Each EPR has a different way of exporting patient lists in CSV files. For this reason, we thought we'd create a complete guide to creating your CSV depending on what EPR you're using and where you're using it 😊
EMIS Practices: England & Wales
EMIS Practices: England & Wales
To send a batch message with Accurx, you will need to create a CSV file with a list of patients.
England 🌹
For EMIS organisations in England, the CSV needs to have the following columns:
NHS number
(EMIS number is no longer required)
Optional - Email address - if you’d like the message to be sent via email
Wales 🐉
If your organisation is in Wales, you will need the following columns:
NHS number
Mobile Telephone
Date of birth (in a "d-mmm-yyyy" format e.g. "9-May-2024")
Optional - Given Name - if you would like each patient's text to contain their own name at the start (e.g. "Dear Joe")
Optional - Surname - if you would like each patient's text to contain their own name at the start (e.g. "Dear Mr Smith")
Optional - Title (to display Mr/Miss/Mrs in the message greeting)
Optional - Email address - if you’d like the message to be sent via email
Creating the CSV file
In EMIS, you can create a list of patients you want to send a batch message to. You can then save this list as a CSV file, and upload it to Accurx, to send a text to the list of patients.
Here's how to do this step by step with correlating screenshots for the listed actions👇
Hint: Make sure you have a patient search created, containing the search terms for the patients you want to send a batch message to
1. Head to 'Reporting' from the main EMIS menu, and select 'Population reporting'
2. Click on 'Add', select 'Patient', and select 'List report'
3. Name your report, and locate your patient search, (containing the search terms for the patients you want to send a batch message to).
Select it in the 'Results from' box.
4. Select 'Add', and choose 'Patient details'
5. Select 'NHS Number' on the left-hand side. ⚠️ If your organisation is in Wales, select NHS number, Mobile Telephone (by expanding the "Contact Details" section), Date of birth and Patient name.⚠️
6. Select 'Save and run' in the top bar
7. Right-click on the report, and select 'View results'
8. Select 'Export' in the top bar
9. Select 'CSV' and tick 'Exclude report header' and then 'OK'. Then you can select where you want to save your CSV.
And that's it! You now have your list of patients to send a batch message to. Follow these instructions to send a batch message to your patients!
Note: you do not need to remove any additional columns or patients that have a landline number, Accurx will do this for you 😊
If you still have any questions or concerns, feel free to chat with us using the green message bubble in the bottom right-hand corner of this page. 👉
EMIS Practices: Northern Ireland
EMIS Practices: Northern Ireland
We've made some changes to improve the functionality of batch messaging in Northern Ireland.
Please make sure to include the following details in your patient CSV export.
Given Name
Family Name
Date of birth (in a "d-mmm-yyyy" format e.g. "9-May-2024")
Mobile number (UK numbers only, +44)
NHS number (HCN Number)
Optional - Email address - if you’d like the message to be sent via email
Optional - Title (to display Mr/Miss/Mrs in the message greeting)
These are the options you want to choose in EMIS when exporting 👇
(to find the mobile number option: Contact Details > English Super Output Area > Mobile Telephone)
💡 Batch messaging is able to understand HCN numbers as the patient identifier, but it gets confused so please change the column title to 'NHS number'.
Your CSV should look like this 👇
SystmOne Practices
SystmOne Practices
To send a batch message with Accurx, you must create a CSV file with a list of patients.
What to include on the CSV file
NHS number
Telecom number (mobile number)
Date of birth (in a "d-mmm-yyyy" format e.g. "9-May-2024")
Optional - Given Name - if you would like each patient's text to contain their own name at the start (e.g. "Dear Joe")
Optional - Surname - if you would like each patient's text to contain their own name at the start (e.g. "Dear Mr Smith")
Optional - Title (to display Mr/Miss/Mrs in the message greeting)
Optional - Email address - if you’d like the message to be sent via email
Creating the CSV file
We are aware of a few ways you can do this but here is one with some screenshots below the correlating actions:
1. Under "Reporting", click "Clinical reporting"
2. Select the report that you'd like to use for your batch message OR create a new report
3. If your report does not include one of the columns listed above you will need to add this as follows:
Right-click on your report and click 'Breakdown results'
Select the arrowhead next to 'Demographics' on the left-hand side
Make sure that "Date of birth", "NHS number" and "Preferred telephone number" are ticked. You can also tick "First name" to ensure the texts contain the patient's name.
4. You need to make sure you have removed any patients who have dissented from SMS communication. To do this:
Click Registration on the left-hand side and then SMS Messages
Make sure that Patient has an SMS consent status recorded and Include patients that have consented to receive SMS messages are both ticked.
Select 'Refresh'
5. Right-click on the list and under 'Table' and select 'Save as CSV'
6. You can select where you want to save your CSV with a suitable name.
And that's it! You now have your list of patients to send a batch message to. Follow these instructions to send a batch message to your patients!
Note: you do not need to remove additional columns or patients that have a landline number, Accurx will do this for you 😊
Vision Practices
Vision Practices
Vision have provided the below guide to show you how to create your CSV upload to generate patient details for Batch Messaging.
What to include on the CSV file
NHS number
Telephone number (mobile number)
Date of birth (in a "d-mmm-yyyy" format e.g. "9-May-2024")
Optional - Given Name - if you would like each patient's text to contain their own name at the start (e.g. "Dear Joe")
Optional - Surname - if you would like each patient's text to contain their own name at the start (e.g. "Dear Mr Smith")
Optional - Title (to display Mr/Miss/Mrs in the message greeting)
Optional - Email address - if you’d like the message to be sent via email
Note, you will need to select the 'Custom Format' date for DOB, as shown below:
If you still have any questions or concerns, feel free to chat with us using the green message bubble in the bottom right-hand corner of this page 👉