SMS and Email Setup
In PTS 5, any note can be created with the capability to send itself as an SMS or email to patients, wards or the dispensary.
Combined with the natural flexibility of PTS 5's notes utility you will be able to set up SMS and/or other messaging functionality for a variety of situations, to be sent either automatically via an auto-recorded note, or by recording the note manually (such as with a barcode scanner).
Examples
Some examples include:
- Sending an automatic SMS to welcome the patient and confirm their prescription is now being dispensed.
- Sending an automatic SMS to a patient when their prescription is ready.
- Sending an SMS manually to alert the patient to a problem, and call them to the hatch.
- Sending an email to the ward to ask them to call the pharmacy to answer a query.
- Sending an email to the ward when an urgent prescription type becomes ready for collection.
- Sending an email to the dispensary when a certain error note is recorded.
Connecting PTS to your SMS provider
As a PTS administrator, go to Setup > Application Settings and do a search for "SMS". The pertinent settings are as follows:
SMSAPIID
SMSPASSWORD
SMSTYPE
SMSURL
SMSUSER
The correct settings will be provided either by IT or by TMSi if using one of our SMS credit bundles.
TMSi SMS Credit Bundles
Contact us to purchase SMS credit bundles.
If it's your first purchase we will also set up your SMS API and provide you with the details you'll need to connect your PTS installation to the API.
You'll be able to view your remaining credits via the Contracts & Licenses page at tmsinsight.com.
Other compatible third party providers
- GOV.UK Notify
- Clickatell
- Textlocal
- Email to SMS
- Soprano
- Envoy
GOV.UK Notify
GOV.UK Notify support was implemented in PTS v5.0.3.3 and we think it may prove to be the de facto method for sending SMS (and email) messages from PTS due to the low cost and obvious ties to the NHS. Creating and setting up the GOV.UK Notify account is beyond the scope of this article; please contact your IT department if you're unable to create the account yourself.
Once the account is set up, you need to create an API Key and two templates (one for SMS, one for email) that have "((ptsmessage))" (without quotes but including the double brackets) as the text in the body of the template. The two templates will be given an auto-generated Template ID.
If you intend to use GOV.UK Notify for email then the subject field needs to be set to "((subject))" (without quotes but including the double brackets) in the email template. Also note that the content cannot include any HTML; this may mean that the format of PTS user registration messages may need to be amended in application settings.
As a PTS administrator go to Application Settings and populate the settings as follows:
| Application Setting | GOV.UK Notify Setting |
|---|---|
| SMSAPIID | API Key |
| EMAILFROM | API Key |
| SMSURL | SMS Template ID |
| EMAILUSER | Email Template ID |
| SMSTYPE | GOV.UK Notify |
| EMAILSERV | GOV.UK Notify |
Recipients phone number and/or email address
To include the fields to capture the patient's phone number and/or email address on the booking in screen, go to Setup > Prescription Types > [click the prescription type] > Demographic Options and enable "Record mobile no." and/or "Record E-Mail". This will add these fields to the booking in screen for the chosen prescription type, but they will not be mandatory fields, and the patient can opt out of receiving any SMS and emails by simply not providing the information to the pharmacist.
Notes configured to contact a dispensary or ward will attempt to send the note to any and all users assigned to the location who is set up to receive them. Go to Setup > Users > [click a user] and ensure that the "Phone Number" and "Email" fields are completed and the "Receive text/email alerts" setting is set to yes. See the Users setup guide for more on assigning users to wards and dispensaries. It's not uncommon to have a single generic user account representing wards, so it may be a case of identifying this user account and setting it up appropriately.
Creating an applicable note
See the Notes page to go in-depth on setting up notes.
Suffice to say that it's possible to create a note that optionally autofills certain data (patient's name, their ticket number, etc.) around a template of your choosing. For example a note built as such:
Dear ~, your Prescription (no. #) is ready for collection from the pharmacy.
Would be reinterpreted as:
Dear Joe Bloggs, your Prescription (no. 1471) is ready for collection from the pharmacy.
In addition you could have this particular note auto-record when the prescription is completed/waiting for collection, which you can configure from the Prescription Types setup page. Alternatively you could print its barcode and record it manually.
Any note or type of note can be configured to send an SMS or email.
Configuring note messaging options to send an SMS or email
Any note can be configured to be sent to either the patient, ward or dispensary as either an SMS or an email.
Once the note is set up and working as expected, go to Setup > Notes > [click the note] > Messaging Options, and configure the messaging options as you see fit. Now whenever the note is recorded, whether automatically or manually, the note text will be sent to any applicable recipients.