provided by Firetext and BT/EE who are a trusted and approved supplier to the NHS which are fully funded by your local CCG.
How to use bulk messaging
Sending an Outbound Patient Message is simple. The process is the same as outlined in our Outbound Patient Messaging Guide as it follows the same process initially as sending an individual message
First click the "Outbound messages" button in your Engage Desktop Client
This will take you to the Outbound Messaging page, where you can select 'Create message'.
Then select "I'm sending this message to multiple patients" from the options, as below.
After selecting the 3rd option, "I'm sending this message to multiple patients" you then need to chose how you would like to send the message. Create and download the CSV file of patients to receive the message from your clinical system. Click here if you are a EMIS web user for a guide of how to create a CSV. You can download the template to see what format to download the CSV to. Then 'Select file to upload' to upload the CSV.
Write your message for the patient, you can add an attachment, send a reminder to the patient about the message, schduele send and if sending by Engage message add questionnaires and a response destination.
Click 'Send'. You can check the status of your OPM under 'View message list'.
You can see when the message was sent, the recipient and if it has been delivered.
Selecting the above will give you a breakdown of the recipients.
Selecting 'View' will give you more information about the message sent as below.
You can also use this feature in the toolbar. You can select the message as shown below and choose if it is sent to an individual or to multiple patients.
Please note a warning will be shown when sending 100+ messages just in case its a mistake.
