ahmadnajjar wrote on Thursday, June 12, 2014:
Hello
can anyone help me to activate the SMS notification service in the system, i followed the Sms and Email Notification Howtos. but still there is no clear instruction about this feature.
please i need it ASAP
thank you
fsgl wrote on Friday, June 13, 2014:
Did you get Procedures working? If not, this Wiki article gives excruciating details.
Where are you stuck in SMS setup?
ahmadnajjar wrote on Sunday, June 15, 2014:
Hello fsgl
I did the following in the sms setup:
1- I have added the SMS system credentials in Administration=>Global=>notifications (SMS username, Password, and API Key)
2- After that i booked the appointment for patient (I added the Mobile phone # and allowed the SMS notification from the demographic data) and then i processed the notification from =>administration=> patient reminders
but i didn’t receive anything
i don’t know if i did the right steps or not
can you please advice
thank you buddy
mdsupport wrote on Sunday, June 15, 2014:
SMS is through a paid service that is configured in Administration -> Globals -> Notifications.
fsgl wrote on Monday, June 16, 2014:
Arnab Naha has sucessfully set up Mercury Mail and SMS.
Send him a message and invite him to join this thread. He should be able to point you in the right direction.
I’m clueless about the subject but I thought I would get the ball rolling.
xiaoanri wrote on Monday, June 16, 2014:
i have been using elastix, which is a free PBX and has features including SMS,fax, phone, email server and a lot more than you would need for a clinic. it is running on CentOS.
I currently only use this as a phone exchange and email server, it has been very stable and reliable. If a complete communication package is needed for openemr, I thought it would be nice to somehow integrate those two together. Of course, i am not a developer, just to share my experience.
fsgl wrote on Monday, June 16, 2014:
Hi Hui,
If you can give us a detailed step-by-step, it will help Seha and others. Mercury Mail is that not easy to configure.
The present Wiki article is a bit disjointed and outdated. Enough gleanings here may metamorphose into a new how-to.
Pray proceed.
xiaoanri wrote on Monday, June 16, 2014:
Hi, fsgl,
the install is very simple, but the tuneup can take some time. There is lots of info on their website, i made a mistake on previous post, the website should be www.elastix.org.
here is the general idea: download the software from their website, then install it on any pc with internet connection. the install is as simple as installing ubuntu OS, but it is an appliance running on CentOS. I was not able to find any info on making it on a virtual machine, so it was installed on a separate box.
then it comes to the tuning part, basically you would need to have the box connected to your VOIP provider, in my case, it was babytel and vonage ( i can provide the working settings for those 2 companies if anybody needs it), and then have all your extensions connected to your elastix box.
the setup is very detail-oriented, (the good news is that it can all be done on a graphic interface with web browser), but once i got the general idea, it was not too difficult, but it did take a lot of testing.
there is a lot of information on their web at here:
http://elastix.org/index.php/en/product-information/manuals-books.html
they offer courses at different levels, i took the entry-level course some time ago, but today when i was looking at their website, the entry level course is now offered online (used to be in classroom), and the link is not working.
this is somehow off the SMS topic of this thread, but i really enjoyed using this software, and has been thinking if this can be somehow integrated into openemr, for example, with openemr making calls to confirm appointments automatically, and have faxes received into openemr directly… those could be very nice enhancements of the openemr functionality.
fsgl wrote on Monday, June 16, 2014:
Thanks a bunch, Hui.
Sounds labor intensive. Will dig into it when I have more time and see if I’m able to update the Wiki.
ahmadnajjar wrote on Monday, June 16, 2014:
Hello all
thank you for your recommended solution
I think
it seems it is a new thing on the system, really I want to have a tested solution
blankev wrote on Monday, June 16, 2014:
http://www.pmail.com/versions.htm
Pegasus-mail and Mercury are a well tested and have or had a huge team supporting the product. Great thing: it is for free. The manual is extensive and the software product is supported by XAMPP. The only thing is you have to activate Mercury on the Server, correct the settings for you practice. Just like what you did, (or the software did,) for Apache server.
ahmadnajjar wrote on Monday, June 16, 2014:
Hello Pieter
thank you for the link, but really i think the process is to have (SMS gate way user name, password and key) after that the system should be ready! this is my understanding for this feature.
really i don’t see anything related to SMS notification configuration in wiki, and i don’t know how can i configure the system in the right way.
most of the previous posts mentioned solutions, but i need to know the right way to configure the system
please help me on that, i really need it.
thank you
blankev wrote on Monday, June 16, 2014:
I used to be an expert, 10 years ago, better call it a semi expert. Pegasus mail was my favorite e-mail program and so flexible! Mercury I got it working in the XAMPP version of OenEMR in Windows… W 3.1 if I am correct.
better find an other volunteer! I am occupied with transition to Mint 17 and local changes fit for our community and SMS is not high on the list.
Wish you a good Developer who could help you with the settings.
Pimm
ahmadnajjar wrote on Tuesday, June 17, 2014:
Hello Pieter
it seems that I’ve described my point in a wrong way, sorry if I bothered you.
and hopefully some one else will find time to help me, thank you for your time.
seha
fsgl wrote on Tuesday, June 17, 2014:
Seha,
I would suggest that you consider using elastix and have Hui help you or click on the link for Arnab Naha in my post. He has helped another Forum member set up Mercury Mail and was very accommodating in that exercise. Arnab is very likely to respond positively to your request for assistance.
Either way upon resolution, I will write a Wiki article as I did for Procedures. The Wiki really needs another article. If the present article was unclear to you and me, then it’s unclear to other readers as well.
I would like to learn how to set up SMS myself, despite the fact that it is not required in my practice. Old folks must continue to learn daily lest the old noggin turns to pudding.
arnabnaha wrote on Tuesday, June 17, 2014:
Seha…
I have already responded to ur message in sourceforge…plz check…I can help u setup mercury mail
xiaoanri wrote on Tuesday, June 17, 2014:
If I understand correctly, what Seha wanted to achieve is to set up the SMS system WITHIN openemr, so that SMS can be used for patient communication, such as sending out patient appointment reminders automatically?
Question to Arnab: would mercury mail be ANOTHER free standing mail system or it can be integrated with openemr, so that patient communication can happen via the email also?
With elastix, that is the problem I can not solve: it is a good free standing phone exchange and email server, fax server…, but it is not integrated with openemr, therefore, no phone call or email to patients can be programmed to initiate automatically.
arnabnaha wrote on Tuesday, June 17, 2014:
Mercury mail is completely integrated with openemr. U just need to set up as per instruction in wiki and setup the cronjob…openemr will start sending emails to the patients automatically. Even the patient reminders will be sent from there within the openemr.
fsgl wrote on Tuesday, June 17, 2014:
Hi Hui,
A few thoughts about security.
Arnab in Kolkata and Seha in the Middle East don’t have to contend with the equivalent of HIPAA (please correct me if inaccurate, gentlemen). While having everything sitting inside of OpenEMR is extremely convenient, the downside may be an introduction of a vulnerability.
It is probably not widely known to the online criminal class that the U.S. government had mandated patient portals as part of MU2; but once that becomes common knowledge, we will have a rather dangerous situation on our hands.
Using a round figure of 800,000 physicians in 2012 and an attestation rate of 12%, that would be nearly 100,000 practices ripe for the picking. If hackers can blaze past the puny defenses of the typical solo practice, they stand to gain access to billions of dollars of patient assets. Their gateway will be the demographic information stored in our medical records.
Additionally those hacked practices will subject to penalties for the breach of HIPAA, which, at worst, are $250,000 and or 10 years in prison.
Minimizing indirect access to our medical records or better yet, permitting no access whatsoever would be more secure. It may be wiser to stick with elastix over the long haul.
ahmadnajjar wrote on Wednesday, June 18, 2014:
Hello all
thank you hui zhu for your clarification you are right i need to have function to send patient reminder via SMS NOT e-mail to patients.
regarding patient confidentiality and HIPAA regulations it is not applicable here in the middle east!! but to have it this will be great for the users to assure patient confidentiality and information security.
my friend Arnab
Please advice me how can i configure the system to send SMS notifications for their appointments.
thank you