As the Administrator of Genie, you may sometimes receive a task warning you about unsent letters on your server. This article will detail why you receive these tasks and what you need to do to deal with these.
Before you begin
It's a good idea to familiarise yourself with the third party carrier software you use to send outgoing letters (e.g. Healthlink, Argus, Medical Objects etc). Having an understanding of where this software is configured will assist you in locating the relevant outgoing folder directory mentioned in the warning task much quicker. You may need to discuss this with your nominated IT representative if you are unsure about where to find it.
Why do outgoing letters fail to send?
In most cases, if Genie is able to place letters in the correct outgoing folder, it means the letter has been successfully created and exported by Genie, it is just waiting to be sent by your third party carrier.
As seen in the task example below, there a few common reasons letters will fail to send via your nominated third party carrier:
Firstly, the third party carrier software may not be running, or there may be an issue preventing it from picking up and sending the letters.
Secondly, there may be an issue with the folder permissions of the relevant outgoing directory, preventing those letters from moving out of the folder.
Thirdly, there can be a delay between the time Genie places the letter in the outgoing folder and the time the letter is actually sent by your third party carrier. If it remains in the folder overnight, Genie will recognise this and send a task to notify you.
How do I check the status of these letters?
Server access
In order to find the outgoing letters and troubleshoot why these are not sending, you will need access to your Genie Server computer, or the computer where your third party carrier is installed. If you do not have access to this computer, you will need to speak with your nominated IT representative to organise access.
Check the third party carrier software
Once you have access to the relevant computer, confirm which third party carrier you use to send your letters and locate the Outgoing folder. This will usually be located in the C:\Genie\ folder on Windows and Macintosh HD:Applications:Genie on a Mac.
If you have found the letters and they are still sitting in the Outgoing folder, check to ensure the third party carrier software is running and working normally. If not, contact the support team for that software to troubleshoot further.
If you use Healthlink as your third party carrier, please see our article on Healthlink for more information.
Check the permission on the Outgoing folder
If the third party carrier software is running without issue but the letters are still not sending, check the folder permissions by right clicking on the Outgoing folder itself and selecting Properties. You can then open the Security tab and ensure the relevant groups and users have full Read and Write access to the folder. In this window, you can click the Edit button to make any changes to the permissions.
If you do not have access to edit these permissions, please speak with your nominated IT.
Please Note: If you have checked the above options and the letters are still in the Outgoing folder, you will need to contact the third party carrier software directly for further advice.
Letters not appearing in Outgoing folder
Letters already sent
You have received an unsent letters task, but upon checking the relevant Outgoing folder for your chosen carrier there are no letters waiting to be sent. In this case, it's possible the letters referenced in the task have been sent after the task was generated.
Genie will generate an unsent letter task at midnight (12am) for any letters created that day that are still in the relevant Outgoing folder directory.
If your Genie Server is not running at midnight, the task will be generated the next time it is re-launched if there are still letters remaining in the Outgoing folder from the previous day.
Checking the Correspondence Log
To confirm the date and time letters were sent out of Genie, in Client navigate to Open > Correspondence Log > Sent tab. This window will show when your letters were exported out of Genie to the Outgoing folder of your carrier.
If you can see a difference between the day they were exported out of Genie and the day they were sent by your carrier, this may explain why you have received an unsent letter task.
In this case, you can confirm with the carrier themselves if they have sent the letters, then disregard the task if they have.
Multiple Outgoing folder directories
In addition to the above scenario, it's also possible there is more than one Outgoing folder for the third party carrier on the network which may be housing the letters. You may need to consult with your nominated IT/third party carrier to confirm in this is the case.
With the introduction of attachments to Online Patient Registration, patients now have the ability to send attachments as part of their online registration forms. When these are sent, Genie receives an acknowledgement file for each attachment. These acknowledgement files are placed in the Genie > GenieSync > Outgoing folder on the Genie Server computer.
From here, the expected behaviour is the the acknowledgement files are automatically moved out of the Outgoing folder. Currently these files are not being removed, which is triggering an unsent letter warning task, referencing the GenieSync Outgoing folder as seen below:
Our developers are aware of this issue and are currently working on a fix. Until a fix is implemented, you can manually delete these acknowledgement files from the Genie > GenieSync > Outgoing folder on your server computer. It is safe to do this as the files do not contain any content.
Once the files are removed, you will no longer receive an unsent letter task relating to the Genie Sync folder.
Comments
0 comments