Brief Overview

This article will explain how to turn on and configure the following parts of the Patient Portal:

1. Turn on the Patient Portal
2. Configure the Patient Portal
3. Customising your Welcome to the Practice Message
4. Add a patient questionnaire (Checklist)
5. Enable Online Payments
6. Customise your doctor's portal settings

Short Version

• Turn on the Patient Portal through Settings > Patient Portal.
• Configure the Patient Portal through Settings > Patient Portal.
• Personalise your Welcome to the Practice Message in Settings > Patient Notifications.
• Add a patient questionnaire (checklist) through Settings > Checklist Templates > Patient Checklist Templates.
• Enable Online Payments  through Settings > Online Payments.
• Customise your doctor's portal settings through Settings > Users > Edit > Update & Configure.

Instructions

Turn on the Patient Portal

1. Open Settings > Patient Portal
   
   
   
2. Toggle the Patient Portal setting to Turn On
   
   
   
3. The Patient Portal has now been enabled. 
   
   

Configure the Patient Portal

1. Open Settings > Patient Portal
   
   
   
2. Under the Customisation tab, you may enable what you would like your patients to have access to on the portal. This window is split into two sub-categories:
   
   Appointments & Admin

   Setting Name	Purpose
   Allow Doctors	Which provider's appointments will be controlled by the appointment-related settings found in this table. All provider's appointments will be visible in the portal, but a provider must be selected in the Allow Doctors field to benefit from the settings below.
   Allow Locations	Which locations are available when viewing appointments.
   Allow Online Patient Making	Which providers allow online appointment booking.
   Limit Appointment Creation	How soon before the appointment date a patient may choose to book an appointment (ie one day before the day they have chosen, or whether you would like a larger lead time between the booking and the appointment itself).
   Appointment Types	Which Appointment Types may be booked within the portal.
   Allow Cancelling the Appointment	Whether patients are able to cancel their appointments through the portal, which then cause them to appear as cancelled in the Scheduler.
   Prior to Appointment	How much time prior to the appointment the patient may cancel the appointment. ie if set to 2 days, then the patient will be unable to cancel the appointment if less than 2 days before their original scheduled appointment time.
   Allow Cancellation Before	The time a patient may cancel their appointment on the same day as it was scheduled. ie if their appointment were scheduled for 3PM and Allow Cancellation Before was set to 12PM, the patient would only be able to cancel their appointment on the same day, prior to 12PM.
   Allow Multiple Booking	This setting allows the patient to book an appointment slot where an existing appointment may already be booked (double booking appointments).
   Allow Fee Estimates	Allows the publication of Fee Estimates to the Patient Portal. Once enabled, a Fee Estimate must be manually published before it will appear on the portal from within the quote window.

   
   
   Clinical Data
   

   Setting Name	Purpose
   Allow Doctors To Publish Clinical Data to Patient	Clinical data will begin being published to the portal according to the settings enabled below which are controlled separately.
   Investigation Results	Publication of lab results to the Patient Portal.
   Display Results After	Determines how long after accepting a result into a patient file, that the patient may review this result within the Patient Portal. If this is set to manual, then the provider may choose which specific results are published rather than allowing automatic publication after a certain time (ie 2 weeks).
   Investigation Requests	Pathology Requests and Imaging Requests created using a generic template
   Letters	Clinical Letters that have been written and sent/printed by their provider.
   Allergies	Allergies that have been entered by their provider.
   Medications	Current Medications that have been prescribed by the doctor, including the instructions provided to the patient for taking the medications.
   Vitals	Vitals measurements taken by their provider during a consultation. This can be particularly useful for specialties who track a patient's health progress using Vitals over time.
   Checklist	Clinical Checklists that have been completed by the provider during the consultations.
   Documents	Documents that have been uploaded by their provider or by admin staff, such as medical certificates.
   Display Documents After	How soon after a Document has been attached to a patient file that a patient may view this within the portal.

    
3. Privacy Notice & Consent tab
   This tab allows you to populate a Consent form or terms and conditions for use in the portal.
   
   
   1. Consent
      Patients who log into the Patient Portal will be unable to proceed through to the portal or access any information until they have accepted your terms and conditions as stipulated in the Consent field. 
      
      
      1. Click Create Consent.
         
         
         
      2. Enter your chosen Consent or terms and conditions information into the field provided.
         
      3. Click on OK.
         
         
         
      4. Tick the Active on Patient Portal box.
         
      5. Your patients will now be presented with the Consent form you have created upon successfully logging into the portal.
         
         
4. Logo tab 
   The Logo tab allows you use your existing Practice Logo found in your Settings > Practice Details > Logo tab or upload a new logo for use in the Patient Portal. If you would like to use a new logo, or do not have a logo uploaded in your Practice Details.
   
   
   1. If you would like to use the same logo as found in your Practice Details, select the Same as Practice Logo radio button.
      
      
      
   2. If you would like to upload a new logo for use in the Patient Portal, select the Upload a Logo radio button.
      
      
      
   3. Click on Add Logo. 
      
      
      
   4. Click on the Browse button to select an image from your computer to upload.
      
      
      
   5. Click Upload to attach your image.
      
      
      
   6. Your logo will now be displayed within the Patient Portal.
      
      
5. Portal Payments
   If you want to integrate Online Payments into your Patient Portal to allow patients to pay their outstanding invoices, then you will need to create a Stripe account. We have created a detailed guide on this process, which is available here.
6.  

Customising your Welcome to Our Practice Message

 This message is used to display helpful information to the patient that can be accessed from their Home Page on the portal, such as directions for visiting the practice, a list of items that you'd like the patient to read before their appointment, or general practice information. 

The guide that covers customising your Welcome to Our Practice Message can be found here. 

Adding a Questionnaire (Checklist)

If you have additional information you would like to know about a patient prior to their arrival at your practice, such as their previous medical history or additional emergency contact information, then you may choose to use a Checklist to capture this information to save administrative time. The patient can complete this information from the homepage of the Patient Portal under the Things to Do section, or administrative staff may fill this in on their behalf within the demographic window if required. 

1. Open Settings > Checklists Templates.
   
   
   
2. Under the Patient Checklist Template tab click on Add New Template Item.
   
   
   
3. Type the name of your question into the Item Name field.
   
   
   
   
4. Select the format of your question from the Type of Item dropdown menu.
   
   
   
   
   • Note: There are multiple items available to choose from. The options available and an example of each are:
     
     • Heading: create a heading for the Checklist.
       
       
       
     • Subheading: creates a sub-heading, normally used to break up sections of questions by topic.
       
       
       
     • Dropdown list: the patient must select an item from a dropdown list (only one selection can be made).
       
       
       
     • Checkbox list: the patient may tick several tick-boxes from the options provided.
       
       
       
     • Radio button List: the patient may select only one option from the entries provided.
       
       
       
     • Text area: the patient may type their item freely into a large text area.
       
       
       
     • Text box: the patient may type their item freely into a smaller text box.
       
       
       
5. If you selected Dropdown List, Multiselect, Checkbox list, Radio Button List from the Type of Item drop-down menu, then you must enter each of the possible selections into the Values field provided, using Enter on your keyboard to separate the options.
   
   
   
6. Click the Create button to add the question to your Checklist.
   
   
   
7. Repeat this process for any remaining questions.
   
   
8. Your Checklist will then be available on the Patient Portal as a Survey for your patients to complete from their portal homepage.
   
   
   

Enable Online Payments

If you would like your patients to be able to pay outstanding invoices through the Patient Portal, then you will need to create a Stripe account for this purpose. The setup for process for Online Payments is detailed within this article.

Customise Doctor Settings

Once you have finished enabling the above settings, then you will need to configure each of your provider's to meet their requirements for the portal. This process is covered in detail here.

Further Reading

• Configuring a Doctor's Settings for Patient Portal
• Turn on Online Payments
• Admin Guide to the Patient Portal