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Communications
Write letters, medical certificates, referrals, and email or send them securely.
Communicate with Patients
Users can communicate with patients electronically using SMS and email.
SMS
Send scheduled SMS messages from Helix to patients for appointment and recall reminders, or send ad hoc messages as required.
Send SMS
If configured, send SMS messages to individual patients from the appointment book or the patient's record.
Send SMS from a patient's record
Send an SMS message directly to a patient from their patient or clinical record.

Communications
Write letters, medical certificates, referrals, and email or send them securely.
- Communicate with Patients
  Users can communicate with patients electronically using SMS and email.
  - SMS
    Send scheduled SMS messages from Helix to patients for appointment and recall reminders, or send ad hoc messages as required.
    - Enable SMS
      Before you can send SMS messages from your practice to a patient, you must enable SMS messaging for your centre and seek and record a patient's consent to receive SMS messages.
    - Appointment Reminders
      Helix can automatically send appointment reminders to patients via SMS.
    - Send SMS
      If configured, send SMS messages to individual patients from the appointment book or the patient's record.
      - Send SMS appointment updates
        Send one-way SMS message updates from your practice to one or more patients about their current or upcoming appointment.
      - Send SMS from a patient's record
        Send an SMS message directly to a patient from their patient or clinical record.
    - Track SMS
      Track the delivery status of SMS messages sent from Helix.
  - Email
    You can send emails to patients and healthcare providers from the Letter Writer.
  - Letters
    Use letters or templates to write medical certificates, WorkCover certifications, referrals, health assessments, death certificates, veterans affairs requests, and so on.
- Address Books
- Message Centre
  Use the Message Centre to manage recalls, tasks, investigation results and health summaries, and to send messages and review the communications log.
- Referrals
  A health care professional writes a referral to request that another HCP or healthcare organisation provide an expert opinion, diagnosis, or treatment for a patient's medical condition.
- Create and Send Secure Documents
  Send referral letters, medical certificates, health assessments or other medical documents securely to other clinicians using Secure Message Delivery (SMD).
- Printer Settings
  Configure up to four printers for general printing, imaging requests, pathology requests, and prescriptions.

Send SMS from a patient's record

Send an SMS message directly to a patient from their patient or clinical record.

Before you begin

Permissions:

View Appointments
Set up and send patient SMS

Note: Your patient cannot reply to SMS messages sent to them directly.

Procedure

To send an SMS to your patient:

In the patient's record, in the patient information header, click Send SMS.
Note: If the patient's consent is not recorded in the patient details, you cannot send an SMS to the patient. To activate Send SMS option:
- Record a patient's consent in the Patient Details panel and update the settings in the Patient Preferences. For more information, see Record a Patient's Consent to Receive SMS.
- If a patient's consent is already recorded and the Send SMS option is still inactive, toggle Enable SMS for ad hoc messages on for your centre in the user > Settings > Centre > Patient Messaging. For more information, see Enable sending SMS Messages From the Patient Record.
In the Send SMS to patient window, select a mobile phone number from the list of numbers recorded in the patient's record, or enter a new number.

To add this phone number to the patient's record, set Add number to patient's record.
In the Message section, compose your message:
- From the Template list, either select a template from those created for your centre for ad hoc SMS messages or type your message into the blank template.
- To insert fields for which relevant data is substituted when the SMS is sent, click + Add Field.
Click Send.

Results

The SMS message is sent to the patient.

What to do next

View SMS messages sent from the appointment book in the Comms Log. These messages have a Message Type of Ad Hoc SMS.