Send a Follow-Up Email Questionnaire to a Case Reporter

If a case is missing information, you can send an automated preconfigured follow-up questionnaire to the primary Case Reporter.

Note Beginning with 24R1 in April 2024 and for all subsequent releases, Vault Safety General Release Help content is moving to a new site. Test the new site using Limited Release content.

Note Depending on your Admin's configuration, object, field, and section labels, lifecycle states, and workflows may differ from the general information on this page. Refer to your organization's business processes for guidance.

Overview

This page provides instructions for users, such as case processors, on how to generate follow-up questionnaires for an AER, Inbox Item, or Case. For Admin instructions on how to configure the questionnaires, see Set Up Scheduled Follow-Up Questionnaire Emails.

There are two types of questionnaires that your Admin can set up:

  • Follow-Up Rule questionnaires
  • Watchlist questionnaires

The following sections describe these types, and how to trigger the generation of each. The questionnaire is sent to the primary Case Reporter.

Vault Safety automatically generates and emails the questionnaire to the primary Case Reporter when an AER, Inbox Item, or Case matches a questionnaire template and when you have recorded the reporter’s email address and consent to be contacted.

If the primary Reporter’s email or consent information does not exist, the questionnaire can be sent to the non-primary Reporter, if available. If there are multiple non-primary Reporters, the system picks the last created one.

Note The option to email the non-primary Reporter is available for only for Inbox Items and Cases, not AERs.

Prerequisite

Before you can trigger a follow-up questionnaire, your Admin must have already configured the questionnaire

Trigger Case Questionnaire Generation

  1. Go to the AER, Inbox Item, or Case for which you want to send a questionnaire.
  2. In the Details section, specify the following fields:
    1. Follow-Up Rule: Select the Follow-Up Rule for the questionnaires with which the system should attempt to match the AER, Inbox Item, or Case:
      • To evaluate the AER, Inbox Item, or Case for a certain Follow-Up Rule, select the rule from the picklist.
        The system also attempts to match the AER, Inbox Item, or Case with any Watchlist or MedDRA Term questionnaires, regardless of which option you select.
      • To omit Follow-Up Rules and evaluate the AER, Inbox Item, or Case for Watchlist or MedDRA Term questionnaires only, select Adverse Events of Interest.
    2. Send Follow-Up: Select this field.
      This field is required for the system to evaluate whether this AER, Inbox Item, or Case matches the criteria for one or more questionnaires. After running the process to generate questionnaires, the system clears this field.
    Follow-Up Questionnaire Fields in Case Details
    Follow-Up Questionnaire Fields in Case Details
  3. Go to one of the following areas to add the reporter's email and consent:
    • AER: Go to the Reporters section.
    • Inbox Item: Expand the Case Contacts section and go to the primary Case Contact record.
    • Case: Expand the Contacts section and go to the primary Case Contact record.
      This section may be named Reporters, depending on your Admin's configuration.
  4. Specify the following fields for the reporter:
    1. Email Address: Enter the reporter's email address.
      The system sends the questionnaire to this address.
    2. Email Consent Provided: If the reporter has provided their consent to be contacted for more information, select this field.
    If you do not have the primary Case Contact information, complete the above information for a non-primary Case Contact, if available.

    Both the email address and consent are required for the system to email the questionnaire automatically. If either of these fields are blank, the system creates a manual Correspondence instead.

    Note Questionnaires can be emailed to non-primary Reporters for Inbox Items and Cases only, not AERs. The system chooses the last created non-primary Reporter with an email address who has provided consent.

    Follow-Up Questionnaire Fields for Reporter
    Follow-Up Questionnaire Fields for Reporter

Result

The system will evaluate this Case against the Follow-Up Rule as well as any Watchlists or MedDRA Terms, depending on the option that you select in the Case Follow-Up Rule field. The system checks each Case with the Send Follow-Up checkbox selected once per day, at approximately midnight EST.

If there is a match to a questionnaire, the system will generate a Correspondence record for this Case. After evaluating the Case, the Send Follow-Up checkbox is cleared.

Next Steps

For automatic correspondence, once the reporter replies to the email, mark the Correspondence record as Completed to prevent the system from sending reminder emails.

Track and Monitor Correspondence

When a Case successfully triggers one or more questionnaires, the system generates a Correspondence record to track the request for follow-up information.

The system automatically generates the relevant questionnaire documents and attaches them to the Correspondence record.

Note Total attachment size cannot exceed 15MB.

If a Case triggers multiple questionnaires, they are attached and sent in the same Correspondence record. However, if there are questionnaires with different reply-to email addresses, the system generates a Correspondence record for each reply-to person.

View Case Correspondence

Generally there are the following ways to find Correspondence records, but depending on your Admin’s configuration these may vary:

  • To view all Correspondence, from the primary navigation bar, go to Transmissions > Correspondence.
  • To view Correspondence for a specific Case, go to that AER, Inbox Item, or Case. The Correspondence section will show the records.

    Note After promoting an AER to a Case, Correspondence is removed from the AER and moves to the promoted Case. After promoting an Inbox Item to a Case, Correspondence is included on both the Inbox Item and the Case.

Case Correspondence Fields

The following table describes the Correspondence fields and how the system populates these fields:

Field Description
Case The AER, Inbox Item, or Case for which the Correspondence record was generated.
Recipient (Case Contact) The Case Contact (Reporter) for which the Correspondence record was generated.
The system populates this field with the primary Reporter on a Case.
Recipient (Person) The Person record with the email information for the Reporter.
When generating Correspondence, the system creates an Email Person record for the recipient using the email and information for the Reporter on the AER, Inbox Item, or Case, if one doesn’t already exist for that person.
Correspondence Method

The method of transmission. The system automatically sets this field to either Email or Manual. If the method is Email, the system automatically sends the Transmission. See the Correspondence Events log to track the progress.

For more information on the differences between these, see the Correspondence Methods section.

Destination Email The email address for the questionnaire recipient.
Reply-To

The Person record with the email address that should be populated in the Reply-To field on the email transmission.

The system sets the Reply-To field using the contact preconfigured by an Admin on the questionnaire template.

Case Identifier The unique ID for the email subject line, being either the AER, Inbox Item, or Case name. The system does not change this field. If available, the system includes the WWUID value in the Case Identifier field. Otherwise, the system includes the External System UID in the Case Identifier field if this value is available.
Organization The system automatically populates the Organization from the Case and questionnaire.
Due Date The date when the first reminder email will be sent.
Transmission Date The date and time when the initial email was sent to the recipient.

View Questionnaires Attached to Correspondence

On the Correspondence record, expand Attachments to view its questionnaire documents.

Correspondence Events Log

For automatic emails, Vault Safety tracks certain key events in the Correspondence record. Review the events log to view these events and monitor when the email was sent and opened.

The system logs the following events:

Event Type Description
Initial Message Sent The initial email was sent to the recipient.
Follow-Up Message Sent A reminder email was sent to the recipient.
Message Opened An email was opened by the recipient.
Error The email could not be delivered to the recipient.

Note Consider the following when tracking email events:

  • Not all email addresses support full event tracking, depending on the recipient email server security settings.
  • Email receipt status updates may be delayed up to one hour.
  • Vault Safety cannot guarantee the delivery of email event messages due to the possibility of temporary recipient email server outages.

View Email Messages from Correspondence Events

You can view the email body and attachments sent to the recipient from the Correspondence Event.

  1. From the Correspondence, expand Correspondence Events and then open a Correspondence Event.
  2. View the email message in the Body field.
    Select Show More to see the entire message.
  3. Expand Attachments to view the questionnaires sent to the recipient.

Stop Further Reminder Emails

Once you receive the questionnaire back from the reporter, move the Correspondence record to the Completed state, otherwise the system continues to send reminder emails based on the Follow-Up Rule setup.

  1. Go to the Correspondence record.
  2. Expand the Workflow State Change (Workflow State Change) menu, and then select Change State to Completed.
    Depending on your Admin’s configuration, this action may have a different name.

Result

The system changes the Correspondence record state to Completed and does not send any further reminder emails.

Correspondence Methods

Vault Safety can generate Correspondence with the transmission method as either manual or automatic.

Note Vault Safety supports sending automatic email correspondence. For manual correspondence, the system attaches the questionnaire to the Correspondence record, but you must send the questionnaire outside of Vault Safety.

Email Correspondence (Automatic)

If both the Reporter’s email address and consent are provided, Vault Safety can automatically email any questionnaires that match the AER, Inbox Item, or Case.

For automatic emails, Vault Safety sends reminders to the recipient. The reminders continue for the configured amount on the questionnaire template unless the Correspondence record is marked as complete.

Reminders are sent once per day, at approximately midnight EST.

Manual Correspondence

If the email address or email consent is not available on the primary Case Contact (Reporter), but the AER, Inbox Item, or Case matches a questionnaire template, then the system generates a Correspondence record in the Ready state and the Correspondence Method as Manual.

The questionnaire document is generated and included on the manual Correspondence record as an attachment.

The system does not take any further action for this type of Correspondence. Vault Safety does not support manual email correspondence with the Reporter.

For manual Correspondence, download the questionnaire and handle the follow-up outside of Vault Safety. Your Admin may have configured a workflow to handle this process.


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