Dental shared inbox or individual email: test the handover

Choose a dental inbox by testing whether another authorised colleague can pick up a conversation accurately. They need to see the unanswered question, know who owns it and avoid sending a duplicate reply. A shared address alone does not provide all of that.

Individual work accounts, shared mailboxes and unified inboxes can be configured in different ways. Compare the actual setup rather than assuming one label guarantees compliance or a better handover.

Be clear about the options

An individual work account belongs to a named team member within the practice's managed system. It is different from using someone's unmanaged personal email account for practice work. A shared mailbox gives approved colleagues access to a common address. A unified inbox may also bring supported messaging channels into one working view.

The capabilities vary. Ask what the proposed product and subscription actually include.

Question	Individual work accounts	Shared mailbox	Unified inbox to evaluate
Who owns a conversation?	May depend on recipient and local process	Can still need an assignment process	Check explicit assignment and reassignment
Who covers leave?	Needs approved cover arrangements	Authorised members can see the mailbox	Check queue cover and permissions
Can we avoid duplicate replies?	Team needs a coordination method	Depends on configuration and habits	Test ownership and activity indicators
Where is earlier context?	May be split across accounts	Usually within that mailbox	Test history across supported channels
What changes when staff leave?	Revoke access and preserve needed records	Remove the person's membership	Test access removal and continuing ownership

This table is a checklist for evaluation, not a claim that every mailbox lacks a feature or every unified inbox includes it.

Run a five-minute fictional handover

Create a synthetic enquiry asking to move a consultation. Colleague A replies with two options and goes off shift. The person answers through a second supported channel. Colleague B now takes over.

Ask Colleague B to show:

1. The original question and latest reply.
2. Who owns the conversation now.
3. Whether an appointment is merely offered or actually confirmed.
4. The next action and the person responsible.
5. How they avoid an automatic reminder or duplicate response.

Use fictional details throughout. Repeat the test with a clinical question that needs escalation and an attachment that not everyone should see. If the system can show a thread but not the relevant access boundaries, the demonstration is incomplete.

Check access as carefully as convenience

Ask what each role can search, preview, export and delete, including older conversations, attachments and internal notes. “Internal” should mean the right people, not automatically everyone with a login.

Use named access and appropriate authentication. The NCSC's access-management guidance recommends deciding who needs which access and removing it when circumstances change. Review supplier access, security and data-processing arrangements with the appropriate practice lead.

Test a leaver and a temporary cover role. The authorised team should retain the necessary work history without leaving former staff able to sign in or forwarding patient conversations to a personal account.

Decide where the clinical record belongs

A conversation view is not automatically the complete patient record. Agree which relevant communication reaches the clinical PMS, who transfers it and how it is checked. Confirm the exact supported connection; “integrates” does not tell you which fields or directions are covered.

Keep operational notes factual and necessary. Use the ICO's minimisation principle when deciding what belongs in the conversation and who needs it.

Report unanswered work, not just fast averages

Define supported hours and distinguish an automatic acknowledgement from a meaningful reply. A fast average can hide a few conversations waiting for days. Review the oldest unresolved messages, unassigned work and failed deliveries alongside any average.

For enquiries that need a continuing next step, use the enquiry tracker structure. For a wider process review, the enquiry-to-booking guide explains what happens after the first useful answer.

What to demonstrate in Dentorb

Dentorb's unified inbox page describes assignment, internal notes, conversation history and supported channels. Ask which channels can be connected for your practice and whether their limitations differ. Confirm attachments, permissions, reply handling and record export as well as the message list.

Use the fictional handover in a demo, then test the same conversation becoming a lead in the pipeline. Choose the arrangement that gives the right colleague enough context to act, with a clear owner and appropriate access at each step.