Send an Instant Message

Use your Messaging feature to send instant messages to employees and other professionals that provide care for your patients.

Use This Feature

1. Open New Message Window - You can open this feature in multiple ways: Use the method that's most convenient for you.

   Right-Click - Right click anywhere in the Message Center or your Messaging widget, and choose New,

   

   Message Center Ribbon Bar - With the Message Center open, choose New Message from the Actions section of the Message Center ribbon bar.

   

   Home Ribbon Bar - Messaging section > New Message.

   

   Quick Access Toolbar - You might also be able to open this feature from the Quick Access toolbar at the top of your Edge Cloud window.

   Correspondence History - Right-click a document in the patient correspondence history to send a message that includes links to both the patient folder, and the selected document. See "Patient Correspondence History" for details.

   

2. Choose Recipients - You may choose message recipients from among your Edge Cloud operators, as well as from the list of professionals that treat your patients.

   Type Employee & Group Names - You can type all or a portion of a person's name, as well as all or a portion of your messaging group names in the recipient box at the top of the New Message window, separated by commas. When finished, press the Tab key. If no matching name can be found, the name is followed by a question mark.

   

   Select Employees and Groups From a List - Click To... at the top of the New Message window, then choose the employees and messaging groups you want to receive your message.

   Open Recipient List - Click To... at the top of the New Message window to open the recipient list.

   

   Add / Remove Names and Groups - Select employee and group names in the list at the left, then use the arrows to add and remove them from your recipient list, at the right of the window. Message group names are preceded by a special icon. You can hover over a group name in either the available staff or recipient list to see the individual staff members that are included in the group. When you send the message, each staff member that is included in selected groups will receive the message. (See more about message groups below.)

   Employees must have an Edge Cloud operator account to be available for messaging. In addition, you can enable the Hide From Messaging option in your Operator Editor to prevent sending messages to certain operators (such as a general Patient Sign-In account). See "Set Up Operator Accounts" for details.

   

   Show Online Only Option - Enable the Show Online Only option at the bottom of the window to include only operators currently logged into Edge Cloud in the list. If this option is disabled, online staff members will be indicated by a lit button beside their names.

   

   Search For a Name - Type all or a portion of an operator name in the Search box to narrow the list of available names. Click X to return to the entire list.

   

   Add / Remove All - Use the All buttons to add or remove all names from your recipient list.

   

   Select Professional Recipients - Click Prof... at the top of the New Message window, and use Fast Find to search for the professional you wish to include as a message recipient.

   When you select a professional to receive a message you send via Messaging, the processional can optionally receive a notice of the message at the email address in the professional record; the professional must then log into Edge Portal to retrieve the complete message text. You may choose to have multiple messages condensed into a digest, to be emailed to the professional at one time, instead of many times throughout the day. In addition, messages received through Edge Portal are saved in the correspondence history. If a patient link was included, the message is saved in the patient's correspondence history as well. Use your Edge Portal settings to enable / disable the professional message options. (See "Professional Records" for details about including email contact information in professional records.)

   

3. Create Your Message - Insert your message text and optional patient folder links in the message body section of the New Message window, and choose whether the message is of high importance.

   Add Text - In addition to typing the message body, you can cut, copy, and pasteYou can cut, copy and paste to add and edit text and/or images to many areas of your system using standard keyboard shortcuts ( Ctrl+X , Ctrl+C , Ctrl+V , respectively). Or, you can often right-click the field or image you are working with and select the action from a menu. In many cases, Ctrl+A selects all available text or images, ready for you to cut or copy, Ctrl+Z performs an Undo of the last action, and Ctrl+Y performs a redo of the last action. text, and add bold (Ctrl-B), italic (Ctrl-I) and underline (Ctrl-U) properties to selected text for emphasis.

   

   Add Quick Message - Right-click where you would like to insert text you have previously saved, and select the Quick Message option. Then select from your Quick Message list. (See "Messaging User Options" for details about creating and maintaining the list.)

   

   Link Patient Folder - Right-click where you would like to include a link to a patient folder, and select Link Patient. If a patient record is already active, that patient's information will be loaded automatically. Otherwise, you use Fast Find (either typing information or swiping a registered reward card) to search for the patient to work with. After you send the message, the recipient can click the link to open the patient folder. (The Send Message workflow activity automatically inserts a patient link at the top of the message. See "Workflow Editor" for details.) If you send a message with a patient link to a professional, the message is saved in both the professional and patient correspondence histories.

   

   Spell Check - Right-click a red-underlined word in your message to correct your spelling, or to add the unrecognized word to your Edge Cloud dictionary. (See "Edge Cloud Dictionaries" for detailsabout maintaining your unique dictionaries.)

   High Importance Flag - Enable the High Importance option to flag this message as high priority. Your User Options determine whether high importance is enabled or disabled by default. If you receive a messaged flagged with High Importance while you are logged into Edge Cloud, or if you have an unread high importance message when you first log in, the message will pop onto the top of your Edge Cloud screen so you can take care of it right away.

   

4. Send the Message - When you have finished entering your message, click Send (or press Alt-S or Ctrl-Enter on your keyboard). The message will appear in the Message Center of all selected recipients, and an Edge Portal link will be sent via email to all professional recipients. In addition, if the high importance option was enabled, the message will pop onto the recipient's screen, whether or not the recipient has their Message Center open. If high importance is disabled, the recipient will be notified a message has been received, but the message will not pop onto the screen.

   

More Information

Create and Manage Message Groups - Use Message Groups to easily send an instant message to a specific group of Edge Cloud operators. When you send a message to a group, each staff member that is included in the group will receive the message. Although you can create and manage groups with your Message Groups editor, you can also work with groups while sending a new message from your Message Center.

Employee Accounts - Employees must have an Edge Cloud operator account to be available for messaging. You can optionally prevent sending messages to certain operator accounts (such as a general Patient Sign-In account). See "Set Up Operator Accounts" for details.

Professionals - A professional record must have a valid email address to be available for messaging, and be registered to use your Edge Portal application to retrieve the message. See "Professional Records" for details. Your Edge Portal settings determine how often messages are sent to professionals. In addition, messages received from professionals via Edge Portal are saved in the professional's correspondence history. If the message included a patient link, a copy of the message is saved in the patient's correspondence history as well.

Automate Messages - Use the Send Message workflow activity to send an Edge Cloud Messaging message, along with a patient link, to staff members and / or professionals whenever the activity is triggered by a workflow. See "Workflow Activities" for details.

Automated Prize Request Messages - When a patient requests a prize from the patient reward Prize Selector, your system can automatically send a message to one or more Edge Cloud operators. The message body includes the patient name, and the prize that has been selected. Simply click the message to open the Manage Patient Points window, ready to process the prize for that patient. (See "Set Up Patient Rewards Options" for details about selecting the users to receive automated prize request messages. See "Manage Pending Prizes" for details about processing patient prize requests.)