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eConsult Smart Inbox introduction
eConsult Smart Inbox introduction

Find out more about our Inbox, optimised for triage speed and accuracy

Faye avatar
Written by Faye
Updated over a week ago

What is the Smart Inbox?

Our Smart Inbox is a customisable and collaborative way for you to view, manage and respond to your patient's needs, from anywhere and at any scale.

With your input, we've designed a better way for you to harness the rich patient information you've come to expect from eConsult.

“Such a transformed triage session this morning after using the Smart Inbox!
We were able to use sort and filter as we went through the list making the process so much more efficient! Off to such a great start!” Smart Inbox beta user

Smart Inbox representation

Image illustrative of features that the Smart Inbox

will have but are not necessarily already available.

We’ve heard your feedback about improvements you’d make to eConsult and we've brought them all on board:

  • Better visibility of your ‘queue’ including urgency, condition, separation of clinical and administrative requests and a centralised place to see all activity

  • A way to triage quickly and cleverly

  • Control over how you want to set up your inbox and your eConsult settings

  • Visibility of all of your eConsult demand

Our Smart Inbox is built to work for single or multiple practices with change management support for setting up an eHub for federated PCN working:

  • Signpost: View, search, filter and sort your eConsult queue to easily triage patients based on the type of consultation (clinical vs administrative), number of flags (acuity), age or time since submission.

  • Collaborate: Assign eConsults to specific roles, select their response urgency and mode and leave notes for colleagues.

  • Interop & code: Save consultation information, outcomes and SNOMED codes into the patient record to manage and track your patient contacts.

  • Communicate: Pick your communication channel, use custom responses, and allow patients to respond and see their replies in a thread - all in one view.

  • Scalable: Built to work for single or multiple practices with change management support for setting up an eHub for federated PCN working.

For more information and some how to videos click on the button!


How to get started with the Smart Inbox

The first step is to fill in the following order form: https://info.econsult.health/smart-inbox-order-form (if you have any questions, email practice.support@econsult.health)

Before we set you up, we need you to fill out our Smart Inbox order form which includes the following documents:

  • Terms and Conditions

  • Data Processing Agreement

  • Privacy Notice

  • Service Definition

This must be completed by someone with the right to sign legal documents on behalf of your practice. Once we receive your order form we’ll be in touch to work through the next steps to get your practice live with Smart Inbox.

We are continually improving the Smart Inbox and new features are frequently rolled out and you will be notified about new updates from within the Inbox.


FAQs

Will the Smart Inbox cost extra?

No, the Smart Inbox will be part of our standard package for single practices, whether purchased by a commissioner or by the practice itself. If you're looking to use the Smart Inbox as an eHub, it will be priced separately. Visit our eHub page to find out more about eHubs and speak to our team.

Will the Smart Inbox be available for practices in England, Wales, Scotland and NI?

Yes, the Smart Inbox is available for practices in all countries via both the browser and toolbar.

Does the Smart Inbox have any implications for existing Terms & Conditions?

If you'd like to use the Smart Inbox, you will need to sign our Smart Inbox order form, which includes updated documents. You'll need to ensure you have read and agreed with our terms and conditions, privacy policy, data protection agreement and service definition.

Who should use the Smart Inbox?

Everyone in the practice is able to use the Smart Inbox. The Smart Inbox can be used by anyone with responsibility for:

  • Triaging incoming patient requests

  • Communicating with patients

  • Actioning decisions made after triage

  • Managing long term condition eConsults

  • Managing patient replies after an eConsult

Can we continue managing eConsults that come into our email inbox or clinical system without the Smart Inbox?

Yes, for the moment the Smart Inbox is optional. We strongly recommend using it as it will support faster triage and allow your practice or eHub to manage demand in a much easier way. It will be where we focus most of our feature updates and developments in the future.

What happens if there is a problem delivering eConsults to the Smart Inbox? (e.g. if eConsult servers have an issue)

In the rare case where a consultation fails to deliver to your Smart Inbox, we will send a fall-back email with the online consultation attached. The email subject will start with: "Recovered (eConsult Inbox unsuccessful delivery)". That way you can:

  • Easily find the consultation

  • Distinguish between a failed-to-deliver consultation and a regular one we send to MESH or email inbox (if those are still in use)

We would recommend adding an email rule that highlights or stars any emails flagged with “unsuccessful delivery”, so you can easily spot them.


If you have any questions or you feel that this article could be improved, please feel free to give us some feedback by emailing us, pressing the emojis below or using the chat button on the bottom right-hand side of this page to speak to one of the eConsult team.

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