Inbox & messaging — voicemail & Team Chat

Find the messages callers left you

When someone calls the practice and nobody picks up, the call goes to a voicemail box and the caller leaves a message. Those messages arrive in the Inbox, in the Patient view, in among the patient threads — so a message left on the phone gets worked the same way a portal message or a text does: read it, deal with it, mark it done.

There is no separate folder to remember to check. A voicemail is a row in the same list as the portal, text and email threads, placed by the time it came in and marked with a voicemail glyph so you can tell it apart at a glance. The unread count beside Patient includes voicemail, and so does the Messages tile on the Home dashboard. Voicemail rows appear only for practices using Soaper Phone; if your practice answers its phones another way, you won’t see any (see Before it works).

1. Open the Inbox. The Patient view is where you land, and it is where voicemail lands too. The list, the reading pane, and the action bar work exactly like the rest of the Inbox — the same three columns described in the Inbox tour.
2. Read the unread pill. The number beside Patient counts the threads and the voicemails you haven’t opened yet. It refreshes on its own, and it drops the moment you open one.
3. Or use the phone dock instead — it’s the same list. The softphone dock (Ctrl+P) has a bell with the same messages behind it. It is one list with one read state: open a message here and the dock’s badge goes down; play it from the dock and it stops being bold here.

Scan the list and find the one you want

Each voicemail is one row, sitting wherever its time puts it among the threads — a message left at 9:40 appears between the threads that came in just before and just after it. Read left to right, a row tells you who called, from what number, how long they talked, and — when the box transcribes — roughly what they said, without opening anything.

1. Search when the list is long. The magnifier searches the threads and the voicemail together. For a voicemail it matches the caller’s name, the phone number, the voicemail box the message landed in, and the whole transcript — so “refill” or “reschedule” finds the messages about refills or rescheduling, and a partial phone number finds a specific caller.
2. Sort the way you work. Most Recent for the newest first, or Unread First to push everything you haven’t read or heard to the top — unread voicemails sit up there with the unread threads. Under Flagged First, flagged voicemails sort with the flagged threads.
3. Open one. Clicking a row opens it in the reading pane and marks it read.

Matched callers, unknown callers, and the ones in between

Hero EMR looks the caller’s number up against your charts, and it is deliberately conservative about the answer. If exactly one chart carries that number, the message shows that patient’s name and the name links straight to their chart. Anything else — no chart, or more than one — shows Unknown.

Link a voicemail to a patient

1. Click Link to patient at the top of an unknown caller’s voicemail. The Link to a patient window opens: “Pick the chart this voicemail belongs to. The call and its recording move there too.”
2. Search by Name or phone number (at least two characters). Each result shows the date of birth and the phone numbers on the chart.
3. Decide about the number. Add (206) 555-0170 to this patient’s chart is ticked by default; each result says what it would do: Adds it as the primary number, Adds it as the secondary number, This number is already on the chart, or Both chart numbers are taken — you can replace the secondary one next.
4. Click Link on the right patient. Hero confirms Linked to {name} and says what happened to the number. If both chart numbers were taken, choose Replace the secondary number or Keep the chart’s numbers. The voicemail now shows the patient’s name, and Schedule, Order, Open chart and a portal reply become available.

Linking needs access to patient charts (physicians, administrators, and staff who may view patients); without it the button doesn’t appear. Adding the number to the chart also needs the permission to update patient demographics (physicians and administrators have it); without it the voicemail is linked and the chart’s numbers are left alone.

The detail pane spells the match out under Caller: either “Maria Garcia (matched by phone number)” or “Unknown — no chart matches this number”. The wording is doing real work — it’s telling you exactly how much Hero EMR knows.

Play the message, read the transcript, return the call

Open a message and everything you need sits in one pane: who called and when, a player, the transcript, and the details.

1. Play it. A standard audio player sits at the top of the pane — play, pause, scrub, volume. It reads Loading message… for a moment while the recording is fetched. Switching to another message resets the player, so you never half-hear one message over another.
2. Read it instead. Under Transcription is the message typed out, if the box has transcription turned on. It’s faster to skim than to listen to, and it’s searchable from the list. Boxes without transcription show No transcription available. — play the recording.
3. Call them back. Call back at the top right dials the caller’s number in your softphone, with the call already tied to the matched chart. The reply box at the bottom offers the same: choose Call back there and click Call back (206) 555-0170. If you don’t use the softphone, the number is shown as plain text to dial yourself (Phone calling is not available. Callback number: …).
4. Or answer in the portal. Choose Portal in the reply box to send the patient a secure message, with the same editor, AI help and Send later as a thread reply. It is offered only when it can work; otherwise the box says why: Link this voicemail to a patient to reply by portal., This patient has no portal account., or Portal messaging is turned off for your practice.
5. Hand it to a teammate. Forward opens Forward voicemail: pick a teammate with Search team members…, add a note if useful (Your note stays internal — the patient never sees it.), and click Forward to {name}. It lands in their Inbox, unread and open, with a Forwarded by {your name} line and your note at the top. Your own copy stays as it was.
6. Check the details. The bottom of the pane lists Voicemail box (which box the caller reached — useful when your practice runs separate boxes for billing, refills, or a specific provider), Caller, Number, Length, and Received.

Read, unread, and done

Voicemail uses the Inbox’s ordinary triage tools (Triage tools), with one thing worth knowing: read state is shared with the phone dock, so there is only ever one truth about what you’ve heard.

1. Opening a message marks it read. The row loses its bold and its dot, the Patient count drops, and the dock’s bell badge drops with it.
2. Put one back if you’re not done. Mark unread (Ctrl+U) returns it to the queue — and to the dock’s badge — so a message you listened to but can’t action yet doesn’t quietly disappear.
3. Flag one to come back to. Flag (Ctrl+Shift+G) marks it for you; flags are personal, like read state.
4. Mark it done when the callback is made. Done (Backspace) moves the message out of Open. Switch the list to Done to see completed ones, and use Reopen to bring one back.

What has to be switched on — and what to check when nothing arrives

Three things decide whether you see voicemail, and all three are admin settings rather than personal ones.

Start a separate team conversation with a topic

Use the toolbar’s Team Chat for internal conversations. If it is unavailable, an administrator can enable Care Team Chat under Admin → Additional Features; your account also needs chat access.

1. Open New conversation. Select the colleague or colleagues under People. To add a whole message pool, type p, a space and the pool’s name: its Team Chat members join as one chip, and a new group is named after the pool (Message pools).
2. Add a Topic to start a separate thread. A topic creates a new conversation even with someone you already chat with. It appears in the conversation list and header, so distinct work stays easy to find.
3. Choose Create. If you select one person and leave Topic blank, an existing direct conversation is reused; the button then reads Open conversation.

A message from the billing team that ends with Answer here: is a billing request: click Open billing request under it to answer. A reply in the chat reaches the billing team but doesn’t answer the request (Answer a billing request). A request to a whole team arrives in a group named {team}: billing request.

Type a response to a team message, and reply to one specific message

To answer a team member, open the conversation in Team Chat and type in Message the care team… at the bottom. Team Chat has no threaded replies: you cannot reply to one particular message inside a conversation the way Google Chat or Slack threads work. Every message goes to the bottom of the same conversation.

1. Click Team Chat in the toolbar and pick the conversation on the left.
2. Type your reply and press Enter to send (Shift+Enter adds a line), or click Send. Send later schedules it; queued messages are managed from the to-do panel’s Queued tab.
3. To answer one message among several, name it in your reply (for example “Re: the 2 pm refill question — …”). To keep a side discussion separate, start a new conversation with the same people and a Topic; see Team Chat topics.

The urgent button beside the message box (“Mark this message urgent (pops a toast for recipients)”) makes the message pop up on the recipients’ screens.

Send or attach a document to a team member in Team Chat

To send a document, picture or PDF to a colleague, attach it to a Team Chat message with the paperclip (Attach files), or drag or paste the file onto the conversation. Shared files stay in the conversation; they go into a patient’s chart only when someone chooses to add them.

1. Open the conversation with the person or group in Team Chat (or start one with New conversation).
2. Click the paperclip and pick up to 10 files, 25 MB each: pictures, PDFs, documents, spreadsheets and recordings (no zip files). Each file shows as a chip; remove one before sending if you picked the wrong file.
3. Add a message if you like and send. Wait until the files finish uploading. Files can’t be scheduled with Send later.
4. To put a shared file in a chart, use Add to chart on the file card: choose the patient, the Document type and Document date, and whether to Hide from parents and guardians. When the conversation is about a patient (re: the patient), the message box also offers Also add to {patient}’s chart as you send.

Files in the conversation header lists every file shared in that conversation.

Rename or remove a Team Chat topic, remove people, or leave a group

Team Chat conversations cannot be deleted; their messages stay in the practice’s records. In a group conversation, an owner can rename the group (its topic) and remove people, and anyone can leave. A two-person conversation’s topic cannot be changed.

1. Open the group and click the members button (the people icon with a count, Group members) in the conversation header.
2. To rename it, an owner changes Group name and clicks Rename. The name cannot be left blank (“Enter a name for the group.”), so to drop a topic, give the group a plainer name.
3. To remove someone, an owner uses Remove from group beside their name; Make owner and Remove owner role change who runs the group.
4. To leave, click Leave group. You stop getting its messages and can no longer open it, including earlier messages.

The patient chip in the header (re: {patient}, or Set topic when none is set) is the patient the conversation is about. Use its pencil to change the patient; it is locked once the conversation is saved to the chart with Save to chart.

Let Voicemail Hero read each voicemail and prepare the follow-up

Voicemail Hero reads each new voicemail’s transcript and prepares what should happen next. It never sends anything to a patient on its own: staff check and send. A card at the top of the voicemail shows what it made of the message, marked AI read this voicemail — check before acting.

Turn it on or off

Voicemail Hero is on by default for every practice. Phone managers find its switches in Admin → Soaper Phone → Voicemail, under Voicemail Hero:

• Read new voicemails with AI — reads each transcribed voicemail, sets up new-patient intakes and drafts the reply. It only reads boxes that transcribe (Before it works).
• Call unknown callers back automatically (Beta, off by default) — the AI caller phones unknown callers back by itself during calling hours. Urgent voicemails are never called back automatically. With it off, staff press Call and deliver message on the voicemail. If it reads Return calls aren’t available for your practice yet, contact Hero support.

Crisis and AI usage alerts from the AI phone line

When your practice uses the AI phone agent, two kinds of alert land in the Patient view, next to your voicemail: a crisis call and an AI usage alert. They come only to the Inbox — no text, email or pop-up — and only to people who can open the Patient view; people who work a recipient’s inbox (Attached inboxes) see that person’s alerts there too. Who gets them is set on the AI Agent tab (Crisis calls, Monthly AI usage).

A crisis call

• One item per call, titled Crisis call on your AI phone line, marked Urgent and counted in the red Patient badge and the Home dashboard’s Crisis Calls tile. If the review after a call finds signs of a crisis the assistant didn’t report, it arrives as Possible crisis on a recent AI call, marked After the call: check on the caller.
• What it shows: What they said (Self-harm or suicide, Harm to someone else, Overdose or Danger right now), the caller’s number, Name given, a Call back number, the patient once the caller is identified (only for people who may see patient charts), a crisis transfer and how it went, and when it was reported.
• It updates as the call goes on. The urgent messages the caller left appear on the same item, oldest first, each with Call back and the time it was left. A long call keeps the first and the newest messages and says how many earlier ones are not shown.
• It comes back if something new happens. If you marked it done and the caller then leaves an urgent message, or a transfer was not answered or could not be connected, the item is open and unread again for everyone who got it.

An AI usage alert

Sent from AI phone line when the practice reaches the first alert level you set (for example AI phone minutes: 80% of the monthly limit used) and the limit itself (AI phone minutes: monthly limit reached), once each per month. It shows the minutes used of the limit and the month, and never includes patient information.