Send an Email

Compose a letter in the Letter Writer and email it to patients or other health providers.

Before you begin

If you want to email a patient, first ensure that their email address is recorded. For more information about recording patient details, see Edit Patient Records. Alternatively, you will have an opportunity to record an ad-hoc email address before sending.

About this task

Letters emailed to patients can be password protected. However letters emailed to other health providers are not password protected. To email a registered health provider securely, select Secure Message Delivery (SMD).

Procedure

To send an email:
  1. In the Letter Writer, create the document you want to email. For more information about creating a document, see Write a Letter.
  2. Click Save and Send.
  3. If sending electronically, in the Send Document window:
    • If sending the letter to the patient:
      1. Set Email to patient.
        Send Document - Window
      2. If the patient has not yet consented to receiving emails, seek their consent and set Patient consents to receiving email correspondence.

        Consent is added to Patient Preferences automatically.

      3. In the Email address field, select an email address from those recorded in the patient's details or enter a valid new email address for the patient.

        To add the new address as one of the two possible email addresses for this patient in patient demographics, set Update patient email. If there is only one address recorded, set Add email to patient file. If there are already two email addresses recorded you cannot save the address you entered.

      4. Select your preferred password option for document security:
        • To use the patient's date of birth as recorded in Helix, set Email sent with password as DOB in DDMMYYYY format.
        • To send an automated SMS to the patient separately with a password, set SMS auto-generated document password to patient and in the Send to number field:
          • Select the patient's mobile number from the list, as recorded in the patient details.
          • If the patient's mobile number is not recorded, enter a valid mobile number and set Add mobile number to patient file.
    • If sending the letter to a provider, set Send to clinician or provider and:
      Send an email to clinician
      • If HealthLink is enabled, select Secure Message Delivery. For more information, see Create and Send Secure Documents.
      • If emailing the letter, set Email and in the To field start typing the recipient and select them from the list.

        If a recipient's details are not recorded in the address book, to add a new recipient, click Add a new addressAdd new address. For more information, see Add New Addresses.

        Note: Email is not secure and documents sent via email to HCPs are not password protected.
  4. In the Subject field, enter a subject.
  5. In the Body field, enter a summary.
  6. To email the document, click Send.

Results

A record of the email is displayed in Consult actions > Other actions. For more information, see Consultations.
Actions Helix Showing Emailed Document

When the consult is ended, a record of the email is also displayed in the patient's Timeline after a short delay before the Timeline. For more information, see Timeline

What to do next

In the Consult actions > Other actions section:

To review the details of a sent email, select Message Centre iconMessage Centre > Comms Log. For more information, see Comms Log.