Most enrollment errors have one of four causes. Here's how to recognize and fix each.
Two patients share one cell phone
Check-ins reach your patients as text messages, and a reply is matched to a patient by the phone it came from. So one cell number can belong to only one patient at a time. Most of the time that is invisible. It shows up when a parent and child, two spouses, or two older patients share one phone. Here is what you will see and how to handle each case yourself.
What you see
On the Patients page, click Add Patient and enter the number in the cell phone field. If that number is already on a patient record at your practice, the form stops and tells you so, with a Show that patient link that opens the record. What you can do next depends on whether that patient is still enrolled.
Case 1: the other patient is still enrolled
This is a hard stop. Two enrolled patients cannot share one number, because SaRA could not tell their replies apart. Use a different cell number for one of them (their own phone, or a family member's phone they can answer from). If the first patient has actually finished care, unenroll them from their record first; the number then frees up for case 2.
Case 2: the other patient is on your Inactive list
You can move the number yourself, in the same form.
Fill in the new patient's name, date of birth and the shared number as usual.
When the message says the number is already on a patient record, choose Use this number for the new patient.
Save. The new patient is created with the number, and the number comes off the inactive record in the same step.
The inactive patient stays on your Inactive list with their full history. Nothing is deleted and nothing else on their record changes. Never add the new person over the old record by editing the name: that rewrites the first patient's history.
Patient type does not change the rule. Choosing Caregiver (or any other type) only changes which check-in questions go out. It is not a way to put a second person on the same number. Pick the type that fits the person's care.
If that phone ever texted STOP: the START text comes first
When someone replies STOP from a phone, the carrier blocks all texts from SaRA to that number. The block sits on the phone number itself, not on the patient. It stays in place even after the number moves to a new patient.
If the form shows a note that the number had stopped texts, do this before you save:
Call the family and ask whoever holds the phone to text START to 424-322-2488 (the number SaRA texts from). The SaRA thread may be far down in their messages, so give them the number rather than asking them to find it.
Once they have sent it, finish adding the new patient with Use this number for the new patient and enroll as usual. The consent text goes out and the check-ins follow.
Why the order matters. If the new patient is enrolled before the START, the first consent text is refused by the carrier, and SaRA treats that refusal as a stop and unenrolls the new patient the same day. Texting START first avoids a second enrollment.
Fixing the number on a patient who is already in SaRA
If the number is simply wrong on an existing patient (a typo, or the family changed phones), you do not need to re-enroll. Open the patient from the Patients page and edit the cell phone there; texts go to the new number from then on. The steps are in Editing a patient's info after enrollment. An enrolled patient always needs a number, so to take a number off an enrolled record, give that record their real number rather than leaving it blank.
Stuck on a specific pair of patients? Reach out from inside SaRA with the two patient names (no phone numbers in the message) and we will check the records with you.
The same patient appears twice, with different day counts
The patient was enrolled twice under two different phone numbers (each enrollment started its own cycle clock). Confirm which number is correct with the patient, then ask support to unenroll the duplicate. Billing should reference only the surviving enrollment.
The patient enrolled but never got the first text
Re-check the phone number for typos and confirm it's a mobile number.
Ask the patient to check their SMS spam/junk folder — Android phones in particular can filter unfamiliar senders.
Ask the patient to text START to the number that messaged them, in case they previously opted out.
Still nothing? Contact support — we can check delivery logs for the exact message.
A patient you added isn't showing on your list
Hard-refresh the page and confirm you're viewing the right clinic (check the clinic filter at the top of the patient list). If they're still missing, the enrollment may not have saved — try again, and if you get an error, screenshot it for support.