Welcome to Pigeon! Pigeon is a messaging tool designed to help you communicate with your patients quickly and easily.

To set up your account with Pigeon you will need the administrator for your provider to send you an invite. This invite will include a link to download the Pigeon app, or you can search “Pigeon Health” in the app store.

Once you open the Pigeon app click “Register now” at the bottom of the screen. Use the email address or phone number that your administrator used to setup your account.

You will be sent a code to verify your identity at the email address or phone number associated with your account. Enter this code to proceed.

Once you have verified your identity, you can finish setting up your account by adding a password and a pin.

The password will be used to login to your account on the phone or in the web app. Passwords must be at least 10 characters and contain a capital letter, number, and special character OR be longer than 16 characters (this is called a passphrase).

The pin is used to unlock the app on your phone when you’re not using it.

Consult your office administrator for a list of best practices using Pigeon. Different offices may have different rules.

You’ll spend most of your time in Pigeon using the messaging tab. Messaging in Pigeon works almost exactly like sending text messages on your phone. Just select the patient you want to message, type your message and hit send.

You can also add pictures to a message.

In Pigeon, you’ll be able to see all of the patients on your team. Teams can be used to organize patients and staff members however you would like.

For example, if your office has receptionists who handle all of the scheduling and back of office staff who handle all of the care, then you could have two teams. One team would be for scheduling, and one would be for care.

Each team has a unique phone number. When a patient sends a text to that phone number, or a message to that team in the app, then that message will go to every staff member on that team. For example, if a patient texted your scheduling team, then that message would go to the receptionists and not the doctors.

This way, staff members on the care team wouldn’t be inundated with messages about scheduling and vice versa.

You can choose whether to receive notifications for a patient by joining or leaving the conversation. By default, every staff member on the team joins the conversation when the patient is added to Pigeon.

At any point, you can ping another staff member from within a conversation, and they will receive a notification encouraging them to check the conversation. This way you can assign someone on your staff to read new messages and alert the appropriate staff members.

Teams are used to organize patients and staff members to fit your workflow.

Each team has a unique phone number. When a patient sends a text to that phone number, or a message to that team in the app, then that message will go to every staff member on that team.

For example, your office might have a scheduling team and a care team. If a patient texted your scheduling team, then that message would go to the receptionists and not the doctors.

This way, staff members on the care team wouldn’t be inundated with messages about scheduling and vice versa.

To set up your teams log in to the Pigeon web app and go to the"Teams" tab.

Note: only admins have the ability to edit teams and create new teams. Whoever set up your account is an admin. They have the ability to make other staff members admins as well.

To add a new team, click "Add team." Your team will need a name and an area code. Once it is created it will be randomly assigned a phone number with that area code.

Once you have created your team you can select it, and then add staff members to that team.

To add a staff member login to the Pigeon web app and navigate to the staff tab. Click “Add Staff.”

To add a staff member you will need a name, email address and optional phone number, a role and they have to be on at least one team.

A mobile phone number is optional, but if one is added to a staff member’s account they can use it to register their account or reset their password. After you add a phone number to a staff member they’ll receive a text asking them to confirm their identity by replying with their last name. Their phone number will show up as unconfirmed and they won’t be able to use it until they reply with their last name.

You can add staff to as many teams as you’d like, but they have to be on at least one.

Roles are used to determine who can perform which functions. Here is a table of the different roles and their permissions:

Admin, Doctors - Add teams and staff, as well as the permissions below\ Schedulers - Add patients and appointments, as well as the permissions below\ Medical Assistant, Nurse Practitioner, Nurse - Send and receive messages

To add a patient, click the “Patients” link in the sidebar. On the “Patients” page click the “Add Patient” button.

Every patient has to have a name, email address AND/OR phone number, and birthdate. You must also select whether the patient has signed the consent form yet and one team for the patient to be on (you can add them to multiple teams later).

The email address and phone number determine whether the patient can access the patient app or can respond through SMS. Add an email address to let the patient log in to the patient app, and a phone number to communicate via SMS.

SMS is easier for most patients to use, but carries higher security risks as SMS messages cannot be encrypted outside of Pigeon.

When a patient is first added to the system they will show up in the Messages screen as unconfirmed. To avoid sending PHI to the wrong number, a patient must confirm their identity using their birthdate.

All patients have to go through the confirmation process.

Once a patient is confirmed, if they have not signed a waiver they will be prompted to sign one electronically.

The Pigeon system will not prevent staff from communicating with patients when they have not signed a waiver. However, there will be a red bar present indicating they have not signed. Be very careful about transmitting any PHI without a signed waiver.

Adding an appointment will schedule appointment reminders for the patient. Reminders will be sent automatically when the appointment is added as well as one week and one day before the scheduled appointment.

To schedule an appointment go to the appointments screen and click the “Add Appointment” button. Select a patient, use the calendar to pick a date and time, select a team and then click save.