Did you know you can communicate directly (and securely) with patients and clients without leaving Jane? You can check in on progress, provide updates, manage ad-hoc scheduling requests, and more, all while keeping conversations secure and organized.
Messaging is currently in beta as we fine-tune the experience, and we’d love to hear your thoughts as you start using it. If you have feedback or suggestions, share them with us here.
In this guide:
How to enable messaging
Messaging is disabled by default, so to get started, head to Settings > Messaging and select Messaging Allowed from the Messaging Default Policy drop-down menu.
Heads up — you’ll need a full-access staff member for this step!
Sending a message
You can send a message from two places in Jane.
From a patient’s profile
You can head to a patient’s profile or open it from your Day View and click Send Message in the upper right corner.
This will open the sidebar where you can message your patient. Just type your message, then click the send button or press Enter.
From your inbox
You can click the Messages button near the top-right-hand side of your screen to hop over to your inbox.
Click the blue New Conversation button and search for the patient you’d like to message.
You can also search for a conversation and start a new one using the search bar and pencil icon in the upper-right corner.
Viewing your messages
If you want to see all your messages in one place, click on the Messages button on the top blue bar of Jane.
Conversations with an unread message will have a number next to them to let you know there’s something new to read.
Heads up: only messages sent by or to you will be visible in your inbox. Messages from or to other practitioners or administrators won’t appear here.
Viewing a message as a patient
When you message a patient, we’ll send them an email notification with a link to securely access the message within their Jane account.
Once they log in, they’ll be in their My Account Patient Portal and will click on the Messages tab.
If patients have the Mobile App for Clients, they can view and respond to messages in-app and receive push notifications when they get a new message.
Keep in mind that patients cannot initiate a conversation, but they can always respond to any message you send. Both you and your patients will see read receipts when messages are opened. This helps everyone know when their message has been seen.
FAQ
- How do I get notified when I have a new message?
- Can patients start a conversation with me?
- How do I delete a message?
- How secure is messaging?
- Can I start a group message with multiple patients?
- Who can see my messages?
- What happens if I send a message to someone who works at the clinic but also has a patient profile?
- Can I send a message to another staff member using the Messaging feature?
- Can I send file attachments?
- Does the mobile app for clients have secure messaging?
- My patients aren’t receiving messages through Jane. How can I fix this?
- Can I send messages to a Contact Profile?
- Can I export my messages?
- What happens to a message thread when a patient profile is merged?
- What happens to a message thread when a practitioner leaves the clinic?
How do I get notified when I have a new message?
There are two ways to get notified. 🔔
The first way is optional. You can receive an email notification if you receive a new message while you’re logged out of Jane.
You can change this setting by editing your staff profile, selecting Settings under your name, and selecting the Send Email Notifications for New Messages checkbox in the Notification Preferences section. Make sure to save your changes.
📣Jane tip: If you’re currently logged in to Jane, you won’t receive an email notification for a new message.
The second way is a red notification with the number of new messages on the Messaging button near the top right-hand side of your Jane account. This will stay there until you read all of your unread messages.
Can patients start a conversation with me?
No, patients can’t initiate messages. They can only reply to messages you’ve sent.
How do I delete a message?
Practitioners and patients can delete a message they sent up to 5 minutes after sending it.
First, hover over the message you want to delete, click the three dots next to it and select Delete. A confirmation modal will pop up to confirm your choice.
Once a message has been deleted, it is gone permanently and cannot be brought back. Both the practitioner and patient in the conversation will see that a message has been deleted.
How secure is messaging?
Security was a top priority for our team as we built this feature. Messaging in Jane is fully HIPAA, PIPEDA, and GDPR-compliant, meaning your conversations stay private and protected. Only the users in a conversation can access the messages (and, in the future, Account Owners will be able to export a log of all clinic messages). Everything is securely stored within Jane, protected by password authentication.
Can I start a group message with multiple patients?
At the moment, Jane’s Messaging feature only supports one-on-one conversations.
Who can see my messages?
Only you and the patient you are messaging with have access to your messages — so they are not viewable by other practitioners at your clinic. Down the road, Account Owners will have the ability to export a log of any messages that have been sent or received by anyone at the clinic, but this feature isn’t available quite yet.
What happens if I send a message to someone who works at the clinic but also has a patient profile?
Great question! In Jane, staff members who also have a patient profile will receive messages only in their patient My Account area, not on the administrative side. So, if you send a message to a staff member through their patient profile, it’s just like messaging any other patient — it won’t show up in the admin view.
Can I send a message to another staff member using the Messaging feature?
If you’re looking to chat with a teammate about clinic-related things, it’s best to do that outside of Messaging, since Messaging is currently designed for patient communication only.
Can I send file attachments?
Currently, there isn’t an option to send attachments, but any links you include in your message will be clickable for patients.
Does the patient app have secure messaging?
Yes, it does! Patients can view and reply to messages from their practitioner in-app.
My patients aren’t receiving messages through Jane. How can I fix this?
If a patient has Do not Email turned on within their Patient Profile, they will not receive in-app messages. Another possibility is if the patient has a duplicate profile and the patient is logged into the wrong profile.
Can I send messages to a Contact Profile?
Yes, you can send messages to Contact profiles using the same workflow as messaging patient profiles. You’ll want to head over to the contact’s profile and click Send Message in the upper-right corner to start a conversation.
Can I export my messages?
Yes, our support team can help with this. The Account Owner can email our support team from the email address listed on their staff profile and request to export a staff member’s messages. Our support team will send the Account Owner the message data, which they can pass along to the staff member.
What happens to a message thread when a patient profile is merged?
When two patient profiles are merged, all message threads from the primary profile stay exactly as they are, so no changes there.
Any message threads from the non-primary profile are archived. These archived threads are still visible to the practitioner, but the patient won’t be able to access them.
If you need to share something from an archived thread, you can take a screenshot or copy and paste the text into a new thread with the patient’s current profile.
If the profiles are un-merged later on, then the non-primary profile’s message threads are unarchived and return to their original state.
That way, no information is lost and you’re still in control of what’s shared.
What happens to a message thread when a practitioner leaves the clinic?
When a practitioner leaves a clinic, their profile is marked as inactive. At that point, their message threads are archived.
Patients will still be able to view past messages, but they won’t be able to send new ones. These threads become read-only on the patient’s side.
Practitioner message threads are not visible to other staff members at the clinic, but can be exported.
Need a Hand?
If you have any questions or need a little extra support, reach out to us — we’re always happy to help.