ThoroughCare offers a Messaging module that conveniently allows users and patients to communicate directly through their ThoroughCare practice site and allows those conversations to be shared amongst the patient's Care Team and other necessary users.

Once a patient is enabled for messaging, as discussed in the Patient Text Messaging and Patient Portal Messaging sections below, a user needs only to enter the Messages module, type their message into the free text box, and click 'Send'.

Note: The ThoroughCare 'Messages' module does not support images or photos, only typed messages.

The messaging functionality is patient-specific, meaning that all ThoroughCare messages sent to and received from the patient, will be located in one complete message.

Note: Since a patient's conversation can potentially include multiple ThoroughCare users, ThoroughCare recommends that users identify themselves when messaging a patient.

Users can enter ThoroughCare's 'Messages' module through the left side panel or the 'Messages' icon located at the top of the screen.

Once a user enters the 'Messages' module, the left side of the screen will contain a list of the patients for whom the user is a documented member of their Care Team.

If a user does not see a patient pre-populated on their screen, they can manually look for the patient in the 'Search' bar to locate their conversation.

Patient conversations present in this panel will also display a red '!' to signal to users when the conversation contains messages that they have not yet viewed.

When a user enters a patient conversation, they will also see a 'Care Team' panel that compiles all of the ThoroughCare users that are associated with the user in their chart. This panel will also display whether or not each user is actively being notified when the patient sends a new message into the conversation.

To enable or disable patient message notifications, a user can go to their User Settings - Notification Settings screen and set the notification options listed under the 'Messages' section.

The 'New Patient Message' option will notify users who are listed in the patient's Care Team panel when that patient sends in a new message.

Note: Users will only ever be notified when a new message is sent from the patient. Users will not be notified when a message is sent by another ThoroughCare user.

The 'Unread Message Reminder' can only be enabled once the 'New Patient Message' notification is enabled, and will notify users when a new patient message has remained unread for more than 24 hours.

In the event that a user is not listed in the patient's chart but still needs to access and/or communicate with that patient, they can do so by manually searching for the patient, as described above.

Note: If a user has restricted access to one or more programs and the patient whose conversation they are attempting to locate is only enrolled in programs that the user is restricted from, the user will not be able to access the conversation.

Once they enter the patient's conversation, they will receive a modal asking if they would like to be notified when this patient sends in new messages.

If the user clicks 'No', there will be no changes and the user may continue manually accessing the patient conversation as needed.

If the user clicks 'Yes', they will be automatically populated in the Care Team panel as a 'Notification User'.

If at any time the user chooses to turn off notifications for that patient, they can simply click the link listed under their name.

ThoroughCare offers two pathways for patients to send messages to their Care Teams, either through text or through ThoroughCare's Patient Portal. A patient must be enabled for one or both options before they can begin to successfully send and receive messages.

To enable a patient for text messaging:

Note: If the modal does not contain the 'Text Messages' button your practice has not been enabled for that type of messaging. Please reach out to ThoroughCare for further assistance.

Once a user clicks the 'Text Message' button, and the opt-in message is sent, the following authentication process will be tracked in the 'Update Patient' modal and the patient's 'Message' screen.

If a user would like to receive updates as a patient moves through the authentication process, they can enable the notifications by going to their User dropdown - Settings screen. From there the user can set their preferences for the 'Two-Way Texting' option.

To enable a patient for portal messaging, the patient must be enrolled in the Patient Portal.

Once the patient has access to the Patient Portal, they can simply click on 'Chat With My Care Team' to review their conversation and begin messaging. This conversation will also populate all patient messages when sent through both text and portal.

Note: If the Patient Portal does not have a 'Chat With My Care Team' option your practice has not been enabled for that type of messaging. Please reach out to ThoroughCare for further assistance.

To access other helpful ThoroughCare articles in the Knowledge Base or to get help from the ThoroughCare Support team members, click the ‘i’ icon in the top right corner of the software next to the username and use the appropriate link!