How do I bulk send a Comms Annexe message?

• You will have already run a report, which has found the patients you need to send a Comms Annexe message to.  There is a Bitesize Reference article about running reports here

• We will use an Annual Review Invite report as an example.  The report name indicates that you can send the patients a message using the Comms Annexe.  The system has already checked that the patients in the report are able to receive messages sent using the Comms Annexe, so they will have either a mobile number or an email address.

• The report name also gives you the message preset to use for the patients in this report, so either make a note of the preset name, or make sure you can still see the report name in the next step.  The message preset for this report is Annual Review Invite (AR1).

• To carry out an action in SystmOne on all the patients in a report, select the report to highlight it, right click on the report, then choose Actions from the drop down list that appears.  

• To send a Comms Annexe message you choose Use Communications Annexe from the next drop-down list that appears.

• You will now see the Communications Annexe window where you can choose options for the message you are going to send.  

The first option is to tick the box asking SystmOne to use the patient's preferred contact method to send the message.  This means the patient will receive the message in the way they have requested.  If the patient hasn't expressed a preference or hasn't been asked yet, SystmOne will send an SMS to the patient.

The next option is to choose the message preset that is included in the name of the report.  You can move the Communications Annexe window around if you need to, so you can see the name of the report.

• When you click on the icon next to Preset, you will see the Select Message Preset window.  Use the shorthand name included in the name of the report, including the brackets, in the search box to find the correct message preset.  Highlight the message preset in the search results and click OK at the bottom of the window.

• You can see that the Communications Annexe window now includes everything you need to send the patients a message.  Any questionnaires and codes have also been included.  If you want to make changes to the text of the message you can do this now, but be aware that this message will be sent to all the patients in the report.

• Click Send at the bottom of the window, and the message will be sent to all the patients in the report.