Spruce team chat lets team members communicate with each other securely inside the Spruce app, both within and separate from patient-facing conversations. Teams can send direct messages, create group chats, ping colleagues with internal paging, and leave internal notes on patient conversations - all within the same interface used for patient communication.
IN THIS ARTICLE
Introduction to internal team communication
If you are the only user on your Spruce account, you will not have access to team communication. Once a second user joins your account, you will then have access to team-specific features like secure, internal team communication. Team conversations are similar to patient conversations, with the ability to send messages back and forth to teammates securely from the Spruce app. Within an internal team communication, you can also send a digital Page to a teammate. Paging is a means of notifying yourself or another teammate of a conversation thread that requires action or acknowledgement.
Team Conversations
Your team conversations will show up in the Team section. You can elect to create team conversations that include every person on your account or you can have private, secure chats with specific teammates––only the teammates who are listed as a member of that team conversation will have access.
Creating new team conversations
To initiate a new team conversation from the mobile app, navigate to the Team tab at the bottom of the screen. Select the black circle icon with two profiles in the lower right-hand corner and select New Team Conversation.
To initiate a new team conversation form the web, navigate to the Team filter on the left-hand side of your screen. Select the "New" button, and then select "Team Conversation".
1. Define the subject of the conversation. This is an optional field, but it could be helpful to define what you hope to accomplish with this conversation, i.e., "Admin Update," "Upcoming holiday", etc.
2. Define the members of this conversation. Any member of the conversation will be able to view and participate in the team conversation. You can either type in the names of other teammates on your account, or select the plus icon to get a full list. If you select the name of your account as a member, this will automatically include every single teammate on your account––it also means that future teammates that are added to your account will automatically have access to this conversation. If you select a group as one of the members, every teammate in that group will have access to the conversation.
3. Type your message, and select send!
Adding/removing members from existing team conversations
If you created a team conversation, or you are included as a member in a team conversation, you can add additional people to the conversation or remove existing people. If you add a new person to the conversation, they will have access to the existing conversation history and future conversation history. If you remove a person from the conversation a note will be posted to the conversation indicating that you removed that person.
From Mobile App
To remove a member from a team conversation select the (i) icon in the top right-hand corner of the team conversation. Then, tap on the member's name that you'd like to remove and then select "Remove from Conversation".
To add a member to a team select the (i) icon in the top right-hand corner of the team conversation. Then, select Add Team or Teammates and select the Team or Teammate's name that you'd like to add.
From Web
To remove a member from a team conversation from the web, select the (i) icon in the top right-hand corner of the team conversation. Then, select "Edit" next to members. Select the (x) icon next to the member's name or team that you'd like to remove from the conversation.
To add a member to a team conversation from the web, select the (i) icon in the top right-hand corner of the team conversation. Then, select "Edit" next to members. Type in the name of the teammate or Team that you'd like to add to the conversation under "Add Member" where it says, "Search by name".
Using the Notes feature for Internal Communication
Larger practices often use Spruce to collaborate on patient care. This might involve internal discussion of a patient’s billing questions, clinical communication between providers, or relaying of patient requests from administrative staff to clinicians. Within a conversation, "internal notes" (yellow messages on Spruce) can be used to accomplish these tasks easily and effectively, but the situation can become complex when there are multiple active conversations for a single patient. If your practice needs a way to discuss a patient's care outside of any specific conversation thread, or needs to be sure that the internal discussion is accessible to team members who may not have access to all conversations, one great solution is to use the new "Note" feature to communicate! Learn more about internal communication using notes.
Paging
Paging is a way to alert a member of your team that there is something they should review or take action on. Paging exists within an internal note of a patient conversation or team chat and is never visible to patients. You can also page yourself to serve as a reminder of what you need to follow up on, or to refer back to the topic if it's something important.
Page a teammate within a patient conversation
1. Open a conversation and select Internal Note at the bottom of the screen. The compose bar will turn yellow.
2. Select the @ symbol below the compose bar.
3. A list of all the teammates and Teams on your account will appear. Select the person or multiple people you'd like to Page.
4. Compose your message to accompany the Page, then select Post.
When you Page a teammate, the conversation will become available in their Pages filter and they will receive a notification. The Page will continue to exist in their Pages filter until that Page is resolved.
If you Page an entire Team, everyone who is a member of that team will receive the Page––for example, if you Page the Admin Team and Teammate A, B, and C are in the Admin Team they will all receive a notification. If anyone resolves the Page for the Admin Team it will no longer appear in their Pages filter.
Page a teammate or Team within a Team conversation
You can Page a teammate or Team within an existing team conversation. If you attempt to Page a teammate or Team who is not an existing member of that Team conversation, you will be prompted to add them as a member to the conversation. This will mean that they will have access to all prior communication that has occurred in that conversation.
1. Open the team conversation and select the @ symbol below the compose bar.
2. A list of all the teammates and Teams on your account will appear. Select the person or multiple people you'd like to page.
3. Compose your message to accompany the Page, then select Send.
Paging yourself
Paging yourself is a great way to remind yourself of tasks you need to complete or to flag a message for later reference. When you Page yourself, the conversation will appear in your Pages filter just as if a teammate had Paged you. You can resolve Pages from yourself in the same way, by opening the conversation and selecting Resolve Page.
Resolving a Page
Once you have completed the task or acknowledged the message associated with a Page, you can resolve the Page to indicate it is complete. When a Page is resolved, it will no longer show up in your Pages filter.
Simply select the Resolve Page bubble within the Page to resolve it.
Pages Oversight for Administrators
Pages Oversight allows Administrators to view unresolved Pages across the entire organization for all teammates, teams, and deleted teammates (with unresolved Pages). This feature is only available to Administrators through the web and is not available in the mobile apps.
Filter for teammates, teams, and deleted teammates
The default view for Pages Oversight will display all unresolved pages across your entire organization. Use the dropdown filter in the upper right below search to view pages for a specific team or teammate.
Deleted teammates will also appear in the dropdown filter if they have unresolved pages. Once their unresolved pages are resolved, they will no longer be accessible in the filter.
Resolving Pages in Oversight
To resolve a page or view a conversation, simply tap the row to open a preview of the conversation. This preview will allow you to resolve pages or reply to messages without leaving Pages Oversight. Navigate through additional conversations in this view by tapping the right and left arrows on your keyboard.
Note: Filters within Pages Oversight cannot be saved. If you’d like to save a specific Pages Oversight filter, we recommend bookmarking the URL.
Conversation Membership in Pages Oversight
Conversation membership and privacy are respected in Pages Oversight. If the administrator is not a member of a conversation, they can only see that the conversation contains an unresolved page and who the page is for. The conversation will be marked in gray, and the contents cannot be viewed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a way to message colleagues privately inside Spruce without patients seeing it?
Yes. Spruce includes secure team chat and internal notes, both visible only to team members.
How does Spruce’s internal paging work?
Internal paging in Spruce lets you alert a specific team member or team by pinging them in an internal note inside a conversation, triggering a notification for that person and creating a 'task' for them.