Restpost helps healthcare professionals send a secure message to any patient — even those without a stable phone, email, address, or internet connection. The message waits until they get online. However long that takes. Originally built for individuals experiencing housing insecurity — and designed to reach anyone the conventional system struggles to contact.
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Individuals experiencing housing insecurity often don't have the same resources most of us take for granted — a stable phone number, a home address, reliable internet access. For many, these are out of reach. But they're also the basic tools our healthcare system relies on to follow up with patients. When they're missing, care providers are left with no way to make contact — even when the follow-up matters most. This isn't limited to housing insecurity. Newcomers navigating an unfamiliar system, people in remote and rural communities, individuals without a fixed routine — anyone the conventional follow-up system wasn't built for. The gap looks different depending on the community. The result is the same.
A patient walks in. They get seen. Tests are run. By the time something gets flagged, they're gone — no phone number, no address, no way to follow up. The care provider knows they need to come back. The patient doesn't. What starts as a manageable situation can quietly become something much harder to treat. The longer that gap persists, the more costly it becomes to close.
Worker side
Search by name. Add them in seconds — name, birthday, and optionally a mobile number or email. No phone or email? A PIN is generated on the spot to give to the patient.
Usually just asking the patient to call or come in. Plain language, nothing clinical — the actual conversation happens at the clinic.
The message is encrypted and held securely. If the patient has a mobile number or email, they're notified automatically with a secure single-use PIN. If not, the message waits — and the patient uses the standing PIN given to them at their appointment to access it whenever they find a way online.
Patient side
Library computer, borrowed phone, drop-in centre tablet — any browser works. No app, no download.
Enter your name, date of birth, and your PIN. Your PIN was either sent to you by text or email, or given to you by your care provider at your appointment.
They know to get in touch.
No app. No account. Just a name, a birthday, and a PIN — something every person can always know.
Patients with a mobile number or email receive a fresh single-use PIN automatically when a message is posted — delivered by text, email, or both. Patients without contact information receive a standing PIN at their first appointment, given to them in person by their care provider. Either way, no two patients can access each other's messages.
Every health authority gets their own secure space. Workers only see their own patients. Data never crosses between organizations. Isolation is enforced at three layers — application logic, database row-level security, and URL-scoped patient access. Add your team and start the same day.
Built with PIPEDA principles as a foundation, and developed with consideration for provincial health privacy legislation including PHIA (Manitoba), HIA (Alberta), HIPA (Saskatchewan), PHIPA (Ontario), and FOIPPA (BC). Messages are callback requests — not personal health information.
Your data stays yours. Every health authority on Restpost is completely isolated. Workers from one organization cannot see, search, or access another organization's patients or messages. Ever. Isolation is enforced at three layers — application logic, database row-level security, and URL-scoped patient access — so a bug in one layer cannot expose another organization's data.
Organized the way you think. Health authorities think in sites, not seats. Add your clinics, mobile units, harm reduction drop-ins, and outpost nursing stations as locations. Every worker at a location shares access. Add a site in minutes — no IT ticket required.
From signup to first message in one day. Create your account, name your locations, add your first patient, send your first message. No implementation project, no training sessions, no waiting for IT.
The moment a patient reads their message — from any device, anywhere — the care provider sees it in their dashboard. No more wondering if the message got through.
Patient identifiers are stored using cryptographic methods that protect them from unauthorized access.
PINs are never stored in readable form.
Standing PINs are protected using cryptographic methods. Authorized care providers can retrieve a forgotten PIN to assist their patient — no one outside the organization can. Single-use PINs are stored in a protected form and deleted immediately after use.
No tracking. No cookies. No identity logging.
The patient portal has zero analytics scripts. We log timestamps, not identities.
Messages expire and become permanently inaccessible.
Every message has an expiry date — a maximum of 60 days. When it passes, the message becomes permanently inaccessible.
Notifications contain no health information.
SMS and email notifications contain no health information — just a prompt to visit the secure Restpost portal. Messages are callback requests — not personal health information.
Built with Canadian privacy law in mind.
PIPEDA principles have guided our design decisions. Our architecture has been developed with consideration for PHIA, HIA, HIPA, PHIPA, and FOIPPA. We recommend health authorities confirm compatibility with their own privacy counsel.
We maintain information in Canada.
We recommend health authorities confirm compatibility with their own privacy counsel. Data processing documentation is available on request.
This calculator estimates what it costs your health authority when hard-to-reach patients fall through. Every figure is sourced from published Canadian research. Restpost does not inflate its own impact — we show the gap, and let the numbers speak.
This is the number of patients your team sees each month who cannot be reached by conventional follow-up methods.
Research on hard-to-reach populations shows significant loss to follow-up even with intensive support. 30% is a conservative estimate for typical program settings without dedicated outreach infrastructure. Adjust based on your team's experience.
CIHI reports the average cost of an emergency department visit is $323. Hospitalization for a patient experiencing homelessness averages $16,785 — more than double the national average. $1,200 represents a conservative middle estimate of one avoidable acute care event.
Patients falling through the gap each month
21
Estimated monthly cost of missed follow-ups
$25,200
Estimated annual cost of the follow-up gap
$302,400
Additional patients Restpost could reach per year
101
Based on a conservative 40% improvement in follow-up reach. Actual results depend on patient population and team adoption.
These estimates are illustrative only. They are based on published research and the inputs you provide — not Restpost outcome data. Actual results depend on your patient population, team adoption, and factors outside Restpost's control. We recommend health authorities conduct their own analysis before making procurement decisions.
Tell us about your organization and we will be in touch as soon as possible — typically within one business day.
Or email us directly at hello@restpost.ca