Email a patient and check delivery
Write and send a patient email, read its delivery status and fix an email that did not arrive.
After this lesson you can send an email to a patient, read its status and fix an email that failed. It takes about 15 minutes. Sending needs the Send email, forms, and requests permission, which every default role has.
Why it matters
A patient email is a message from your practice that you cannot call back once it has left. It is also the way patients receive links and confirmations. Knowing what each status means tells you when to wait, when to fix and when to ask the patient.
How it works
Lotte Bakker asks for directions to the practice. You write her an email from her record.
Write and send
Choose New → Email on the patient's record, or open Emails and choose Send email. Enter a Subject and write the message. To start from a published email template, choose Use a template. The draft saves as you type. Wait until the status line starts with "Draft · saved". Nothing leaves while it is a draft.
Choose Send…. The dialog Send this email shows What the patient sees, with the recipient under To. It reminds you that email travels unencrypted and that a copy is kept in the record, so use email for practical details such as directions. Choose Send now.
For 10 seconds the email is held, and you can choose Undo. After that it cannot be called back.
Sending is blocked when the patient has no email address, when the patient has opted out of email, when a template value has nothing for this patient, or when your latest changes have not saved yet. The dialog says which.
Read the status
Open the patient's Emails page. Each email shows one word:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Sending | On its way |
| Sent | Handed over, waiting for the patient's mail server to confirm |
| Delivered | The patient's mail server accepted it |
| Not delivered | It failed, and the reason is shown |
| Marked as spam | The patient reported it |
| Unconfirmed | Salisan lost track right after sending |
| Cancelled | You undid it before it left |
Delivered does not mean the patient read it. Salisan does not track whether emails are opened.
Fix a failed email
Emails that need you appear first, under Open. Read the reason, then use the action offered: Fix address corrects the address and sends again, Send again retries a temporary problem such as a full mailbox, and Write a new email is offered when the content was refused. For Unconfirmed, ask the patient before you choose Send again anyway, or the patient may receive the email twice.
Administrators can see emails to all patients under Organization → Emails.
Try it
Use Sam Testpatient with your own email address on file and Do not email this patient turned off.
- Open Sam's record and choose New → Email.
- Enter the subject "Test: directions" and one sentence of text. Wait until the status line starts with "Draft · saved".
- Choose Send…. Check that To shows your own address and read What the patient sees. Choose Send now.
- Open Sam's Emails page. Watch the status move from Sending to Sent, then Delivered. Open the email and choose Delivery details.
- Check your inbox.
- Open Sam's details and turn on Do not email this patient. Choose New → Email, enter a subject and choose Send…. The dialog says the patient has opted out. Choose Open patient file…, turn the preference off again, then discard the draft with Discard draft.
Check yourself
- An email shows Delivered. Has the patient read it?
Answer
Not necessarily. It means the patient's mail server accepted it. Salisan does not track opens.
- An email shows Unconfirmed. What do you do first?
Answer
Ask the patient whether it arrived. Choose Send again anyway only if it did not, because the email may already have been sent.
- You chose Send now and want to stop the email. What can you do?
Answer
Choose Undo during the 10 seconds it is held. The email then shows Cancelled. After that you can only send a correction.
Next
You have finished the front desk course. Go back to Learn, or read Patient messages for the full steps.