# Email a patient and check delivery (/docs/en/learn/front-desk-emails)



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 [#why]

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 [#how]

Lotte Bakker asks for directions to the practice. You write her an email from her record.

### Write and send [#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 [#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 [#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 [#try-it]

Use **Sam Testpatient** with your own email address on file and **Do not email this patient** turned off.

1. Open Sam's record and choose **New → Email**.
2. Enter the subject "Test: directions" and one sentence of text. Wait until the status line starts with "Draft · saved".
3. Choose **Send…**. Check that **To** shows your own address and read **What the patient sees**. Choose **Send now**.
4. Open Sam's **Emails** page. Watch the status move from **Sending** to **Sent**, then **Delivered**. Open the email and choose **Delivery details**.
5. Check your inbox.
6. 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 [#check]

1. An email shows **Delivered**. Has the patient read it?

<details>
  <summary>
    Answer
  </summary>

  Not necessarily. It means the patient's mail server accepted it. Salisan does not track opens.
</details>

2. An email shows **Unconfirmed**. What do you do first?

<details>
  <summary>
    Answer
  </summary>

  Ask the patient whether it arrived. Choose **Send again anyway** only if it did not, because the email may already have been sent.
</details>

3. You chose **Send now** and want to stop the email. What can you do?

<details>
  <summary>
    Answer
  </summary>

  Choose **Undo** during the 10 seconds it is held. The email then shows **Cancelled**. After that you can only send a correction.
</details>

## Next [#next]

You have finished the front desk course. Go back to [Learn](/docs/en/learn), or read [Patient messages](/docs/en/guides/patient-messages#delivery) for the full steps.