In September 2022, Accushield introduced a set of enhancements to our Group SMS communication tools to support sending text messages to all visitors, staff, and residents/patients. Today, as part of our ongoing commitment to facility communication, we are thrilled to announce the launch of our Connect product line (formerly known as ‘Group SMS’). The goal of the Connect product line is to streamline messaging to staff, residents, and all building visitors. With advanced SMS communication tools, you can provide targeted, timely, and personalized communications.

The Connect product line solves your communication pain points:

• Do you have upcoming events at the facility? Use Connect to send a text to staff and residents about upcoming events.
• Do you need to prep for upcoming inclement weather, or do you have an emergency that may require an evacuation? With Connect you can send a text reminder to all staff, residents, and visitors to sign-out in a timely manner.
• Do you have to communicate to a specific set of individuals related to the health/welfare of a resident? Filter and select the visitors and staffs who need to know.

Introducing our Connect Overview Page

Our Groups SMS functions have been centralized to create the CONNECT product line, and the ‘Overview’ page is designed to simplify and improve your experience.
CONNECT Overview Page benefits include:

• Centralized Functionality: All configuration has been centralized so you can easily access key communication settings, text consent policy, and reporting
• Data Insights: A chart of the past 12 months of message history is available. Data visualizations have been created to provide insights into current month usage as well as staff data that may require clean up (e.g., staff missing mobile phone numbers)
• Reusable Message Templates: You also have the ability to create and access ‘template’ messages. These templates can be leveraged to gain efficiencies when communicating community events, staffing announcements, and more . . .

Send a Message in Seconds, Using an Existing Template.

Community administrators can now create up to ten (10) template messages that can be reused for repeat communications. A template can be configured from the CONNECT Overview page, or a user can simply save a newly created message as a template.

Leverage ‘Variables’ and Make your Messages Personal

You can now dynamically address recipients by their name (first, last, or both) to create personalized messages.
Variables Include:

• [First Name]
• [Last Name]
• [Community Name]
• [Visitor Type]

Below is an example of a template message with variables:

• Template: “Hello [First Name]. As a reminder, we are holding our [Visitor Type] appreciation lunch on Friday at noon at the [Community Name] event center. We are looking forward to seeing you there!”
• Actual Message: “Hello Abe. As a reminder, we are holding our Staff appreciation lunch on Friday at noon at the Accushield Corporate Office event center. We are looking forward to seeing you there!”

Control who Receives the Message

The redesigned group filtering and selection process allows you to custom select individuals to receive messages with checkbox functionality. Group messages are no longer limited to bulk-send by visitor type, and individuals can be ‘deselected’ from the receiver list at any time.

With this new feature, you will be able to quickly and easily notify certain staff members about shift changes, update family members about a resident health status, or reach out to certain vendors about required documentation. Your time is valuable, and we want to help boost efficiency in your community!

What’s next?

The CONNECT product line will continue to advance throughout 2023.

Key upcoming features include:

• Supporting both email and text messaging.

• Advanced filtering

• View all emails and texts sent to individuals via the individuals’ profile.

Our integration partnerships have expanded with Point Click Care and MatrixCare to include more resident and patient information, so we will have additional ways to communicate with residents, patients and loved ones very soon!

There are many more exciting updates coming this Spring and Summer!

Accushield is dedicated to continual improvement across all application experiences (kiosk, mobile app, and dashboard), making them more consistent, accessible, and intuitive for all users.

Accushield is a healthcare technology company. Our onsite hardware and software provide visitor/staff management, infection prevention and control, and health/safety compliance via automation and reporting.