Message Center is an added feature that can be purchased to enhance your TotalMD Practice Management/EHR experience. This will allow you to send multiple types of documents with complete security. You are able to send and receive emails via the Message Center and send faxes. When emails are sent via the system, the patient receives an email in their personal email advising them to access Message Center to read their email. From within TotalMD, when a message is received for the practice, an envelope appears in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, alerting you to go to Message Center to check your messages.
To access Message Center, a link can be added to your home page or you can go to Activities>Message Center.
This will take you to your default browser to this screen:
As you can see this looks a lot like your email inbox. One difference is that the different types of communication are broken out by color. Messages, faxes, patient forms for current patients and patient forms for prospective patients are all highlighted different colors. There is an inbox, sent, archive and trash areas on the left-hand side of the screen:
The choice is white indicates the area that you are currently seeing. There are several different kinds of messages that can be received in your inbox. You can receive a message, a form that can be created by your practice for your patients to fill out on-line or a fax. This is what a form would like in the inbox:
This is what a new message would look like:
This is what the inbox would look like if there was a series of emails between participants. The document at the bottom could be sent to the patient chart after the exchange is completed:
For a conversation that has been conducted over time, a document will be created that can be attached to the patient record:
Clicking on the document will open a full-screen copy of it. Cancel will return you to the Inbox.
This is the image of a fax:
Each of these pages can be opened for examination and then attached to the patient chart as well as being tagged to place in a queue for a provider, other staff member or team to handle.
Above, please notice the check mark which denotes the document you are working on and the select panel which allows you to choose the tag for this document.
Note the Tag Name above and the notation that the Tag has been successfully updated.
To the right of the actual message there are five options. Comment allows you to add another comment to the list, send item will forward the response to the sender. Archive will allow you to archive the item if it has been completed. If an item is accidentally archived or deleted, it can be retrieved by going to the archive or trash and checking the box to the right and selecting Move to Inbox:
By clicking on options, you get several options for item movement. Audit trail will give you movement of the item throughout the system:
Clicking Print will enable you to print the text of the item, including forms and faxes that are in the document.
When clicking download PDF, you will be given an option to rename the file:
Marking read or unread will change the status of the document. Clicking on Route Item will give you the opportunity to send the document to someone else.
Delete will send the item to the trash.
Under Actions, Select All will bring up the following menu at the top of the screen:
By selecting the Send option, you will receive a Compose box:
In this screen, there is a search bar to insert the address of where the item is being sent. There is also a pane in the bottom to add documents, which after they are added to the pane, can be dragged into any order you wish. When the message is complete, click Send.
On the same task bar, you will see Download PDF which does the same function as the Options menu. Print will allow you to print the entire text of the document including the forms or faxes inside the item in the document.
Secure Text is not an option that is used in Message Center as a similar feature is available directly through the TotalMD screen.
Edit brings up a picture of the text and allows you to print it.
By clicking on the checkbox to the left of the message header, you will get this menu option at the top:
Below, three options are marked:
Clear Selection will remove any check marks that exist to the left of the messages. Mark Read and Unread change the status of the item.
Download PDF will allow you to name and save all information in the screen, but not the fax materials. Archive will send the item to the archive, delete will send the item to the trash. Secure Text is not an option that is used in Message Center as a similar feature is available directly through the TotalMD screen.
The above screenshot shows what happens when you click Add Tags. At this time, you can add a tag to all items that are checked, i.e. if you have two items selected and click the red flag, both will be flagged red.
This menu will appear at the upper right of the message center when no items are selected.
When selecting Types, a drop-down menu gives the opportunity to choose which types of documents are seen in the Message Center. By deselecting the box, that type of message will no longer be seen.
The Tags selection will give you a drop-down and the ability to hide certain colored tags from the Message Center.
Spaces allows you to choose the types of items relating to private or practice items. So if an item is directed to a person rather than the practice, deselecting the Private Items will hide those items.
The sort drop-down will change the order that items are viewed in within the Message Center.
The search bar allows you to search in selected areas of the Message Center for specific items, such as all items sent by a certain doctor.
The arrows at the end of this menu allow you to move forward and backward within the existing items. The numbers show you which emails you are currently viewing.
With no items selected in Message Center, a menu will be seen at the upper right corner of the screen:
The menu will allow you to log out of Message Center.
The check mark selects all items in the current box, such as the inbox or archive. The message arrow indicates whether the messages are open or closed. Pointing down, all emails will be closed.
The circling arrows will refresh the screen. The address book will give you the following screen:
Once you click on New you get this additional information in your screen:
Clicking on Add a Contact/Patient will give you this template to fill out for a new contact:
This is the remainder of the screen:
To add a Group, you get this screen:
First you would title your group, then you would add your individuals to the group who would then show up in the Group Members screen.
The last choice in this menu is compose:
When clicking on this option you will receive this pop-up:
Once you have added your recipients, your text and any attachments, the information can then be sent.
If you have questions regarding this functionality of TotalMD, please contact our support or training departments at 800-613-7597 Option 2 for Support or Option 3 for Training. If you would like a printable copy of this article, please contact Training at Option 3.