Targeted Flu Vaccination Texts/Emails

Note: Texting requires Toniq registration and has associated costs. There is a monthly support fee as well as a per text charge (12 cents + GST per text as at April 2022). If the recipient replies, they will incur a standard charge from their provider. You will receive their response as an email.

There are a number of different criteria that can be used to to select patients for texting or emailing them about flu vaccination availability - over 65 year olds, those who had a flu vaccination last season, or using specific medicines to target patients who have conditions for which the flu vaccination is subsidised, such as diabetes. The below steps are how to select over 65 year olds, but can be modified to target other groups. 

1. Create a template

A message template can be created so that the it can be selected to be sent to multiple patients simultaneously and can be re-used to contact patients next year. See Setting Up Text/Email Templates for instructions.

Text messages are limited to a maximum of 160 characters per text (including your store's name). If this limit is exceeded the message will be sent over multiple texts.

2. Select targeted patients

To find all recent patients over 65, for example, from the main menu:

• Go to 9. Other,

• Select 2. Bulk edit patients,

• Then set the required parameters:

• To find active patients, defined here as those who have had at least 1 item in the last 6 months:
  • Select a Date Range using F3, then H Last 180 days, or enter a date range manually under Period.
  • Enter 1 in the Items field and 65 in the first Age in the first age field (leave the to field blank).

• Add a Criteria name (e.g. Over 65s Flu Contact List), then press F11 Next Page.
• Under More patient criteria, tick Has mobile number or Has Email address (if both boxes are ticked, only those patients who both have an email address and a mobile number will be found): 

• Press F11 Next page 3 times to get back to the first screen, then F12 Accept Details.

If a list is required of patients who have either a mobile number or an email address, run the report for over 65s with mobile (as above), then:

• Press F2 Edit list > Add more patients in bulk on the resultant list, and
• Enter the same parameters as before, selecting Has Email address to add those patients to the list.

Filter the patient list

After creating the list further filtering may be done, for example to exclude facility residents, or to include patients who qualify for funded vaccinations, such as diabetics:

• Select F2 Edit List

• Either select Add more patient in bulk to include more patients to the list (e.g. those with conditions outlined in the Pharmac Schedule) or Remove patients in bulk.

Adding patients

• Select Add more patients in bulk
• Fill in the parameters to select the targeted patients. For example, the screenshot below would find patients with diabetes (i.e. who have had recent dispensings of the selected medicine):

• Once the required fields have been populated, select F12 Accept Details to add more patients to the original list.

Removing patients

• Select Remove patients in bulk
• The screenshot below shows criteria where patients in an Institution will be removed. (If previously set up, an Institution group may also be selected to remove all required non-community facilities):

Add more patients in bulk and Remove patients in bulk may be run as many times as required to get the desired contact list.

Contact patients

• Once the final list is created, select F9 Contact Clients:

 

• Then select F7 Create Msg:

• Use a template (if previously created) by selecting F5 Tmplt  then Use Template:

• Else compose a unique message and press F12 Accept Details:

• Select F9 Send Msg and then the preferred method of communication:

• Select 1 all to send the message to everyone on the contact list:

• The date under Email or Text will be updated to indicate who has been sent a message.
• Also a prompt will ask whether you want to add a diary note of the text to the patients: