We have developed a feature that allows healthcare staff to send files or documents (such as sick notes/Med3, referral letters, imaging request forms, blood forms, leaflets etc.) via SMS to patients using the Accurx Web service.
Log into Accurx Web, using your nhs.net or nhs.uk credentials.
Search for a Patient and click Message Patient
Click 'Attach file' underneath the Message Text box.
Once clicked, it will launch the file picker where you can select a file to attach (file formats supported: pdf, docx, doc, rtf, jpeg, jpg, png, tiff, tiff2, tif.)
Once sent, what the patient receives is an SMS to their mobile phone with a link. When they click on the link, they will be asked to input their date of birth to verify their identity, before being able to access the document.
The document is accessible for 14 days. The patient will need to save the document onto their phone/PC in order to keep a copy for their records.
If you have any questions or feedback about this feature, please get in touch via the live chat and we can direct this to the product team! ❓
FAQs
Can I attach a document to a template?
Not at the moment. But, if it's the same document each time (and so doesn't contain patient data), the easiest thing to do would be host it on Dropbox or Google drive, or put it onto your practice website, and then just put that link in a text template. That also means it will be easier for the patient to access as they won't need to enter their date of birth.
What is the maximum size of an individual file that can be uploaded?
How can I resize an attachment?
Remove any unnecessary images in the document
If you need to keep the images within a file, this article can help Reduce the file size of a picture in Microsoft Office
If you are using Microsoft Word, save using .docx wherever possible as this is usually smaller than .doc
If you are exporting a document to PDF, you should have the option to optimize the file size. Choose lower-quality images for a smaller file size.
How long is it available (before no longer downloadable)?
The document is accessible for 14 days. The patient's text explains this.
Can it be downloaded multiple times, or only once?
Multiple times (no restriction)
How long does Accurx host the file, before it is deleted (data retention)?
Right now we're not doing any automatic deletion. However, by definition, all stored documents are only a few days old and we can manually delete anything should an explicit need come up.
Where are the documents stored once sent?
The files are being stored within Microsoft Azure blob storage which complies with the NHS information governance regulations. The storage itself is only reachable through authenticated connections from within our service - sent links are not direct to storage but rather through our web portal, which requires the patient to supply their date of birth, and is encrypted at rest you can see the governance requirements here.
Use of this service is covered by our Data Processing Agreement which can be found here. As with all of our products, it is fully GDPR compliant.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch with the support team by clicking on the green chat bubble in the bottom right-hand corner 👉