The Communications Center allows your team to manage all patient conversations in one centralized location. With filtering, assignment, and visibility tools, your team can quickly identify which messages require attention, avoid duplicate responses, and ensure timely follow-up with patients.
Why This Matters
Managing patient communication efficiently is critical to:
Preventing missed messages and lost opportunities
Ensuring timely responses to patients
Improving team accountability and coordination
Keeping front office workflows organized throughout the day
Accessing the Communications Center
Click the SMS icon in the floating bar at the bottom of any page in Practice by Numbers to open the Communications Center.
What You’ll See Upon Opening
When the Communications Center opens, the right panel remains blank until a conversation is selected. This ensures your team intentionally selects and responds to the correct conversation before typing.
Viewing & Navigating Conversations
Select a conversation from the left panel to open the message thread on the right. Use the search bar to locate conversations by patient name or phone number.
Sorting
Use the sort arrows next to the search bar to toggle between:
Newest → Oldest — Best for real-time, day-of workflows
Oldest → Newest — Best for reviewing message history
Use the search bar to locate conversations by:
Patient name
Phone number
Using Filters to Prioritize Work
Filters allow your team to quickly focus on what needs attention instead of manually reviewing every conversation.
Filters let your team focus on what needs attention rather than manually reviewing every conversation. Click Filters in the header to expand the filter panel.
Type
All — Shows every conversation
Open — Active conversations
Closed — Resolved or closed conversations
Status
Unread — Not yet opened by any team member
Read — Viewed by at least one team member
Responded — A reply has been sent from the practice
Unresponded — Opened but no reply has been sent yet
Assignment
Me — Conversations assigned directly to you
Unassigned — Conversations with no assigned owner
Understanding the Difference: Unread vs. Unresponded
These two statuses are distinct, and both matter.
Unread = New incoming message: An unread message has not been opened by anyone on the team. These are your highest-priority items — the patient is waiting for a first response
Unresponded = Opened but no reply sent: An unresponded message has been seen by a team member, but no reply has gone out. This is where follow-ups get missed.
Example: A team member opens a message mid-conversation, gets interrupted, and moves on. The message is now read but still unresponded. Without filtering for Unresponded, this message can easily be overlooked.
Recommended daily order:
Filter by Unread — handle new inbound communication first
Filter by Unresponded — catch any missed follow-ups
Filter by Me — work through your assigned conversations
Read Visibility (Team Coordination)
Each conversation displays which team member has viewed the message. This prevents multiple staff members from responding to the same patient and helps identify who is responsible for next steps.
Assignment & Ownership
Assign conversations to specific team members to ensure clear accountability. Use the Me filter to focus on your own queue and Unassigned to identify conversations that still need an owner.
Managing Conversations
Pinning (Prioritization)
Pin conversations to keep them at the top of your inbox in a dedicated Pinned section.
When to pin:
Patients needing same-day follow-up
Active treatment discussions
High-priority or urgent communication
Conversation Actions
Right-click a conversation or click the three-dot menu to access:
Assign — Assign to a specific team member
Move/Mark — Move to a different inbox or update status
Pin — Pin to the top of the list
Block — Block the phone number from future inbound messages
Closing Conversations
Close a conversation when the patient's’s issue is resolved and no further follow-up is needed. Closed conversations move out of the active view and can be accessed by filtering by Closed type.
Multi-Select (Bulk Actions)
Use multi-select to take action on several conversations at once. Common uses:
End-of-day inbox cleanup
Assigning multiple conversations in bulk
Closing a batch of completed conversations
Recommended Daily Workflow
Open Communications Center
Review Unread messages — respond to new inbound communication
Review Unresponded messages — catch any missed follow-ups
Check Me filter — work through assigned conversations
Pin high-priority conversations for visibility
Use multi-select to close or organize completed conversations at end of day