Communicating with patients with HIPAA-compliance can be accomplished using the Messages feature. Messages is a way to exchange communications both internally with staff and externally with patients from within the Remedly platform.
In this article you'll learn about:
- How to access messages
- How to write a message to a patient
- How patients can read the message
- How to understand message icons
- How to archive messages
- How to restore archived messages
Messages can be accessed in three locations:
1. At the top of the dashboard
2. In the calendar side menu
3. In patient history
To write a message, click Compose. Choose a recipient (staff or patient) and input your subject and message and include attachments as needed, then click Send.
A notification shows that the message was sent successfully.
Messages sent to staff display on their dashboard as well as on the envelope icon.
Patients will receive an email notification that a message from their practice is available to them in the patient portal.
Note: If the phone is marked as a contact method the text message will be sent out too.
The content of the message will be seen only after the patient has accessed the patient portal.
To locate all messages you've sent to staff or patients, click Sent Messages.
All messages that are addressed to you from staff or patients can be located in Inbox.
To see all messages sent to and from a patient, navigate to the Messages section of their patient history.
Envelopes in the Messages section in the individual patient history can be of three colours:
- red means that this is a new message from the patient to the MD or Staff 
- green means that the message was viewed
- blue without an arrow stand for a new message from the MD / Staff to patient
- blue with an arrow designates a reply from an MD or Staff member to any patient message
Note: patients are required to log into their patient portal in order to view their messages for HIPAA-compliance.
In the Messages section in the individual patient history you can filter the messages to show only inbox, sent or archived ones.
Messages cannot be deleted as part of patient record but they can be archived in patient history. 
Once archived, messages can be restored if needed.
Video
Content Timelines per Minute:
00:00 - 00:27 - Introduction
00:28 - 00:42 - Accessing messages
00:43 - 00:57 - Messaging a patient from the individual patient history
0:58 - 2:36 - Writing a message to a patient/staff member
2:37 - 3:33 - Checking the message in the patient portal
3:34 - 4:20 - Reviewing the message from the patient portal
4:21 - 4:48 - Checking the correspondence history with a patient
4:49 - 5:20 - CArchiving and restoring messages