SMS Messaging

Set up SMS Messaging so that your health service can send SMS messages to patients.

You can send messages to individuals or groups, including:
  • Appointment reminders - SMS Appointment Reminders provides a standard reminder which is set by Communicare and cannot be edited
  • Patient group messages - custom messages of no longer than 160 characters sent to patient groups
  • SMS batch reports - if configured, use SMS batch reports to send SMS messages, for example, recalls
Note: Patients who do not have a mobile phone number in the Mobile Phone field in their patient record, or who have No Contact set in the Preferred Contact field are excluded from SMS messaging and report results.

Configuring Communicare to send SMS Messages

To configure Communicare to send SMS Messages:
  1. Create a request to have Communicare Support configure Communicare and your SMS Messaging account. You will receive an email with the SMS website login details.
  2. Allocate the SMS system right to the relevant user groups.

Adding credit to your SMS account

You must add credit to your SMS account before you can send any SMS messages.

To add credit to your account:
  1. In Communicare, select Tools > SMS Top-up.
  2. Log into the SMS account website using the account name and password details provided to you by Communicare Support.
  3. Follow the directions and top up your SMS credit.