Patient Lists are perfect for finding a specific list of patients, one of the things you can do with a patient list is contact all of those patients in bulk.

Patient Lists gives you the ability to contact patients via SMS, Letter or Email.

• Opening the Patient List
• Contacting by Email
• Contacting by SMS
• Contacting by post

Opening the Patient List

1. Go to Administration -> Patient Lists -> View Saved Lists
2. Select the list you wish to view then click Open List
   or Double-click the list you want to open.

Contacting by Email

If you intend to contact your patients by email, we strongly recommend checking for any limitations set by your email provider.

1. Click the Email button in the bottom right of the screen to open the Contact by Email screen:
   
   
2. On the following screen, select Single or Multiple Emails.
   Group by Family is useful if there are several members of the same family, and you want to send one Email for the family, select this option if this is the case.
   Tick as complete when sent will display a tick on the main list once the patient has been contacted from this list. EXACT will remove each patient from the patient 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 patient 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 once you have chosen all required options.
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.
10. Optionally Attach any documents, image files (x-rays, photos, etc.) or other files.
11. 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.
12. 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.
13. Check in the Patient file Contacts tab for records of contacts

Contacting by SMS

1. Select the SMS button in the bottom right.
2. On the following screen, choose either Single SMS or Multiple SMS option.
3. Click OK to display the Contact Patients window. You can either uncheck all options to include everyone on the recall / patient 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.
   
5. At this point, you can,
   1. Click the Send all SMS straight away to send the SMS messages.
   2. Accept the staggered SMS settings, as listed.
   3. 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.
   4. Accept the delivery times, but change the delivery frequency.
      Once you have reviewed (and edited the staggered settings, if required), click the OK button.
6. 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.
   
   
7. 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.
   

   Please Note: 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.

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

Contacting by post

1. With the patient 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 patient 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 patient 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 patient 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.