How to view messages sent to a patient
When a patient says they never received their reminder, or you want to confirm a message went out, the message log is the place to check. It shows the SMS and email messages HealthTrack has sent and received, including appointment reminders, recalls, questionnaire invitations and bulk emails.
Open the message log
- Go to Admin > Notifications & Messages > View Messages.
- Choose whether to view messages for the Current Patient or All Patients.
- Set the date range if you need to look further back. The screen shows the last 7 days by default.
You can also open the same screen from a patient's record to see only that patient's messages.
What each tab shows
| Tab | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Outbound SMS | SMS messages HealthTrack has sent, including reminders, recalls and questionnaire messages. |
| Inbound SMS | Replies received from patients. |
| Outbound Emails | Emails HealthTrack sent successfully through bulk email. |
| Outbound Errors | SMS and email messages that failed at the time of sending. |
Check whether a message was sent
- Open the tab for the message type you are checking.
- Search by typing in the white fields under the column headings, for example the Patient ID field.
- Right-click a message to Go to Patient or Open Booking.
If the message is not on the outbound tab, check the Outbound Errors tab. Messages that failed at the time of sending appear there instead.
For further information, you can select the Info button next to a particular message to open the SMS Information screen.
Sent does not mean delivered
A message in the log means HealthTrack handed it to the SMS or email provider. HealthTrack does not track whether the SMS reached the patient's phone or whether an email bounced. If a message shows as sent but the patient says they did not receive it, the most common causes are an old mobile number or email address on the patient record, or the message arriving in the patient's junk folder.
If an SMS was not sent at all
If there is no record of the SMS on either the outbound or errors tab, the usual causes are:
- The patient does not have automated SMS allowed on their record.
- The patient has no valid mobile number recorded.
- The booking is set to prevent SMS reminders.
- The message is still queued because it is outside your practice's SMS sending hours. Queued messages send when the sending window opens.
A note on emails
- The Outbound Emails tab shows emails that sent successfully through bulk email. Reminder emails sent through the reminder task process are not listed on this tab, so an empty tab does not mean a reminder email was not sent.
- Failed emails appear only on the Outbound Errors tab. Emails that fail are retried automatically.
- Emails you send from your own email program, outside HealthTrack, are not recorded in this log.
Replies from patients
The Inbound SMS tab is a read-only history of replies. HealthTrack processes replies automatically, for example a reply of "Yes" to a reminder confirms the booking, and marks them as handled. There is no reply worklist to action on this screen, so you do not need to check it to keep on top of replies. Use it when you want to confirm what a patient wrote back.