Notifications
Clear all
Topic starter
We have been struggling for a while on trying to develop a quick simple way to get our patients to register on the portal. The "Instant Enrollment Wizard" helped some.
Is anyone registering a patient before their first visit and sending the new visit health forms to file out via the portal. my understanding is that these forms can then be imported directly into the patients record and have all that structured data available. This would definitely be a huge time saver. The issue our security department tells me is that there is no way to validate the patient prior to their visit. If a new patient registers on the portal is validated over the phone is sent the eforms to fill out wouldn't that patient only have access to what was submitted and if nothing was submitted then the record would be blank right? We are on CPS 12.0.3 soon to install SP7 and SMPP 6.4.4
If you have a workflow or any thoughts on this one way or the other I am very interested in your comments.
Posted : January 7, 2015 12:42 pm
FYI, Kryptiq recently released version 6.4.6, so you may want to check on your install to make sure you are receiving the latest greatest (6.4.4 is two minor "versions" behind)
We are just about to go live with our portal, and we are planning on registering new patients over the phone, so I'll talk you through what I know so far even though we have yet to put it into practice. There very well may be some proverbial skeletons in the closet here that we don't yet know about.
Here's the workflow plan:
- Patient (New) calls to schedule first appointment
- Staff creates appointment in Centricity scheduler, which creates the chart
- During this process, we explain the registration process, to include the Patient Portal account for which an email is obtained from the New Patient
- The scheduler "new" process (adding an appointment for a new patient) does not ask for an email. - Don't get me started on the scheduler- whoever created this, did they ever try to use it???
- While still on the phone with NP, staff goes to either the newly created chart itself and then registration, or straight to the registration module.
- in registration, we can add the new patient's email address
- During this process, we explain the registration process, to include the Patient Portal account for which an email is obtained from the New Patient
- We then go to the portal (New Patient is still on the phone), log in as a staff member, and go through the "add from chart" workflow to create the New Patient's portal account.
- A unique pin (or code) is generated. The patient is asked to write down their pin. They will need it when they get their welcome email.
- New Patient is instructed to complete any forms for intake once they have access to their portal
- We have a Patient Information & Medical History form, Scope of Practice, and Financial Services agreement form
- New Patient appointment scheduled, all info collected and call can be completed as usual.
- You may not need this step [we purchased an encounter form from MD EMR that helps with registration and MU]: From the new patient's chart (patient is still on the phone), an update (encounter) is started, in which we have a form that produces a welcome letter with instructions to the patient on how to access their patient portal AND fulfills several points for both MU 1 and MU 2.
- Once the patient opens their welcome email, they are given a unique link to our portal. The patient is instructed to complete the registration, entering in their pin and create a new password (pin no longer needed then). When the New Patient logs in for the first time, they are presented with a Portal Consent to sign, which is routed back to their chart.
- Patient is now registered and has access to their portal.
- Patient reviews the demographic info as it was entered by our staff while on the phone. They can make any corrections or changes.
- Patient completes necessary forms as listed above as they were previously instructed to do
Finally, we are creating a video walk-through of registration for the portal. The link to which will be included in every portal welcome letter, as well as on our website. I think this will help walk anyone experiencing any challenges through the process. We may also include a step-by-step (with screenshots) document to be attached as an alternative for those who don't want to sit through a video, as entertaining as we may think we are 😉
We feel very comfortable at this point with this over-the-phone enrollment workflow, because:
- We cannot imagine a PHI breach or compromise scenario as:
- We have always scheduled NP appointments over the phone, so the only new workflow added is an invitation to an empty portal account with black forms to be completed. There is no PHI information added between appointment scheduling and actual appointment. In other words, the only information this person will see is the information they provided over the phone.
- When the New Patient comes in for their first appointment, we will verify, in-person, whether or not they completed their paperwork on the portal. If they did not, then there was an issue somewhere. Portal account (which would be empty, anyway) is deleted and we start from scratch.
I hope this helps! As I said earlier, we have yet to put this to the test, so we may very well have some issues yet or have some blind-spot to potential dangers. I welcome anyone's feedback on what we plan to do. If you have any further questions, I'm happy to respond. Thanks!
Talon Ellithorpe
Posted : January 8, 2015 2:34 pm
Talon,
In regards to your workflow, I can only point out one thing that I noticed. In regards to the portal "Add From Chart" function, using that feature will automatically create the portal account and link it to the EMR/CPS chart. The pin/code you are talking about will be their temporary password. That account will receive everything entered into the chart even if they never log in for the first time.
The patient will receive emails about secure messages being sent to their account even if they never log in as far as I'm aware.
I would make sure to receive consent while on the phone from the patient that they want the portal.
I could be wrong, but that is what will happen from my observations.
Posted : January 9, 2015 6:05 am
Talon,
Have you been able to test this process yet? I would be interested in how it's working for you. We are getting ready to launch some new patient intake forms on our portal, but they would only work for current clinic patients who are new to one of our specialty practices.
Posted : January 21, 2015 11:24 am
