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Letters

Writing a Letter

When in a patient's record, you create a new Letter by choosing New then selecting Letter

Fill out the relevant details, Consultant, To, Subject etc. Referral will automatically fill in if the patient only has one referral.

For convenience when clicking on "To" the following appear first in the drop down:

  1. The patient.
  2. GP and Referrer based on the patient's GP/Referrer that was set in the Patient Details.
  3. Pharmacy set in the Patient Details.

Other Recipients

  • If you wish to select another destination, you can start typing a name to search the contacts list.
  • Additional recipients can be added at the bottom, under the CC area.
  • There is a CC to Patient tick box to make it easy to copy the patient.
  • You can select your delivery method (eg email, Healthlink etc) by selecting that version of the Contact from the dropdown.

Letter Headers and To options

Write the content of your letter in the main editor box, using formatting as required or insert a letter template using the "INS" button.

Note

If your letter template inserts referral details, make sure you have the referral selected in the "Referral Area". The referral will attach automatically if the patient only has one active referral.

Letter Content

Letter Previews

A Preview PDF button will show up once you have filled out the required fields, allowing you to view the PDF output.

Setting Up Your Letters

Before typing your letters for the first time, go to Admin, scroll down to Letter Settings and make sure your letterhead and footer images have been uploaded.

Tip

For information on how to create a Letter Template see Admin > Letter Templates

The footer buttons will do the following:

  • Save - Saves as a draft. All draft letters will be listed in Office > Draft Letters
  • Submit for Approval - Adds the letter to the Office > Pending Letters list, for approval by consultant etc.
  • Save & Send sends the letter via whatever method you have chosen.

Letter Footer

Attachments

Attachments can be added by clicking on:

  • Files - Lists files that have been uploaded to this patient's file
  • HL7 - Lists previous lab results that have been received
  • Notes - Lists previous Notes written into this patient's file

Tip

If you select a Postal delivery method, when you click the Send button, the letter will be added to Office > Unsent Letters to ensure it gets posted.

Large Attachments

When sending letters with attachments there are limits to how large the attachment can be. Healthlink EDI's have a 2MB limit and email servers have a limit of around 10MB.

To work around this and enable you to send large attachments we instead upload the large attachments to a temporary URL, protected with a password. This password is randomly generated eg large-lack-army-took and is included in the letter PDF along with the temporary URL.

Recipients of your letters with large attachments will be able to click the link in the letter, enter the password from the letter, then download the attachments to their computer.

Note: The temporary URL expires after 7 days or 3 downloads for security reasons. This expiry can be modified in your Admin settings.