Secure Messaging: Holding Bay

The Secure Messaging Holding Bay in MediRecords acts as a safety net to ensure no important clinical communication is ever missed. It is designed to capture incoming investigation results and correspondence that cannot be automatically matched to a provider or patient, allowing your team to review and allocate them with confidence. This prevents errors, reduces delays, and makes sure every message finds the right home in your system.

By using the Holding Bay, practices can manage unallocated and allocated messages in one central location, preview documents before assigning them, and streamline the process of linking correspondence to the correct provider or patient. It also supports administration workflows by helping staff track messages, avoid duplication, and ensure timely follow-up. For clinics that rely on secure messaging as a daily part of patient care, the Holding Bay is an essential tool for maintaining accuracy, efficiency, and peace of mind.

Contents:

1. What is the Secure Messaging Holding Bay?

2. Unallocated Messages

3. Assigning a Message to a Provider or Patient in the Holding Bay

4. Setting a Provider Alias

5. Previewing a Message

6. Placing a Message on Hold

7. Allocated Messages

8. Printing a Message from the Holding Bay

9. Deleting Duplicate Messages from the Holding Bay

What is the Secure Messaging Holding Bay?

The Holding Bay is a collation area for all Secure Messages related to incoming investigations and inbound correspondence that MediRecords has been unable to automatically assign to a provider. Messages are kept in the Holding Bay until they have been read or actioned by a user. When you open the Holding Bay, you will see the display of all Unallocated messages. 

To open the Holding Bay, click the the Mailbox Icon, which is the sixth tab on the MediRecords Application Ribbon.



The Inbox will open by default. 


Click on Holding next to Inbox to go to the Holding Bay.
You will see a default view of all allocated and unallocated messages.
To Filter out the Messages, click Filter to reveal a drop-down list and then select Allocated or Unallocated. You can also filter any particular provider/s.



To Search for a Message, click the Search-box and type in a Keyword from the Subject. Press Enter and the system will display a list of the closest matches.

Note: You can also search using keywords from any of the column headings - including Patient Name on Report, Addressed To (provider), and the Patient or Provider that the message is assigned to.

Unallocated Messages

When messages arrive, the system can match them to both the provider, by linking the provider number, and to the patient, by matching patient demographics. If these fields cannot be matched, then the messages remains in the Holding Bay, flagged as "Unallocated".

Unallocated messages cannot be formally actioned until they have been assigned to a patient and provider, however the content can be previewed for the purpose of identifying the appropriate recipient.

 

Assigning a Message to a Provider or Patient in the Holding Bay

Unallocated Messages stay in the Holding Bay until they are allocated to the patient and provider.

1. Click the Mailbox icon to navigate to Secure Messaging

   
   
    

2. Go to Holding Bay, click the Tick-box next to the message

3. Navigate to the top of the message list

   
   
    

4. Click Patient and look up the patient name

5. Click Provider and look up the provider name

6. Click Assign to assign the message to the patient and the provider
   The message has now been assigned to the patient and provider, and it will be moved to the providers Inbox.
   
   *NOTE: You can just allocate a message to either the Patient or the Provider, however the message will not be moved to the providers Inbox until it has been allocated to both parties. When a message has been partially assigned to either a patient or a provider, it will still be reflected in the Holding Bay.

Setting a Provider Alias

You can create a Provider Alias, which assists when results or letters received use different variations of a provider's name. For example, your provider name may be "Alison Hayes", but you may receive secure messages addressed to "A Hayes" which will land in the Holding Bay, as it's not an exact match. By adding a provider alias for "A Hayes" to Alison's profile, future results addressed to "A Hayes" will automatically land in Alison's Inbox for Checking.

To Set a Provider Alias:

1. Click the Tick-box next to the name of the message. Click More to reveal a drop-down list, and click Set As Provider Alias.

2. To Manage Existing Aliases, click More to reveal a drop-down list, and click Manage Aliases to open the alias manager.

3. Click Select User and select the name of the user to manage or configure their aliases. There is no limit to the number of aliases that can be assigned to providers. 

Previewing a Message

If you'd like to review the content of a message so you know where to direct the message, you can use the Preview function.

To Preview a Message

1.  Click the Dropdown Arrow on right-hand side of the tick-box next to the message to be previewed. 

2. A message will show and you can preview by clicking here.

3. The document will load and you can preview the details.

4. Click the Arrow again to close the preview.

 

Placing a Message on Hold

To Place a Message on Hold:

1. Click the Mailbox icon to navigate to Secure Messaging

2. Go to the 'Holding' section

3. Click the Tick-box next to the name of the message to be placed on hold

4. Click More and click Place on Hold.
   
   

Allocated Messages

The Allocated messages are typically used by users who do not have access to the Clinical module. The Allocated messages list is primarily used for administration purposes, to make sure that messages in a provider's Inbox are being reviewed and actioned in a timely fashion.  

To view the list of Allocated messages, click Filter and click Allocated, and ensure Unallocated checkbox is not selected.
You can also filter out provider/s or click on all for messages to ALL providers in the practice.

Items in the filter list with a tick next to their name are visible in the Holding bay.

The Allocated list in the Holding Bay displays a list of all the messages that have been allocated to both a Patient and a Provider (and are visible in their Inbox), but have not yet been actioned or reviewed. These messages will have an allocated name on both the Patient and Provider column in the grid.



 

Printing a Message from the Holding Bay

To print messages from the Holding Bay:

1. Click the Mailbox icon to navigate to Secure Messaging

2. Go to the 'Holding' section

3. Click the Tick-Box next to the message of which you want to print

4. Click More, Then click Print
   
    

Deleting Duplicate Messages from the Holding Bay

To delete a duplicate message in the Holding Bay:

1. Click the Mailbox icon

2. Go to the 'Holding' section

3. Click the Tick-Box next to the message of which you want to delete

4. Click More 

5. Then click Delete.

The duplicate record has now been deleted.