Communications
Qliva's Communications module automates patient email and SMS notifications triggered by clinical events — appointment confirmations, results notifications, follow-up sequences, and more. It operates silently in the background, keeping patients informed without manual effort from your team.
How communications work
Every outbound communication in Qliva is based on a template (the content) and triggered by an event (the clinical action). Templates can be used individually via built-in triggers, or assembled into multi-step sequences for longer patient journeys.
Communication templates
Navigate to Admin Portal → Communications → Templates to manage your templates.
Each template has:
- Name — internal reference name (not shown to patients)
- Channel — Email or SMS
- Subject — Email subject line (email templates only)
- Body — The message content, with support for dynamic variables
Template variables
Use double-brace syntax to insert dynamic content:
| Variable | Output |
|---|---|
{{patient_name}} | Patient's first name |
{{patient_full_name}} | Patient's full name |
{{practitioner_name}} | Practitioner's name |
{{clinic_name}} | Your clinic's name |
{{appointment_date}} | Date of the appointment |
{{appointment_time}} | Time of the appointment |
{{appointment_type}} | Appointment type name |
{{telehealth_link}} | Video call URL (telehealth appointments only) |
{{portal_url}} | Link to the patient portal |
Variables are replaced with real values at send time. If a variable is unavailable for a specific send (e.g. {{telehealth_link}} on an in-person appointment), it is replaced with an empty string.
Keep SMS templates short — most carriers support up to 160 characters per message segment. Longer messages are split into multiple segments and charged accordingly.
Built-in triggers
Qliva includes five built-in event triggers that fire automatically when specific clinical events occur:
appointment_booked
Fires when any appointment is created — either by a practitioner or through the patient self-booking portal.
Use this to send: appointment confirmation, telehealth link (if applicable), preparation instructions.
appointment_rescheduled
Fires when an existing appointment is moved to a new time or date.
Use this to send: updated appointment details with the new date and time.
consult_note_signed
Fires when a practitioner signs a consult note, indicating the consultation is formally documented.
Use this to send: a notification that the consultation summary is ready in the patient portal.
pathology_results_released
Fires when a practitioner releases pathology results to the patient portal.
Use this to send: a notification that new results are available to view, with a link to the portal.
patient_inactivity
Fires when a patient has had no appointment for a configurable number of days (default: 90 days).
Use this to send: a re-engagement message inviting the patient to book their next appointment.
To activate a trigger:
- Go to Admin Portal → Communications → Triggers
- Find the trigger
- Select a template to send
- Enable the trigger
Triggers can be paused or changed at any time.
Communication sequences
Sequences are multi-step automated journeys. For example: a three-email onboarding sequence sent to new patients over their first two weeks.
Creating a sequence
- Navigate to Admin Portal → Communications → Sequences → New Sequence
- Give the sequence a name
- Set the trigger event — what starts the sequence (e.g. patient enrolled in a membership)
- Add steps:
- Select a template
- Set the day offset — when to send relative to the trigger (Day 0 = immediately, Day 3 = 3 days later, etc.)
- Save and activate the sequence
Sequence triggers
| Trigger | Fires when |
|---|---|
patient_enrolled | A new patient record is created |
membership_started | A patient begins a membership |
appointment_completed | An appointment is marked as completed |
Sequence behaviour
When a trigger fires, Qliva expands the sequence into individual scheduled messages — one per step — calculated from the trigger date. Each message is sent by the cron engine at the scheduled time.
A patient can be in multiple sequences simultaneously. Qliva does not automatically deduplicate — if a patient triggers the same sequence twice, they receive it twice. Configure your sequences carefully.
Send history and analytics
Navigate to Admin Portal → Communications → Logs to see every message sent, including:
- Patient name and template used
- Send timestamp and channel (email/SMS)
- Delivery status (sent, delivered, failed)
- Open and click events (email only)
If a message fails to deliver, the log shows the error reason. Common causes: invalid email address, SMS number not in international format, Resend delivery failure.
Compliance note
All automated patient communications must comply with the Australian Spam Act 2003. Ensure patients have consented to receive marketing communications before sending re-engagement emails. Transactional communications (appointment confirmations, result notifications) are exempt from spam consent requirements.
Last updated 2026-05-15