Yes, you can optionally enable the ability for patients to reply to your Patient Message, as well as optionally enable the ability for patients to include a file attachment(s) as part of their reply using the 'Allow patient to reply' and 'Allow patient to reply with attachment' / 'Allow patient to send attachments' settings.
- You can control whether or not patients can make use of these abilities in your pre-saved Template Settings, or on-the-fly at the time of sending the message.
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When these settings have been enabled, patients can reply to the message and/or upload and send file attachments directly in the Ocean Health Messenger.
Tip: You can also optionally limit the amount of time a patient has to respond to your message.
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- Patients can click the blue 'paperclip' icon to open their device's file explorer, select an attachment to upload, type a message in the response box, and click the 'send' icon to send their message to you.
- The message response and file attachment(s) will be automatically imported into the patient's chart in your EMR:
Note: You can choose whether or not the typed response Task is generated in an 'Active' or 'Complete' state by adjusting the 'Create encounter notes as' setting within your Ocean Cloud Connect configuration.
The Task containing the patient-submitted file attachment will always be generated in the 'Active' state.
Prerequisite
- Ensure that the 'Save secure message notes as' setting in your Ocean Cloud Connect configuration has a specified Document folder/Sub-folder for patient-submitted attachments.
The patient-submitted file attachment(s) will always be automatically imported into the patient's chart in Accuro as a new 'Document'.
Accuro Unsupported File Types
Ocean supports a variety of file types as noted above, however Accuro only supports "pdf", "jpg", and "jpeg" file types. This means that when a patient uploads a file into Ocean that is not supported by Accuro, it may not be automatically imported into the patient chart in Accuro.
Ocean currently performs the following file conversions for Accuro:
- "txt" files are converted to "pdf" files
- "png" files are converted tp "jpg" files
- "bmp" files are converted to "jpg" files
Note: Depending on your configuration of the 'Save secure message notes as' setting within your Ocean Cloud Connect, this note may appear as a Document or an Encounter Note within the Accuro patient chart.
Note: After downloading the file and storing it in an appropriate system of record, ensure that you delete it from your computer to ensure that any personal health information is appropriately cleansed.
- The patient's typed response will be automatically imported into the patient's chart in OSCAR Pro as a new Progress Note and any patient-submitted file attachments will be automatically imported into the patient's chart in OSCAR Pro.
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- The patient-submitted file attachment will be automatically imported into the 'Documents' section of the chart, with an accompanying Progress Note being generated.
Does the 'Allow reply' setting need to be enabled for patients to submit attachments?
No, the 'Allow reply' setting does not need to be enabled for patients to submit attachments. Each setting works independently.
- For example, if you would like a patient to respond with a file attachment(s) but do not require a written response from them, you can enable only the 'Allow file attachment' setting.
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- When the patient accesses the Health Messenger they will have the option to submit a file attachment, but no option to include a typed response.
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- Likewise, if you would like a patient to respond with only a written response without the ability to include a file attachment, you can enable only the 'Allow reply' setting.
Advanced Notes
- Ocean supports the following file types: "jpg", "jpeg", "png", "tiff", "tif", "bmp", "mp3", "mp4", "txt", "pdf", "avi", and "mov"
- Ocean does not limit the number of individual files that are attached to a patient message.
- A single file attachment cannot exceed 10 MB in size. The total size limit for all attachments per message is 50 MB (i.e., the sum of all attachments on a single message cannot exceed 50 MB).