Pathfinder Messaging

 

Pathfinder now allows users to send and receive internal Messaging inside the system.
Messages can be sent to and received by parents or guardians who access the patient portal.

 

With the messaging options enabled, users will receive:

• Messages from staff about therapy or appointments
• system-wide alerts regarding scheduled system maintenance
• Messages when a guardian uploads documents or changes information in the patient portal

• system-generated messages such as scheduling updates (for users with the Practice Management license). You can enable notification messages when there are scheduling changes by going to the details tab in the employee chart.
• The option to opt out of email notifications when messages are received by going to the details tab in the company chart and deselecting the corresponding box.

 

Before starting to use the messaging feature,
it’s important to understand its settings and permissions.

 

Company Settings:

By default, the message tool settings that allow people-to-people messages will be turned on for customer sites. An admin can also adjust the setting to turn them off.

 

The 2 settings that control this feature are:

• CUSTSETTING_ALLOWMESSAGING
• CUSTSETTING_ALLOWPATIENTPORTALMESSAGING

 

To manage these settings: 

1. Admin will navigate to Admin > Company > Settings. The settings will appear in the company setting list (SEARCH “Messaging”) or add them by clicking “+New”.
2. SELECT one setting at a time. The “Value” field should either be 0 to disable or 1 to enable. The default is 1, meaning messaging is enabled. The data type field should be Boolean (AND, OR). SELECT “Add” to apply settings.

 

3. The ALLOWMESSAGING setting allows for any messages to be generated or received.

4. Setting the value will disable any messages to be sent or received. Additionally, the Messaging icon that appears in the Pathfinder system will also be removed entirely.

5. Keeping or setting the value for this setting to 1 enables messages. With this enabled, all employees that access Pathfinder will be able to send and receive messages from other employees at the same company.

 

NOTE: For employee to employee communication, you can not filter those messages based on the employees corresponding  therapy team or location

 

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6. The “ALLOWPATIENTPORTALMESSAGING” setting is tied to the Patient Portal feature.

It allows a 2nd tab to appear that provides access to send and receive messages.

 NOTE: Guardians with access to the Patient Portal will only be allowed to message the patient’s supervisor OR respond to any messages sent to them.

 

 

Permissions for Security Roles:

 

With the “ALLOWMESSAGING” setting enabled, an employee can be given permission to send a message to guardians through the Patient Portal.  

 

This permission will not be added to any security roles by default (except for company admins) and should be added to any and all security roles to which it applies.

The permission “Can Employees Message Guardians” is found under the Messaging section.

 

If this permission is selected, users will see guardians in the list of options when composing a new message thread. Leaving it turned off will not allow new messages to be created for guardians.

If this permission is turned off, a user can still respond to messages sent to them by a guardian. This can only happen if the employee is set as the Default Supervisor of at least 1 patient associated to the Guardian.

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NOTE: The list of parents an employee has access to is filtered by the same filters put in place with the patient selector (through therapy teams and location security). If an employee has access to a patient and a guardian is entered for that patient, then that employee will have the option to select that guardian. The system does not check to see if the guardian has access to or utilizes the Patient Portal.

 

 

The Messaging tool is available under the talking bubble icon found on the left side of the Pathfinder system. This feature is not available in Scout. Badges will appear over the icon to alert a user to new messages upon login.

 

The Messaging tool will show a 30-day history of sent and received messages grouped by person. CLICK “+New” button in the upper left corner of the screen to create a new message.
The drop down list in the “To:” field will include either company employees only or include the guardians of the patients the user has permission to view.

 

 

When continuing a message thread that has begun, CLICK on the correspondents’ name from the list and continue the conversation by composing a new message in the field at the top of the thread. The most recent message will appear at the top.

 

 Messages will also be generated when events are created and will send to event attendees and guardians. A pop-up message will appear if the user is in the system when the message generates, along with badges to indicate new messages are available.

 

 

 

 

  

NOTE: There are preliminary steps to take prior to guardian messaging working seamlessly. Make sure the Patient Portal guide is reviewed in detail prior to utilizing guardian communication.

 

The following should occur prior to setting up Guardian communication:

• Create a security role for guardians, adding the portal interface as well as individual permissions to ensure which pieces of information are used.

 

• Employees that are supervisors are indicated as such in their employee record. In the employee information section of the details tab, there is an option for “Can Supervise Appointments” that needs selected and the record saved. This is not license specific.

 

 

• Select the default supervisor for all patients who have guardians that will be given access to the Patient Portal. Only employees that have “Can Supervise Appointments” in their record will be allowed to be selected as a default supervisor in the patient record. To select the default supervisor, look for the field in the intake tab within the Patient record.

 

 

• Create Guardian invitations to provide access to the patient portal. A guardian email address will be required for this step.

 

• Ensure the Setting for “CUSTSETTING_ALLOWMESSAGING” and “CUSTSETTING_ALLOWPATIENTPORTALMESSAGING” are both enabled.

• If non-supervisors will be able to message guardians, also, adjust security roles to select a permission from Messaging section called “Can Employees Message Guardians.”

    

• You can enable notification messages when there are scheduling changes by going to the details tab in the employee chart.

 

• You can opt out of email notifications when messages are received by going to the details tab in the company chart and deselecting the corresponding box.