The Communication Center gives your team one centralized place to manage patient conversations and quickly identify which messages need attention.
With clearer conversation statuses and improved visibility, your team can easily see what's new, what still needs a response, and what has already been handled.
Communication Center Overview
Watch the video below for a complete walkthrough of the Communication Center and its key features.
Accessing the Communication Center
Click the Messages/SMS icon in the floating navigation bar at the bottom of Practice by Numbers.
When you first open the Communication Center, it doesn't automatically select a conversation. Select a conversation from the inbox to view the message history and begin working with it.
This helps reduce the chance of accidentally sending a message from the wrong conversation.
Understanding Unread and Needs Reply
Two of the most important statuses in the Communication Center are Unread and Needs Reply.
While they may seem similar, they tell you two different things about a conversation.
Unread
Unread means a patient message has not yet been viewed. Once a team member opens the conversation and views the message, it is no longer considered Unread.
Needs Reply
Needs Reply means the conversation is still waiting for a response from your practice.
Opening a message does not necessarily remove it from Needs Reply. For example, if a team member opens a patient's message but doesn't have time to respond, the message is no longer Unread—but the conversation can remain under Needs Reply.
This allows your team to review messages without worrying about conversations disappearing from the follow-up workflow.
Unread vs. Needs Reply
Unread and Needs Reply serve two different purposes.
Unread tells you whether you've viewed a message.
Needs Reply tells you whether the conversation still requires a response.
For example, opening a patient's message removes its Unread status. If you do not respond, however, the conversation can continue to display Needs Reply.
This makes it easier to distinguish between messages your team hasn't viewed yet and conversations that still require follow-up.
Keeping Patient Communication Organized
In addition to message statuses, the Communication Center includes tools to help your team organize and manage conversations.
You can:
Search for conversations
Filter your inbox
Assign conversations to team members
Pin important conversations
Close completed conversations
Manage multiple conversations at once
Send SMS messages and Internal Notes
Use templates and messaging tools
Access Patient Overview and Quick Actions
These tools work together to help your team maintain a clear, actionable patient communication workflow.
What's Next?
For step-by-step instructions on organizing and working through your inbox, see Managing Your Communication Center Inbox.
For information about sending messages, using Internal Notes, templates, Quick Actions, and other messaging tools, see Messaging, Notes, Templates & Tools.
For information about automatically closing older conversations, see Automation & Closure Rules.