Common Causes For Failed Messages
The Message was sent outside of CareMessage’s default global messaging hours of 7 AM and 9 PM (Note: this can vary depending on the feature).
Another patient sharing the phone number has opted out of messaging.
The message was blocked by the patient’s mobile carrier.
The patient has a landline number listed in their profile as a mobile number.
The patient’s phone services were temporarily unavailable which is often seen in prepaid phones.
Troubleshooting Steps For Failed Messages
If you do see a failed message within a patient’s Recent Messaging Activity here are some steps that can be taken to help isolate the cause:
Verify the time the message attempted to send and see if it aligns with CareMessage’s default global messaging hours of 7 AM and 9 PM to send messages (Note: these hours can vary depending on the feature).
Confirm if the patient shares a phone number with another patient profile that has opted out of messaging.
Verifying if a patient is using a shared number can be done two different ways.
Navigating to the patient's profile will display "Shared number" next to their name, sex, and age.
The Patient Info section of their profile will display "Shared" next to the phone number.
If this shows the patient is using a shared number you can verify if any of the profiles sharing this number have opted out of messaging.
This can be checked by performing a patient search of the shared phone number.
Then by checking each patient’s Enrollment Info section to see if the Global Opt-Out Method field indicates this patient opted out of messaging.
Verify if all messages sent to this patient failed or just the most recent.
If all messages have failed and this may indicate an issue with the phone number being used.
This is often a result of a landline number being used in their profile as a mobile number, so reaching out to the patient with a phone call may help confirm this.
If only the most recent message has failed it’s worth confirming if the patient has recently had their phone number updated within your organization’s EHR or within CareMessage.
If the number was recently changed we recommend calling the patient to confirm if the phone number should be listed as a landline instead and ensuring this gets updated as needed.
Verify if messages are only failing through the Messenger feature and are being delivered successfully through other features, such as Appointment Reminders.
Navigating to the patient's profile and viewing the Recent Messaging Activity section will allow you to see all messages sent to the patient across all features.
If messages are only failing through the Messenger feature, confirm if they have a mobile number listed in their profile.
This can be done by navigating to the patient's profile and viewing their Patient Info section to see if their phone number is listed as a Mobile or Landline number.
We often see examples where the patient’s Recent Messaging Activity may show successful messages, but attempts within Messenger result in a failed message. This can occur if the patient’s phone number is only listed as a landline number. If this number can support text messaging you can try updating their profile to have this number also be listed as a mobile number before attempting to send the message again.
Unsure Why A Message Failed?
Contact our Support team by emailing us at [email protected] so we can investigate this further.
When reaching out to our Support team please do not include any PHI through email.
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