In order to help explain the program, and to allow testing, the program has a simulator mode.
To use the simulator, run the application with the command line parameter -simulator
.
In this mode, the application does not connect to the PMS or to Twilio to send real SMS messages. Instead, two additional tabs display:
- for creating and managing appointments (Pms Simulator), and
- sending and receiving SMS messages (Sms Simulator).
To simulate receiving a message, enter the full form of the mobile number (e.g. +61411555555
) into the Receive From
field, a sample message into the SMS Message
field, and then hit Add to Incoming
.
Sent Messages
on the right is a log of all the messages that the application has sent.
This allows you to create and edit appointments using a simplified interface, as if they were being created by a Practice Management System.
You can add appointments, select existing appointments, or delete them. The application will generate SMS messages etc as if they are real appointments - which will appear in the SMS simulator, and responses entered as incoming messages will update the appointment status accordingly.
One common reason for selecting an appointment and updating is to move an appointment from arrived
to fulfilled
to trigger the message to the patient to please come in.
Field Documentation:
- Patient Name: The patient's name.
- Mobile Phone: The mobile phone for the patient. Unlike the Sms Simulator, no specific format is required here - but use the formats as approved for data entry in the (imaginary) PMS - typically something like
0411 555 555
. - Practitioner Name: The name of the practitioner. Note that the application keeps track of the names and assigns them identifiers in the background, which drives the Room Mapping Entries.
- Appointment Date: The date of the appointment in
dd-mmm yyyy
format. There's generally no reason to create appointments for testing for anything but today or tomorrow. - Appointment Time: The time of the appointment in
hh:mm
format. - Arrival Status: One of
Booked
,Arrived
,Fulfilled
. There's generally no point creating new appointments with a value of anything other thanBooked
.
The check box is for whether the appointment has been labelled as a video appointment or not by the SMS workflow.