How to schedule a message

You can write your message in the same way as usual, either by using a template, or by creating it from scratch. When you are ready to send your message you can either click send to send it immediately as normal, or you can click the arrow on the right hand side of the button, which will give you the additional option to ‘schedule send’ the message to be sent at a later time.

Messages can be scheduled in three ways:

• By TCI date – schedule your message to be sent on the TCI date, or on a day before or after
• By assessment submission – schedule your message to be sent when a patient submits their assessment, or on a subsequent day
• By custom date – schedule your message to be sent on any date you choose

Scheduling a message based on the TCI date

You can schedule the message based on the TCI even before the TCI has been added. Once the TCI is added, the message scheduling will work based on the added date. This is the same if you update/change/remove the TCI date after scheduling a message, the scheduling will always be based on the most recent TCI date added to the system.

Please note: if you have several messages scheduled to be sent before the TCI date, for example messages to be sent 10 days before, and 3 days before, and you add a TCI date that is 1 day away, it will cause both messages to be sent immediately at the same time.

Scheduling a message based on the assessment submission

You can schedule a message based on their assessment submission. Once you select that method, you will be given the option to send a message when the assessment is submitted or on a day after the assessment is submitted. 

When selecting the method above, you will be asked to provide more details about the exact time you want the message to be sent or how many days after the submission you would like the message to be received.

After this, the message will appear in the message list, with information about when it is set to be scheduled. You can still unschedule or edit the message up until the time that it sends.

Scheduling a message to be sent on a custom date. 

You can choose to send a message on a custom date. Once the method is selected, you will be given an option to select an exact date and time for the message. 

After this, the message will appear in the message list, with information about when it is set to be scheduled. You can still unschedule or edit the message up until the time that it sends.

Please note: if you have placeholders in the message that don’t yet exist (e.g. TCI date hasn’t been added yet), you can schedule the message, but it will NOT send unless the placeholder is available at the scheduled time. If the placeholder is missing when the scheduled time comes, the message will fail. To resend, you will need to create a new message.

If a patient with scheduled messages is moved into the bin, their messages will be deactivated, and any future messages will not send to the patient while they remain in the bin. If the patient is later removed from the bin back to being active, their messages will be restored and any messages that are still scheduled for the future will send as normal. In this case you will need to ensure you check that all the messages are still relevant, and remove those that are not.