⚠️ Important: This is currently a beta feature. It will be available once the beta period is complete.
The Inbox is where all of your incoming communication takes place. Everything from lab results to faxes (if integrated with our faxing service) to intra-office communication is stored here. In addition, the Inbox is where personal task management within the TELUS Collaborative Health Record (CHR) takes place.
On the Inbox icon on the main menu, a red circle with a number indicates how many new messages you have in your inbox. This is an indication for only your inbox. If you work out of a different user's inbox, you do not see a count of new messages for them (for example, a receptionist working from the provider's inbox or a shared fax inbox).
Viewing user inboxes
There is a tab for each open inbox. Your inbox always appears first, followed by others in alphabetical order by first name. Click the tabs to switch between different users' inboxes. If you have many open inboxes, use the arrow icon at the end of the row to view more. Depending on how your CHR is set up, you may have some generic inboxes, for example Account and Fax and Misc Labs. These inboxes might be used for items that do not relate to a specific user, for example incoming faxes, miscellaneous labs or anonymous Qnaires.
The tabs display the user's name and the number of items in the inbox that match the current filters, with a blue bubble indicating unread items.
Identifying types of inbox items
There are different types of inbox items, easily identifiable with specific icons:
Icon | Description |
 | Fax |
 | Internal message. For more information, refer to Creating and sending messages to users. 📌 Note: The blue circle indicates how many new messages are in that conversation. |
 | Qnaire response. Refer to Viewing Qnaire responses. |
 | Integrated lab report, such as Excelleris. Refer to Reviewing incoming lab reports (providers). 📌 Notes:
|
 | Documents/files. Refer to |
 | Patient portal Messages sent via the patient portal or CHR Connect. Refer to Sending messages to patients. |
 | Failed fax. Refer to Integrated eFax failure reasons (or SRFax fax failure reasons if you are not yet using Integrated eFax). |
Viewing a list of inbox items
The items in the inbox appear in a table format. Unread items are bold with a light blue background and blue bar at the left side. Read items are not bold and have a white background.
💡 Tip: As a best practice, minimize the outstanding items in your Inbox by marking items as done once complete, or snoozing those you need to address later. The Inbox takes longer to load when it contains more items. You can also filter your inbox using the filters at the top. For more information, refer to Filtering the inbox.
Each item has the following columns:
Icon | Description |
Mass action checkbox
| You can select one or multiple items and simultaneously apply an action to them without having to open the inbox items.  Refer to Performing mass actions in the inbox. |
Priority
| You can identify urgent inbox items by their red indicator.  📌 Note: If you receive an urgent item, regardless of where you are in the CHR, a pop-up notification appears indicating you have an urgent inbox item. Click the notification to go directly to the item. |
Date | The date associated with an inbox item, which changes according to the status.
Active items show the date they were received. For ongoing conversations, this is the message's most recent reply date. For previously snoozed items, this is the date the item returned to your inbox.
Snoozed items show the date the item is snoozed until, along with a clock icon. When a snoozed inbox item returns to an active status, the snoozed information is also shown in blue. 
Done items show the date they were marked done, along with a checkmark.
💡 Tip: Hover over the date to see the time. |
Patient | The patient's name appears if the item is attached to a patient.
Click the name to open the patient chart, or hover over the name to view the demographics snapshot. |
Star | Star an inbox item to mark it as important. You can then sort the inbox to show starred items first. Refer to
📌 Note: Starring an item is not user-specific. When you add a star to an inbox item, it is visible to everyone. Anyone with access to the inbox item can add or remove the star. |
Summary | Shows the type of item, its title and any attachments. 📌 Note: For Messages and Patient portal types, the first line of text also appears.
Attachment details appear on the right side. If there is only one attachment, the type of attachment and the file name appear. If there are multiple attachments, the number of attachments appears; click to see a list of them. 
💡 Tip: Click an attachment to open it without first opening the inbox item. |
Category | Assign a category to an inbox item for a more nuanced organization.
This is especially helpful when you have different types of files or faxes and you want to quickly differentiate them.
Hover over the item, click + Category and select the appropriate category. To change or remove a category, click the arrow beside the category.
📌 Note: You cannot create your own categories. |
Sender | The name and avatar of the person who sent the message or uploaded the item. If the item was forwarded, the name of the person who forwarded it is shown.
For labs, this shows the name of the lab vendor.
For faxes, the contact name appears if the fax number is in your Contacts; otherwise, the fax number displays.
In some cases, this shows Automated System. For example, for messages automatically generated through PrescribeIT®.
The type of inbox item also appears for reference. For example, File or Fax. |
Quick actions | You can quickly perform common actions on the inbox item without opening it.
Hover over the inbox item and click the Quick actions (kebab) menu to the far right.
Depending on the type of item and status, you can:
|
Adding inbox items
The following buttons are available at the top of the inbox to create or upload new inbox items:
 | Upload documents. Refer to Uploading documents to your inbox. |
 | If you are in Ontario and are set up for HRM labs, click to download new labs from HRM. Refer to Downloading HRM reports (Ontario). |
 | Send new messages to other users within your CHR domain. Refer to Creating and sending messages to users. |
For more information, refer to:
Updated January 30, 2025