Broadcast Messaging
- Cory Hoover
- Michael Sanborn
- Allie Lazerwitz
Broadcast messaging is NextPatient’s solution for mass texting of patients on a given calendar day. This service will allow you to select a date in time for a chosen location, determine which patients based on certain criteria to send the message to, and what it should read when it is delivered. Depending on your package, an office may even be able to include a link to easily reschedule an appointment as well.
Once enabled on an account, the Broadcast Messaging function can be accessed on the Today’s Patients screen. First, browse to the Today’s Patients tab, select the date, and then click on the ‘Send Broadcast’ button near the top right. If you don’t see any patients on the schedule, click the “Sync Interface” button to initiate an immediate sync with your practice management software.
Broadcast Messaging Parameters:
A message can either be sent for all providers or a selected providers; currently, selecting multiple providers other than ALL is not supported.
A message can be sent to all patients for the selected provider(s), patients already seen and marked completed or out, or only patients not yet marked completed or out.
Messages can also be filtered by time of day to select either morning, afternoon, or any specified timeframe.
Broadcast Messaging Use Cases:
Weather / power outage emergencies causing an office to close
Provider out sick
Positive COVID exposure (sent to completed patients)
Provider wants to leave early on Friday to play golf
Broadcast Messaging Format:
The message should be less than 500 characters and not contain any special formatting such as HTML or CSS tags. You can add various tokens to auto-populate certain parts of the message; currently these tokens allow for patient name, provider name, and the rescheduling URL.
Tokens:
Tokens must be entered exactly as they are seen below including the “{“ bracket which is entered with the shift key.
{patient}
{practice} - This is pulled from the locations “Settings / Your Settings” page
{practicephone} - This is pulled from the locations “Settings / Your Settings” page
{provider} - This should only be used if all providers are configured in the Providers section in the NextPatient settings otherwise a missing provider’s name will appear blank in the message.
{rescheduleurl} - The reschedule URL is only available for Athena, drchrono, Nextech, and ModMed clients or clients without a PM system (“unintegrated”) with the option enabled in your account. Please see your Account Manager for more details.
Workflow:
