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Primary Care

Post Consult Message – a better way to respond to patients

Riccardo Garavani  | 29th June 2020

eConsult is the most widely used online consultation platform. Patients submit their requests to practices remotely, and the practice can use a post consult message to respond to that patient following the review of the eConsultation. Post Consult Message helps practice close eConsults remotely.

What is Post Consult Messaging?

Post Consult Messaging (PCM) is a free and easy way to respond to patients following the review of an eConsult, to either close the eConsultation or initiate follow-up steps.

Our Post Consult Messaging options come in two forms – email or SMS. You can write your own message, attach documents and links or use and edit one of our pre-written messages. No need to book in a phone consultation, just send a Post Consult Message. 

Healthinote, a database of clear patient information from trusted sources including the NHS, is now also built into the email PCM.

Post Consult Messaging features:

  • Post Consult Email Messages are free to send, SMS numbers are built into your contract offer
  • Write your own response (up to 1,000 characters for SMS and up to 5,000 characters for email)
  • Use or amend one of our existing standard responses
  • Attach and send PDF and Rich Text files via email e.g. for sending MED3 sick notes, letters and NHS self-help leaflets
  • Send helpful self-help links of videos to the patient via email from NHS.UK, NHS Inform or trusted charity content partners

The Post Consult Message is received by the patient from the eConsult system. This means that the patient does not have visibility of your telephone number or email address and cannot reply or initiate a new line of communication.

PCM uses Government-standard encryption to ensure the privacy of data within the messaging screen and the transmission of data from the messaging screen.

Example healthinote search results

Healthinote as part of a Post Consult Message

You can now use Cognitant’s Healthinote as part of your reply to patients when using email Post Consult Messaging. Healthinote offers a quick and easy way to access clear, reliable health information, from trusted sources including NHS.UK and NHS Inform. When responding to a patient via eConsult, the clinician now has instant access to a wealth of patient information to enhance the clinician’s response and empower the patient to better understand and manage their health.

Take a look at the video below to see how it works:

What is a Post Consult Message?

Post Consult Messaging (PCM) is a free and easy way to respond to patients following the review of an eConsult, to either close the eConsultation remotely or initiate follow-up steps.