Sending a Message

From the Secure Messages screen, you can send a new message.

  1. In the Secure Messages screen, tap the Compose icon at the top right of the screen.

    If message templates have been created for your environment, a list of these templates appears.

    Note: To skip this screen, tap and hold the Compose icon.

    For details on creating a message using a message template, see Using a Template.

  2. Tap New Text to create a new message without a template. The Select User / Group screen appears.

    Note: This is the screen that appears if no message templates have been created for your environment.
  3. Filter the recipient list using one of the following options, available at the top left of the screen:
    • Favorites: Show favorites only.

    • Contacts: Show all contacts.

  4. If you have a large number of contacts to choose from, use the Search field to type the first few characters of the name of the contact to which you want to send a message. The contacts that match your search characters are displayed.
  5. Tap on a contact name to include the contact as a message recipient. The recipient is added to the To field that displays the list of recipients.

    Each contact has presence and availability information provided that tells you whether the contact is at your facility and can receive your message right away. See Presence and Availability for details.

    Note: If a message recipient is having messages forwarded to another contact, that contact is automatically added to the list of recipients when the message is sent.
  6. To remove a contact from the message, tap the contact name in the To field to select it and tap the backspace key. Tap a selected contact name again to cancel the remove operation and continue with the message.
  7. To add additional contacts, from the New Secure Message screen, tap Add Contact.

    You can also type the start of a contact name in the Search field. A list of matching contents then appears. From this list, you can select the contact that you want to add.

  8. In the Subject field, type the subject of the message.
  9. If your system administrator has implemented the Engage patient context adapter, you can add a link to information on a specific patient to the message. See Real-time Situational Awareness for details. To add patient information:
    1. Tap the Tap to attach patient info link. The Select Patient screen appears.

      If no patient information is available, this link does not appear.

    2. Tap My Patients to see a list of patients assigned to you, or tap All Patients to view a list of all patients for which information is available.
    3. Type text in the search field to limit the patient list to patients whose name matches your search text.
    4. Tap the name of the patient whose information you want to add.

    A link to the patient information is now displayed in the message.

    Note: If you have attached patient information to your message, and there is no text in the Subject field, the patient name appears as the subject in the Secure Messages screen.
  10. After you have specified your message recipients and context, you can either send a picture to the recipients if your administrator has allowed this, or you can send a text message. For the text message, you can specify a message priority or a set of multiple choice responses from which the recipients can select.
    1. If your administrator allows you to send pictures, tap Attach Media. From the menu that appears, select the attachment operation that you want to perform. The available options are:
      • Select Picture - send a picture from your saved pictures archive.
      • Take Picture - take a picture with your device's camera and send it.
      • Cancel - cancel sending the picture.

      Your administrator may have disabled either the Select Picture option or the Take Picture option. If your administrator has disabled both, Attach Media is not available.

      Note: You do not need to tap Send to send a picture to your recipients. When you have selected or taken the picture, it is automatically sent.
    2. To specify a priority for your message, tap More to display the additional message options.

      The additional options appear:

      In the Priority screen, select one of Normal, High, or Urgent. The following table lists the notifications sent for each priority:

      Priority Notifications
      Normal Single ring and vibration
      High Multiple rings and vibrations
      Urgent Multiple rings (overriding the phone's volume and mute settings) and vibrations
      Important: On some devices, messages sent with Urgent priority may be spoken out loud to some recipients. Sending confidential patient health information with either of these priorities may violate privacy regulations.

      If your device is using iOS 12 or later, and you receive a message of Urgent priority, it may be sent to you using Apple iOS's Critical Alert capability. See Critical Alerts for more details.

    3. To provide multiple choice responses from which a user can choose, tap More to display the message options, and then tap Responses. This displays a separate screen on which you can create a message that requires a response. See Requesting a Response for more details.
    4. To send a text message, type in the text box.
  11. After you have created your text message and optionally set the priority and provided responses, tap Send to start the message conversation with your recipients.

    If the message is not sent successfully, Vocera Collaboration Suite will attempt to resend the message for two minutes before giving up.

Important: On some devices, messages sent with Urgent priority may be spoken out loud to some recipients. Sending confidential patient health information with this priority may violate privacy regulations.

On iOS devices, if your phone is locked and a message is received with High priority, the rings stop when you swipe your device. If a message is received with Urgent priority, the rings do not stop until you view the message.

Note: If you send a message to a badge, the badge user is automatically asked whether to respond to the message on the badge or whether to call you.