Texts are convenient but not a place for clinical content. Secure messaging keeps the convenience of the Inbox and moves the content into the client's portal.
Turn it on under Settings → Client portal → Secure messaging (on by default when the portal is on).
Send a secure message
- Open the client's conversation in the Inbox, or start one from their profile.
- In the composer, set Send as to Secure (an Encrypted pill appears).
- Write up to 5,000 characters and send.
The client is nudged by text (from your practice number, consent permitting) and by email that a message is waiting, with a link to the portal. The nudge never includes the content. When they sign in, they read it under Messages and can reply there; their reply lands in the same Inbox conversation, tagged as secure.
One thread, two channels
Texts and secure messages live in the same conversation so it reads in order. Each message carries a channel tag, previews of secure messages show a lock, and the conversation list has a Secure filter. The thread header shows the client's portal status, and under each secure message you sent, the footer shows Read 9:40 AM or Not read yet.
The composer defaults to Secure when the thread's last message was secure or the client has no phone number, otherwise to Text.
Requirements
- The conversation must be linked to a client record, and the client needs an email on file; that is how they sign in.
- The practice's secure messaging switch must be on.
- Texting the nudge needs a registered practice number and the client's texting consent, like any text. The email nudge always goes out.
What FrontDesk will not do
- It never sends the content of a secure message by text or email.
- It never re-sends an unread secure message as a text.
Not yet
Attachments on secure messages, a repeat nudge after a day unread, and internal notes inside a thread.