What is the Best Health App?

The Best Health App is a direct connection between your practice, and its patients. When your patients install the application on their mobile device, you can send various communications to them from within Bp Premier. Examples of communications you can send include fact sheets, health summaries and clinical reminders.

The Best Health App is one method utilised by Bp Comms, the Bp Premier system which facilitates communication between practices and patients. Other Bp Comms methods include SMS and letter.

Download a visual guide to Getting Started with the Best Health App, or download a checklist to tick off items as you prepare your practice.

Can I onboard my practice to the Best Health App yet?

The Best Health App is available for general release. Your practice must upgrade to Jade SP1 and install the October 2019 data update before onboarding to use the Best Health App.

Internet Access Required

Your practice requires internet access to use Best Health App integration. The following URLs should be allowed for BHA outbound/inbound traffic.

  • *ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com (notice "*", so that all URLs ending with "ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com" are whitelisted)
  • prod.bpbesthealthapi.net
  • cognito-idp.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com
  • cognito-identity.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com
  • s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com
  • *.bpbesthealthapi.net (notice "*", so that all URLs ending with "bpbesthealthapi.net " are whitelisted)

If applicable, whitelist the above URLs in your antivirus and firewalls to ensure that your server and all machines that will use the Best Health App can access the above URLs.

Onboarding a Location

Before you can use the Best Health App in Bp Premier, you must onboard your location. Onboarding consists of the following steps:

  1. Set User Permission.
  2. Onboard Your Bp Premier Location.
  3. Sign Service Agreement.
  4. Receive the Welcome Pack.
  5. Set up Beacons.

Set User Permission

A user will need the user permission Best Health Settings set to 'Add/Edit/Delete' to make changes in the Best Health App Configuration window.

  1. Log in to Bp Premier as an administrator-level user who can grant permissions.
  2. From the main menu, select Setup > Users. Select the user to grant permissions to and click Edit.
  3. Click Set Permissions.
  4. Scroll down in the Permissions window and set Best Health Settings set to 'Add/Edit/Delete'.

    5. Best Health App permission

  5. Click Save and Save again to return to the Users window.

Onboard Your Bp Premier Location

You must onboard every location where you want to use the Best Health App functionality. Before onboarding your location, check that the location details are correct in Bp Premier by navigating to Setup > Practice details from the main screen. When you are sure the location details are correct, you can onboard on your location for Best Health App:

  1. Log in to Bp Premier as a user with access to Configuration.
  2. Select Setup > Configuration from the main menu. Select the Bp Comms tab and click Configure Best Health App.

    3. Configure Best Health App

  3. Select a user and enter the user's password at the login screen and click Login. The Best Health Settings utility will appear. In the example below, the location 'Gladstone' has already been defined in Setup > Practice Details and the details for this location have been retrieved.

  4. Tick Enable Best Health App usage for this location. The tabs in the window will be enabled for editing.
  5. You can update the practice details retrieved for this window. However, the details displayed here are for the purposes of app onboarding only, and will not update the details stored in Setup > Practice Details. The details that are entered into this screen will be visible to the users of the Best Health App who are enrolled at your location.
  6. You can set the location's Opening Hours, website if the practice has a website, and add a clinic logo to be displayed on the app.
  7. If the practice location uses a third-party application to book appointments, enter the Appointment URL used for third-party appointment booking.

    8. This link will be available from the appointment section of the patient's app. Clicking the link will open the URL in the mobile device's browser.

  8. Click Save. Bp Premier will submit the request to Best Practice Software for processing. This may take a minute.

Sign Service Agreement

When Best Practice Software receives your onboarding request, the next steps are performed:

  1. You are sent a service agreement. Read, sign and return the service agreement.
  2. Best Practice Software receives your service agreement and sends an invoice.
  3. You pay the invoice.
  4. Best Practice Software activates your location for Best Health App and sends a Welcome Pack.

Receive the Welcome Pack

When you have paid the invoice, you are sent a Best Health App Welcome Pack. The Welcome Pack contains a welcome letter, flyers for you to hand out to patients, setup information, scripting for your receptionists regarding Best Health App and Bluetooth beacons.

When Can I Start Using Best Health App?

Once you have paid your Best Health App invoice, Best Practice Software activates your location and your status will change to Active in the Best Health Settings utility.

Active BHA Location

At this point, you can start Best Health App functionality and setting up templates while you wait to receive your Welcome Pack.

Best Health App Beacons

Your Best Health App Welcome Pack contains one or more Bluetooth beacons that are configured to be used with your location. The beacon allows patients to check in to their appointment within 30 minutes of the appointment start time if the app has detected the beacon is nearby. Once the appointment start time has elapsed, (60 seconds past the start time), check-in via the app is no longer available.

The beacon needs only to be plugged into a USB power source. The average range for the beacon is 20 meters. If your practice is large or has multiple reception areas, you may need more than one beacon. Best Practice Software provides one free beacon in the Welcome Pack. Additional and replacement beacons are provided at an extra cost.

The placement of the Best Health App beacon is significant, because walls, doors, and other obstructions can impact the beacon’s signal quality. Materials like wood, synthetic materials, and glass possess low interference potential. However, marble, bricks, concrete and metal have relatively high interference potential. Place the beacon away from walls or any obstruction made of material with high-interference potential.

Set up Bp Premier for BHA

When your location has been activated to use the Best Health App, you can start configuring Bp Premier for the Best Health App. Configuration items that require attending include:

Setting a Preferred Sending Method

The Preferred Practice contact method setting is used when sending Bp Comms via mail merge such as Clinical Reminders or clinical-related communications from Follow up Inbox. You can choose SMS or App as your preferred method of sending Bp Comms, if your practice has set up both.

  1. Select Setup > Configuration from the main menu.
  2. Select the Bp Comms tab.
  3. In the Preferred Practice contact method section, select 'App' or 'SMS' from the Primary dropdown menu.

    4. Bp Comms preferred contact method

  4. If you have more than one Bp Comms method enabled, select it from the Secondary dropdown menu.
  5. Click Save.

When you run a mail merge or send a single message from a Bp Premier function, the message will be sent by the default method selected here. If a patient is not set up to use either App or SMS, the communication will be sent via Letter.

This below table gives examples of how patient communication will be sent given various setups in Preferred Practice contact method. In the below scenarios it is assumed that the patient has consented to receive all types of communication via Bp Comms.

Preferred Practice Contact Method

Patient Enrolled/Enabled

Default method

Primary: App, Secondary: SMS

App, SMS

App

Primary: App, Secondary: SMS

SMS

SMS

Primary: SMS, Secondary: App

App, SMS

SMS

Primary: SMS, Secondary: App

App

App

Primary: SMS, Secondary: App

None

Letter

Enter Bp Comms Credit

A Bp Comms credit code contains a dollar amount that can be used for sending both Best Health App and SMS messages. Contact Best Practice Software Sales to obtain a Bp Comms credit code. You may have also received Bp Comms credit as part of a Best Health App Welcome Pack.

How Much Bp Comms Credit Do I Have?

The balance of your Bp Comms credit is often displayed when you send a Bp Comms message. This information is located at the bottom of the screen and displays how many SMS or App messages you could send using your remaining credit. You can also view your available credit by navigating to Setup > Configuration > Bp Comms.

Remaining Bp Comms Credit is displayed on the bottom of the screen.

Top up Bp Comms Credit

If a user has permission to access Configuration, he or she can top up the Bp Comms credit at any time.

  1. Contact Best Practice Software Sales to obtain a Bp Comms credit code.
  2. Go to Setup > Configuration and select the Bp Comms tab.
  3. Under Bp Comms credits, enter the code you received into Enter code to top up credit and click Validate. Bp Premier will update the Credits Remaining and Unused messages values.

    4. Top up Bp Comms credits

  4. Click Validate. The Credits Remaining value should be increased by the top-up amount. It will also indicate how many SMS or Best Health App messages you can send with your remaining credits.

Bp Comms Credit Warnings and Messages

Configurable warning prompts and messages are available to ensure no interruptions occur to Bp Comms functionality as a result of lack of credit.

Bp Comms Warning Prompt

This prompt can be set up to remind you to contact Best Practice Software Sales to purchase additional credit. If the available Bp Comms message credit falls below the configured limit a single warning prompt is displayed whenever you enter a screen that can send a Bp Comms message. To configure the Bp Comms warning prompt:

  1. Navigate to Setup > Configuration and select the Bp Comms tab.
  2. Check the Display a warning prompt when remaining messages fall below checkbox.

    3. Bp Comms Warning Prompt Configuration

  3. Enter how many messages you want remaining before you start receiving the warning prompt.
  4. Select either App or SMS from the drop down list. Best Practice Software recommends selecting the BpComms method you use the most.
  5. Click Save.

A prompt similar to below will display when your Bp Comms credit falls below the configured limit.

Low BpComms Credit Warning

Bp Comms Warning Message

The Bp Comms warning message will send an internal Bp Premier message to the selected user when the available message credit falls below the configured limit. This warning method is useful when automated Bp Comms are configured as there is no window or screen to display a warning prompt. To configure the Bp Comms warning message:

  1. Navigate to Setup > Configuration and select the Bp Comms tab.
  2. Check the Send a message to a user when remaining messages fall below checkbox.

    3. Bp Comms Warning Prompt Configuration

  3. Enter how many messages you want remaining before you start receiving the warning message. Best Practice Software recommend that this value be set higher than the warning prompt, so that the nominated user has time to order a new credit key before other users are warned about low credit.
  4. Select either App or SMS from the drop down list. Best Practice Software recommends selecting the BpComms method you use the most.
  5. Select the user who you want to receive the message in the Low credit warning message recipient drop down list.
  6. Click Save.

A message similar to below will be received when your Bp Comms credit falls below the configured limit.

Low Bp Comms Credit Message

What Best Health App Messages Will I Be Charged For?

The following table outlines what actions performed between Bp Premier and the Best Health App are chargeable. Only actions performed by the practice can be charged, all functions the patient performs on the Best Health App are not charged.

Best Health App Action

Will I be charged?

Send Patient Education Material to the patient

Yes

Send MIMS CMI to the patient

Yes

Send a clinical reminder to the patient

Yes

Send a message to the patient from the Follow Up Inbox

Yes

Send a message to the patient from the Inbox

Yes

Send a message to the patient from the Utilities Search

Yes

Send a message to the patient from the Patient Record

Yes

Send the patient an Appointment reminder

Yes

Send the patient a Health Summary

Yes

Appointment Syncing between Bp Premier and BHA.

No

Send Patient App Enrolment/Unenrolment.

No

The patient performs a check in confirmation.

No

Syncing demographics between Bp Premier and BHA.

No

Add a Location Notice

You can add a short text notice to be displayed to a user when they are enrolled at this location and start the Best Health App on their mobile device. This notice can be updated if required.

  1. Navigate to Setup > Configuration >  Bp Comms > Configure Best Health App.
  2. Select a user and enter the user's password at the login screen and click Login. The Best Health Settings utility will appear.
  3. Select the Practice Notices tab. Click Add. The Add notice window will appear.

    4. Best Health App add notice

  4. Type the Message, select a Start and End date, and tick Make this the primary notice for this location.

    5. You can change the primary notice by creating another notice and ticking this option.

  5. Click Save.
  6. Click Close when you have finished in the Best Health Settings setup utility.

Review Bp Comms Consent

The various types of consent applicable to Bp Comms are listed in the below table.

Consent type

Description

Bp functions

Appointments

Consent indicates that a patient allows reminders to be sent to them regarding their booked appointments from the Appointment book or by an automated reminder schedule.

  • Reminders sent manually from the appointment book
  • Appointment reminder automated schedules (Setup > Configuration > Bp Service)
  • Bp Comms messages manually sent from appointment book

Clinical Reminders

Consent indicates that a patient allows reminders to be sent to them regarding regular or future clinical appointments, such as reminders for Care Plan reviews, or Immunisations.

  • Reminder mail merges from Reminders and Follow Up Reminders windows

Clinical Communication

Consent indicates that a patient allows communications to be sent to them about their investigation results, medication compliance or changes, and other important clinical information or updates.

  • Mail merge from Follow up Inbox
  • Bp Comms manually sent from Inbox and Follow up Inbox
  • Bp Comms manually sent from patient record

Health Awareness

Consent indicates that a patient allows communications to be sent to them about a health issue that may be relevant, or important information about the services your practice provides, such as changes to hours, or new doctors.

NOTE  Best Practice Software recommend your practice provide an opt-out option when sending Health Awareness communications. See Send health awareness communications for more information.

  • Mail merge from Utilities > Database search
  • Send MIMS CMI from the patient record via BHA.
  • Send Patient Education material from the patient record via BHA.

When starting to use Best Health App functionality in Bp Premier, your practice may find it necessary to review your consent policies to accommodate the Best Health App, particularly if you recently upgraded to Jade and have not performed a consent review for Bp Comms messages types. The sample consent form includes consent for App. If you used the sample consent form for SMS messaging but removed the Best Health App section, Best Practice Software recommend updating your consent form to include the App. See Frequently asked questions about Bp Comms Consent for more information.

Review Bp Comms Templates

If you already use Bp Comms with SMS, you have templates set up for sending messages. These same templates can be used to send communication from the Best Health App. You may consider setting up templates specifically for using with the Best Health App. See Bp Comms templates for more information.

Training Staff to Promote the Best Health App

To improve patient uptake of the Best Health App and so the benefits can be realised sooner, you can train your staff to best to promote the App to patients. The Welcome Pack contains flyers for patients to take home, posters to display around the practice as well as scripting to guide reception staff.

Enrol patients

Before enrolling a patient for the Best Health App, your practice is required to gain their consent to receive messages of various types. Review Frequently asked questions about Bp Comms Consent. After consent is obtained, you enrol the patient from the demographic window. Only patients 18 (Jade edition) or 14 (Jade SP1) years or older can enrol.

Record Bp Comms Consent

You must enrol a patient's mobile phone number and record their consent before they can receive Bp Comms messages from your practice. If you have previously obtained Bp Comms consent for SMS, the same consent can be used for Best Health App enrolment.

  1. Search for the patient using any of the patient search methods: File > Open Patient, View > Patient, or press F2.
  2. Click View details to open the Patient details screen.
  3. If the patient does not have a Mobile Phone number recorded, you must record a valid number before you can click Bp Comms Consent. Mobile numbers should start with a 0 and not include the country code prefix.

    4. BpComms Mobile Number

  4. Click Bp Comms Consent on the right-hand side of the screen.

    5. BpComms Consent Button

  5. The Bp Comms Consent window will appear.

    6. Set consent

    Bp Comms Consent Screen

  6. Under Consent Options, tick the Bp Comms message types that the patient consents to receive. Ticking a message type will enable other buttons in this window.
  7. If you need to store a signed consent form for the patient, click Open Bulk Document Import to scan and import the signed consent form into Bp Premier.

    8. NOTE  A user will need permission to access the Bulk Document Import tool. See Import bulk clinical documents for more information.

  8. Click Link to signed consent. The Select signed consent window will appear.

    9. Select Signed Consent screen

  9. Tick the form you want to link to as the most recent and correct consent and click Select to return to the Bp Comms Consent window.

Enrol a Patient for Best Health App

After consent has been recorded, you can enrol a patient for the Best Health App.

  1. Open the Bp Comms Consent window via patient demographics > Bp Comms Consent

  2. In the Best Health App drop-down list, select the location where the patient is enrolling. Click the Enrol button. The Enrol button becomes active when at least one Consent Option is chosen.

    If the patient attends more than one of your locations and you want to enable them to use the Best Health App at those locations, you must enrol them using the above procedure but change the location selected in the Best Health App drop-down list.

    Inside the Best Health App, the patient can filter messages, health summaries and other information by the location it was received.

    Bp Comms Consent

  3. A confirmation message displaying the chosen consent options is shown. Ensure the correct options are selected and click Send.

    4. Confirm Best Health App Enrolment

  4. The Best Health App status in the patient demographics window displays 'Pending' after the invitation is sent.

    Best Health App Patient Enrolment Status

  5. The patient will receive an invitation to use the app including a link to download it from the appropriate store. Once downloaded they create their account, using the same mobile number as is recorded in Bp Premier. There will be a new Invitation to enrol message in their App Inbox which needs to be accepted.

  6. When the patient has accepted the invitation to enrol, the status will change to 'Enrolled'. The change of state from 'Pending' to 'Enrolled' may take a few minutes to appear after the patient has accepted the invitation.

    Best Health App Patient Enrolment Status

Send Bp Comms to BHA

You can send Best Health App messages from Bp Premier anywhere that you can send a Bp Comms SMS message, with the addition of being able to send patient education material, MIMs CMI leaflets and health summaries from the patient window.

The following is a summary of Bp Premier functions where you can send SMS and/or Best Health App messages.

Bp Premier area

Description

Consent Required

Patient Window

Send a single message to a patient.

As any text can be sent from this area, it is up to the user to discern if the communication they are sending has been consented to by the patient.

Patient Window

Send a summary of the patient's health details stored in Bp Premier.

Clinical Communications.

MIMS CMI

Send MIMS Consumer Medicine Information to the patient.

Health Awareness

Patient Education

Send leaflets or brochures stored in Bp Premier to the patient.

Health Awareness

Reminders

Send clinical reminders

Clinical Reminders

Database Search

Send health awareness communications

Health Awareness

Inbox

Send a Message from the Inbox

Clinical Communications

Follow up inbox

Send clinical communications

Clinical Communications

Appointment Book

Send Bp Comms appointment reminders

Appointments

Bp Comms Mail Merge and Preferred Contact Method

When you run a bulk message sendout like clinical or appointment reminders, Bp Comms will default the message method for each patient based on:

  • what the patient has consented to receive (set in demographics)
  • the Preferred Contact Method (set in Configuration > Bp Comms).

The following video explains how Bp Comms works with the Preferred Contact Method.

Send a BHA Message from the Patient Record

Send a single Best Health App message from the patient record for any number of reasons including to let a patient know that a prescription is ready or advise the patient to bring in a letter with their next appointment.

  1. Select Bp Comms > Send patient message from the menu. The Send message window will appear.

    2. Send message from patient record

  2. Review the patient consent (green checkboxes) and ensure that the patient has consented to receive the type of message you are about to send.
  3. Select whether to send via SMS or App. App will only be available if you have upgraded to Bp Premier version Jade SP1 and the patient has enrolled for the Best Health App with your practice location. SMS is available if the patient has enrolled for SMS messages. The default Send via selection is based on your practice's Preferred Practice contact method configuration setting.
  4. Select the Template you want to use.
  5. Modify the text if the template permits and click Send. The message will be forwarded to the messaging service.

Send Health Summary

To send a health summary, the patient must consent to receive messages of type Clinical Communication.

The Health Summary sent to Best Health App is a subsection of the clinical information from the patient's record. It is not related to any Health Summaries uploaded to a patient's My Health Record. Only one copy of a health summary is stored in the patient's app per location. If you send a new health summary for a location, the new version will overwrite the current version.

  1. Open the patient to whom you want to send a Health Summary.
  2. Select Bp Comms > Send Health Summary. The Health Summary window will appear.

    3. BHA Health Summary window

  3. In each section, click the ... button to send the Health Summary to the background and go back to the patient record, where you can add additional items.
  4. Bring the focus back to the Health Summary and click Refresh to see any changes.
  5. Untick any items in each section you do want included in the health summary sent to the patient's app. In the example above, the item from Medical History has been unticked and will not be included in the health summary.
  6. Click Send.

Health Summary messages cannot be resent from Contact Notes; instead, a fresh Health Summary must be sent.

Send MIMS Consumer Medicines Information

To send MIMS Consumer Medicines Information, the patient must consent to receive messages of type Health Awareness.

  1. Open the patient to whom you want to send MIMS Consumer Information.
  2. Select View > MIMS Consumer Medicines Information or press Shift+F12.
  3. From the MIMS CMI viewer, search for a medication.
  4. Select File > Send Leaflet or click the Send Leaflet icon BHA Send Leaflet icon from the taskbar.
  5. Update the message if the template allows.

    6. BHA Send Leaflet

  6. Click Send. A message is sent to the patient with a link to download the leaflet.

Send Patient Education Leaflets

To send patient education leaflets, the patient must consent to receive messages of type Health Awareness.

  1. Open the patient to whom you want to send a patient education material.
  2. Select View > Patient Education material or press Shift+F11.
  3. From the Patient Education materials screen, select the leaflet you want to send.
  4. Select File > Send Leaflet or click the Send Leaflet icon BHA Send Leaflet icon from the taskbar. Not all leaflets can be sent. If a leaflet cannot be sent, the sending menu option will be disabled.
  5. Update the message if the template allows.
  6. Click Send. A message is sent to the patient with a link to download the leaflet.

Send a Message from the Inbox

Send a 'clinical communication' message by SMS or BHA to a patient about their results from the provider inbox. You must action a result before you can send a message about the result.

  1. From the Inbox, click Send Message from the bottom right, or click the envelope icon in the toolbar Send message envelope icon. The Send message window will appear.

    2. Send message from Inbox

  2. Choose to either send via SMS or App.
  3. Change the clinical communication Template to use from the default if you need to.
  4. Edit the message text and click Send.

NOTE  Sending a message from the Inbox does not mark the result as contacted.

Auditing the Message Trail

Auditing of the sending and replies to Best Health App messages is done through contact notes.

A contact note represents any attempt by the practice to contact a patient, by phone, letter, or any electronic method consented to by the patient. A note records: the details of the patient or person contacted (if a next of kin or carer responds, for example); the contact reason; communication method; the number of contact attempts for related communications; and the success status.

See the following articles to understand more on contact notes:

Best Health App appointment reminder replies are audited through the same mechanisms as SMS:

Unenrol a Patient or Practice

Stop Using Best Health App at a Location

If you want to stop using the Best Health App because the practice has changed owners, moved, or for any other reason, call the Best Practice Sales team on 1300 411 111 to disable your location. The disablement comes through quickly to your instance of Bp Premier, and you can no longer send Best Health App messages from that location.

Patients who have been enrolled at your location will still have access to their messages, appointments and health summaries from your location.

Unenroll a Patient

If you want to unenroll a patient from your location:

  1. Open the patient demographics > Bp Comms Consent.
  2. Select the appropriate location from the Best Health App list.
  3. Click Unenrol.
  4. Best Health App messages can no longer be sent from Bp Premier to the patient from the chosen location.

Unenroll a patient

When the patient is unenrolled from your location, it is no longer visible in the patient's Best Health App installation in the My Practices section. All messages and health summaries from your location are still visible in the patient's Best Health App installation after being unenrolled.

A patient can also unenroll from a location in the Best Health App through the settings menu. The change in enrolment is reflected in Bp Premier.

If a patient uninstalls the application from their mobile device, there is currently no way for the practice to be notified except via direct conversation with the patient. It is advisable for the practice to check the patient is actively using the Best Health App, along with other demographic checks when they visit.

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