If you want to contact a large number of patients at once you will first need to Create a Contact List or you may just need to select a previously created contact list. Once you have the completed list you can contact your patients via SMS, Letter or Email.

To comply with GDPR, practices should only send marketing type communications to patients who have explicitly opted to receive those communications. They should not send to patients who have explicitly opted out, or who have not made any choice. See: Contacting patients that have opted in

It's recommended to check the sending limits of your email provider if you want to send an emails in bulk. We recommend adding a limit within EXACT. Go to Configure, Email parameters, then click next until you see the below screen where a limit can be set as to how many emails can be sent per minute.
Example; 3 per minute = 180 per hour so this would be within a 200 per hour email sending limit.

Contacting via Email

1. Click the Email button in the bottom right of the screen to open the Contact by Email screen:

2. Select Single or Multiple Emails.

   Select Group by Family if there are several members of the same family, and you want to send one Email for the family.

   You have the checkbox option to Tick as complete when sent. If you check this box, EXACT will remove each patient from the contact list when the letter for that patient is printed, leaving only patients on the list with unprinted letters.

   With this unchecked, the patient is not marked as Complete on the contact list until further manual action is taken. In other words, leave the checkbox unchecked if you want a reminder to take further action.

3. Select OK.

4. If you selected Multiple Emails, complete the standard Contact Patients screen, but as applicable for Email:

5. With details specified, click OK to advance to the Email Details screen:

6. Complete the appropriate fields.

7. Choose an Email template by means of the selectors.

8. Document attachment options are greyed out unless you first check the Attach Document checkbox. Click any document attachment to see a preview at right.

9. Click OK to advance to the Create Email screen.

   This will either be blank (if you did not specify an Email template), or it will contain the Email Template that you specified:

   Blank:

   With sample specified template:

10. Optionally Attach any documents, image files (x-rays, photos, etc.) or other files.

    When you select Finish, the attachment/s appear in the Create Email screen. You can right-click them to see further options:

    To add a further attachment, click the +1 button.

    To delete an attachment, select it then click the Delete button.

    To save an attachment to another location, select it, click the Save button, and specify the location.

    To open (view) an attachment, select it then click the Open button; this will open the attachment with the appropriate program.

11. Complete the email as you require and then click the large Send button to have EXACT automatically send off the emails to the specified contacts.

12. Check in the Patient file Contacts tab for records of contacts

Contacting via SMS

1. Select the SMS button in the bottom right :

   
   Select either Single SMS or Multiple SMS.

   The Group by Family checkbox will apply to SMS as it does for letters, and allows email to family members to be sent together. It is greyed out and unavailable if the Single SMS option has been clicked.

   The  Tick as complete when message sent checkbox will mark the patient as complete on the contact list once the SMS is sent.
   With this unchecked, the patient is not marked as Complete on the contact list until further manual action is taken. In other words, leave the checkbox unchecked if you want a reminder to take further action.

2. Single SMS option: Click OK to display the SMS Details screen as shown below (Step 5).

3. Multiple SMS option: Click OK to display the Contact Patients window. You can either uncheck all options to include everyone on the recall / contact list, or select options according to your preferences.

   

4. Once you have selected your list of patients and clicked OK you will be presented with the following screen, if you have set up staggered recalls in your email configuration:

   
   At this point, you can either:

   • Click the Send all SMS straight away to send the SMS messages.

   • Accept the staggered SMS settings, as listed.

   • Change any of the delivery times by clicking on a line, and then delete the line using the  Delete button.
     A new delivery time can then be added via the  Add button.

   • Accept the delivery times, but change the delivery frequency.

   Once you have reviewed (and edited the staggered settings, if required), click the OK button.

5. The SMS Details window is now displayed, to enable you to enter Provider and/or Specialist codes, if there are pertinent merge fields that need to be included in the SMS:

   
   You can also choose an SMS template if you wish to use a preset message as a basis for the SMS.

   If you do so, the Description field is automatically filled, but may be edited if required.
   Similarly, the Category field is usually defaulted but can be changed or deleted if you wish.

   The Category becomes important in the Patient Contacts Tab, where we can sort by Category column to see what kind of contacts have been made with the patient:

6. Click the OK button; the Create SMS window will now display, as for the single SMS option.

   If you have selected an SMS template, the text from the template will be displayed, but you may still edit the details of this if you wish, by clicking in the field.

   Note the following:

   • The text in the box is counted in the Character count field below it, to let you know how long the message is.
     This will not be accurate if any merge fields are present, so you will have to estimate how long each merge field is likely to be, based on what it represents.

7. Clicking the OK button in this window will create the SMS messages for the selected patients in EXACT, and either send the SMS messages or queue them to be sent, depending on your settings.

   The contact list entries will be updated with the appropriate SMS status icon in the Type column.

   For an SMS message, one of the following icons may appear, depending on the status:

   SMS appointment reminder sent to the recipient (delivered)

   SMS message received by the gateway (sent, but not yet delivered)

   SMS delivery failed (where SOE is the SMS provider; password is wrong, insufficient credit, etc.)

   Reply received (for SMS reminder sent to patient)

   SMS status is not available

   SMS failed or not sent to the gateway

   A tooltip displays when you hover your mouse cursor over each of the icons.

8. The SMS messages will also appear in the Email Outbox until they are sent, when they will be removed and will appear in the Sent tab.

   In each case, they will have the appropriate icon in the Status column.

   Only email replies will appear in the Email Inbox.

   If staggered recall settings are in effect, the column marked with a clock icon will have a corresponding icon for any items in the Outbox that are subject to the settings.

   
   If you hover your mouse cursor over the icon, a tooltip will tell you when the SMS is due to be sent, as in this example:

9. Check in the Patient file Contacts tab for records of contacts

Contacting via Letter

1. with the contact list open, Select the Create a Patient document button

2. Complete details in the Contact by Letter screen:
   Select the type of letter: Create either a single letter to the selected patient or multiple letters to patients within the contact list.

   Select Group by Family if there are several members of the same family, and you want to send one letter for the family.

   You have the checkbox option to Tick as complete when printed. If you check this box, EXACT will remove each patient from the contact list when the letter for that patient is printed, leaving only patients on the list with unprinted letters.

   With this unchecked, the patient is not marked as Complete on the contact list until further manual action is taken. In other words, leave the checkbox unchecked if you want a reminder to take further action.

3. Select OK. A Contact Multiple Patients window will appear

4. With these fields appropriately configured, select OK.
   The Document Details window enables you to write to the patient as well as create/modify the Letter Templates that are the basis of the individual letters written.

   Letter Templates can include merge fields. These are placeholders for patient, provider, specialist, practice and other details that can be inserted directly into a letter from EXACT, which are replaced with actual data when the letter is processed.
   
   

Tips:

If your selection criteria produce no patients as a result, a warning of “There are no patients that match the selected criteria” will display. Select OK.

You will then be presented with the Document Details window, if you are creating letters / emails / SMS messages, or the Label Details window for mailing labels.

Printing a long list of letters may take a long time, and once it has commenced the process cannot be stopped.

Rather than print all letters at once, break them into batches using the "From Patient" and "To Patient" fields. For example, select patients from A-F, then G-M, N-R, and S-Z.