Set up BloomText for your primary care clinic

Invite your staff

In the left bar, click Directory, then + to invite nurses, medical assistants and front-desk staff with their work email.

Turn on Administrator only for the people who manage your plan, organization settings and members.

• Everyone else is a regular user. BloomText has no other roles.
• Test with one admin and one regular account before you invite everyone

Create a team for each role

A team is a shared inbox. A team with its own texting number also gets its own hours and after-hours reply. Make one per role, such as the front desk and nurse triage, so each message reaches the right people.

In Directory, open the Teams tab and click +. Name the team, then add its staff with Add members. Only admins can create teams.

• Everyone on a team sees the chats on that team's number
• To bring in one staff member for a single patient, add them to that chat instead of the team
• To give a team its own texting number, add a number to your plan, then email support@bloomtext.com to connect it

Hide patient phone numbers from staff

Click Settings, then Organizations, your practice and the Details tab. Turn on Don't allow users to see patient phone numbers.

Staff who aren't admins then see only the last four digits of a patient's number.

• Only admins see this setting, and admins still see full numbers

Bring a patient, their caregiver and the care team into one chat

In the Inbox, click +, add the patient in To and click Message.

Then bring in a family caregiver and the nurse who manages their care: in the chat, click View participants, then Add participants. Pick each person and click Save. The video shows this part.

• To start with several people at once, add them all in To, click Create group, name it and pick the Send from team
• Each patient gets their own secure link into the same chat
• Everyone in the chat, patients included, sees its name, so keep clinical details out of it

Send photos and files

Open the chat, click + beside the message box, then Attach. Add a note so the patient knows what the files are for, then press Send. The files and the note go out as one message.

• Files stay in BloomText with the chat history

Show patients how to reply

Patients read and reply on a secure page that opens in their phone's browser, with no app or account. Add a note like this to your first message:

Save this number in your contacts as [Clinic Name] so you know it's us when we text. Tap the link in the text to read and reply, and always reply on the page that opens.

• For privacy, a secure link stops working after a while. The page offers Text me a new link.

Set business hours and an after-hours reply

In Directory, open Teams, your team, then the Auto-Reply tab. Check Business Hours and the time zone (Edit hours to change them).

Switch on Out-Of-Office Reply, click Edit message, write your reply and click Save. Only admins can save.

For exampleTexts aren't monitored after hours and aren't for urgent issues. In an emergency, call 911.

• Business hours don't mute staff notifications

Forward calls to the office

People call the number you text from. On the team's Call Forwarding tab, turn on Forward incoming calls to another number, type the Forwarding number and click Save forwarding number.

• Texts keep arriving in BloomText
• Each team number forwards to one phone, and only admins can change it
• Call the number once to test it, and the voicemail

Send a broadcast

Use broadcasts for appointment reminders, closures and schedule changes, not marketing.

In the left bar, click Campaigns, then +. Name it, check the Team, and under Message Type choose Secure text with link if the message contains health information. Insecure text is for messages with none, such as an office closure. Add recipients, write the message and click Save campaign. Nothing goes out until you click Send…, then send it now or schedule it.

• Each patient gets their own copy, and replies come back as private one-to-one chats