Custom Chat Types

Custom Chat Types

When a patient starts a new conversation from the SigmaMD Patient App, the first step is choosing the reason for the chat. By default, SigmaMD includes a "General" option, but you can now add your custom chat types to better organize your inbox and tailor the experience to your practice. Each type you create will:

Appear as an option for the patient when starting a new chat in their app.
Automatically become the chat title when it is created.

Some examples might include:

Medication Refill
Billing Question
Medical Concern
Follow-Up Request

Creating a Chat Type

To add a new chat type:

First, enter Practice Settings > Communication.

Select the Add chat type button.

This will open the form with the many settings available for the Chat Types. The only required information is the Name.

Click Save and your new type will appear in the patient app.

Patient Access

Patient Access limits who can start a chat of this type, based on the patient’s membership and location:

Membership: All memberships and none, All memberships, No membership, or Selected memberships
Location: All locations or specific locations

Patients only see the chat types that match their membership and location. When no chat type is available to a patient, the Patient App shows No Chats Available Right Now with the practice’s on-call or main phone number and a reminder to call 911 in an emergency.

Assigning Clinicians

If you want a chat type to be handled by specific team members, assign them in the creation form. When patients select this type, the chat will be automatically assigned to the designated person.

In the Chat Assignment section, each row has three parts: Chats for (the patient’s assigned clinician), Are assigned to (who receives the new chat), and During, which follows the opening hours of the patient’s assigned location:

All hours
Business hours only
After hours only

Click + Assignment to add a row. This lets you route chats to one person during business hours and to another after hours. If a location has no opening hours set, its chats follow the all-hours assignment.

As an example, in the image above, all new chats created by patients assigned to John Smith will be assigned to Jane Doe. This means Jane will receive a notification for these chats, and they will be in her inbox, while John will not be notified. Later, the chat can be reassigned, or John can be added as a follower.

Editing or Deleting a Chat Type

You can update a chat type at any time using the edit option, which opens Manage Chat Type, and you may also delete a type if it’s no longer needed. The General type cannot be deleted or renamed.