Automated Care Messaging (ACM) allows organizations to send voice, text (SMS), or email messages to resident family contacts in a given facility and/or unit. The communication method and recipient list will depend on a number of factors, including your organization’s settings, the contact information available in your EHR, and individual contact preferences. Messages are sent to resident contacts based on their Contact Type as listed in PointClickCare resident charts.
Note: we will only ever deliver one message per contact (voice, text, or email). For any given situation, Automated Care Messaging users will only need to compose one version of their communication and the system will automatically convert messages to different mediums.
Organization Settings
By default, Cliniconex configures every system based on our best practices and experience as detailed below. Should you wish to make any changes after your initial implementation please contact helpdesk@pointclickcare.com
Number of Contacts per Resident
If available, Automated Care Messaging will send notifications to 2 resident family contacts per resident.
Contact Types
ACM will make an attempt to reach 2 individuals following the order of priority as configured in your PointClickCare EHR. To make changes to these settings navigate to Admin > Setup > Pick Lists > and click Contact Type.
The contact type priority order follows PointClickCare’s ordering rules, which is that
Blanks are prioritized first (i.e. Order is blank) - alphabetically by Description
Next comes numerical order (1 > 2 > 3 > 4 > 5 > 6..)
And, if there is more than one entry for a given number, it is sorted alphabetically within by Description
ACM will exclude Contact Types which include certain terms that suggest they are not relevant contacts for Automated Care Messaging, such as: lawyer, trustee, self, AR Guarantor, Case Worker, do not disclose, funeral. If a contact has at least one valid Contact Type associated, they will still receive messages.
Communication Method
The system prioritizes reaching contacts by voice, if not text, if not email.
i.e. If a contact does not have a phone number listed, the system will automatically default to the next preferred contact method.
Voice
Text (SMS)
Email
You can also change this default behavior when you are sending a message. This would be used, for example, when you want to include messages that contain links to other websites and avoid using automated voice calls.
Priority vs. All Contacts vs A Specific Role
When sending a message, ACM users can use Message Options to configure how the system will choose to send messages to which includes a setting for Priority or All contacts and the ability to specify a specific role
Priority contacts will follow your organization’s default setting to send messages to family members. By default, ACM sets this to 2 contacts per resident (if available).
All contacts will send the message to as many contacts as possible. Only specific excluded contact types (such as Billing contacts) will be ignored. We recommend that you use this setting sparingly, such as in case of an emergency.
A Specific Role reflects the roles you have configured in your PointClickCare system. This will allow you to specify the contact type you want to send your message to and will reach all the selected contacts who have that role (such as Guardian or POA).
Note: If you are a FlexData User, or are looking for more details on this topic, see this article on Individual Contact Preferences.
Resident family members may request to receive messages via a different contact method (voice, text, or email). This can be done by any staff member with edit access to PointClickCare resident chart profile data within your facilities.
By default, contacts will receive your message following your organization’s preferred settings; however, you can override this for individuals requesting a different contact method. You can do so directly in the PointClickCare contact record by adding a code in the contact’s Comments Field as shown here:
For voice: (PR:V)
For email: (PR:E)
For text (SMS) to their cell number: (PR:TC)
For do not contact (unsubscribe): (PR:N)
Note: If you were previously adding the preference code in the Address field, it will still work, however, we recommend adding the preference code in the Comments field moving forward.
Note: Please be aware that the Pager Phone and Other Phone contact fields are INVALID and will be ignored.