Patient Portal First-Time Setup & Configuration

With the Patient Portal, sometimes used and referred to as an Employee Portal, patients and clinicians, as well as employees and occupational health specialists, are able to communicate freely anytime. Patients or employees can quickly and easily add/update their personal health records, review medical information, schedule/cancel appointments, and so much more. Review the following information to assist with configuring and enabling the portal, today!

First-Time Setup

Configuration of a patient portal is done within a provider organization (PO) chart. To add or modify provider organization charts, click the Provider Management sidemenu option. In order to configure the portal from the PO, the Portal chart type must be associated with the chart. The chart type(s) can be viewed and edited from the Overview (PO) chart tab within the respective chart.

In order to begin configuring the Patient Portal, it first must be enabled from the General Configuration section of the Portal Setup tab.

Utilize the Provider Management menu search to locate the Provider Organization (PO) chart that will house the portal configurations. By default, a Provider Portal provider organization will exist in the WebChart system. This default provider organization can be used to setup/configure the patient portal; otherwise, a new provider organization can be created. 

6. Once the First Time Setup section is expanded, select which security roles will have access to the portal. After selecting all of the appropriate security roles, click the Submit button, and the first-time portal setup will initiate.  

General Configuration

After running the portal setup, click the General Configuration/Portal header to expand and begin customizing and updating the portal information, accordingly.

Branding

Logo - Upload new logo: Click the upload new logo link to replace the default logo. The page will refresh after confirming the image selection. If the logo does not appear in the portal as it should for all users, check to see if doc type WCPHOTO is restricted to certain department or users and adjust as needed.

Features

Enable Patient Portal: Select to enable patient/employee portal.

• Verify system setting of ‘Default on Signup’ to be NMC vs. APP and that the NMC partition is set to View only. Leaving the ‘Default on Signup’ system setting set to APP will assign an APP MRN to all charts will create a portal account. Enable Employer Portal: Select to enable employer/supervisor portal. Enable Activation Code Redemption: This option will require an activation code for new portal users to create a portal account. Select to enable activation code redemption, which will allow users to generate a code for each chart needing to activate a portal account. To generate an activation code for a chart, the portal user must have a relationship to the applicable portal Provider Organization.
• This relationship can be set manually using the Contacts patient portlet (Relationships section) on the Patient Summary chart tab.
• It can also be automated by enabling the NMC, Portal, Default Portal system setting. In the Value field of the system setting enter the Pat ID of the portal, which can be found at the end of the portal URL address. Once the default portal system setting is configured with the appropriate Pat ID, clinic users will generate an activation code and this step will automatically link the applicable provider organization to the patient chart.
• To generate an activation code, enable the Portal patient portlet from the respective patient’s Patient Summary chart tab. Generate an activation code, as needed.
• Ensure the System, Login, New Login Style system setting is set to one (1).
• A PICKUP partition must be created, and the name and description fields should read ‘Portal Activation Codes’. This partition should be set to Hidden from view but searchable (randomly generated).

Use Alias for User’s Name: Select to enable the use of aliases in the portal, in place of user first names. The last name will not be affected.

User Editable Settings

Available Settings/Settings List: Use this section to select which settings are available for portal users to modify:

• Email
• Home Phone
• Cell Phone
• Security Question
• Preferred Time Zone
• Preferred Pharmacy

Miscellaneous

Logo Alternate Text: Alternative text is used for accessibility purposes. The alternative text should contain the same text that is used in the logo. If no text is used within the logo, the alternative text should be the organization name represented by the logo. Replacement Text for Enterprise Health: The text provided will replace, or substitute, the Enterprise Health label. Checkin Kiosk Verbiage: Use this field to update the description displayed on the Check-in Kiosk. Redirect on Logout: Provide the website users should be redirected to when logged out of the portal. Preferred Partition: Use the drop-down to determine which partition will be used to populate the appropriate record numbers, displayed next to a patient name (e.g., Hart, William (MR-1234))

User Link Warning

View Sample
 (
): For a sample of the portal welcome screen, click the View Sample button, at any time. Clicking this button will provide a Portal Sample that displays how editing specific features will be seen from an end-user perspective. To exit the Portal Sample, click the red ‘x’ in the upper-right corner.

Custom Heading: Use this field to customize the warning heading displayed to those users without a default portal or lacking the appropriate setup. Custom Message: Use this field to customize the warning message displayed to those users without a default portal or lacking the appropriate setup.

Permission Check Warning

View Sample
 (
): For a sample of the portal welcome screen, click the View Sample button, at any time. Clicking this button will provide a Portal Sample that displays how editing specific features will be seen from an end-user perspective. To exit the Portal Sample, click the red ‘x’ in the upper-right corner. Custom Heading: Use this field to customize the warning heading displayed to those lacking access to the portal environment. Custom Message: Use this field to customize the warning message displayed to those lacking access to the portal environment.

Confirmation Page

Custom Page Title: Defaulted to Submission Successful. Use this field to customize the page title of the confirmation page. Custom Heading: Defaulted to Thank you! Use this field to customize the heading of the confirmation page. Custom Message: Defaulted to You will be redirected momentarily. Use this field to customize the message of the confirmation page.

Consent Forms

Forms needing completed: Click the Add consent forms link to add forms. This will determine which consent forms a user will be required to complete prior to being granted portal access. Users will not have portal access until all required forms are completed.

Renewal interval: This option determines the interval at which consent forms need completed. If no interval is provided, each form will only be required one time. Setting the renewal interval to the shortest requirement is recommended.

Login Page

SSO Message: Add a custom message underneath the SSO options on this portal’s login page. Footer Message: Add a custom message to the footer of this portal’s login page.

Once all of the appropriate fields have been addressed, click the Next button, or click the section header to close and save all entries.

Customizations

With the initial setup complete, navigate to the Patient Portal tab to finish any remaining portal customizations. Any permissions or settings that need to be addressed can be found under the Security Requirements section near the top of the page, and the configuration and modules can be adjusted, using the remaining sections, as needed.

While on the Patient Portal tab, click the Configuration header to expand and review the available options. Fill out the appropriate fields, as needed.

Features

Single Function Portal: When this option is selected, the portal will not default to the Message Center, but rather automatically forward to the first module in the Module List. Unless the Message Center is the desired function, Disable Message Center must be selected, below. Disable Message Center: By default, the Message Center will be displayed if the chart tab is configured; however, check this option to force the Message Center to be hidden for this portal. Enable Prefill From Context: Allows supervisors to prefill previous questionnaire answers for configured flowsheets, based on existing contexts like Documents, Encounters, or Cases, created by the selected patient.

Miscellaneous

Replacement Text for Patient: The text placed in this field will update and replace any instance of “patient” found within the portal. Limit 40 characters. Custom Color: Use the color picker, or provide a hex color code, to customize the portal color, if desired.

Home Page

View Sample
 (
): For a sample of the portal welcome screen, click the View Sample button, at any time. Clicking this button will provide a Portal Sample that displays how editing specific features will be seen from an end-user perspective. To exit the Portal Sample, click the red ‘x’ in the upper-right corner.

Brand for Welcome Message: The name or brand to be used in the Welcome Message. By default, the word NoMoreClipboard will be populated, but this field can be updated with up to 25 characters. Click Show Sample to see where this occurs. Description for Welcome Message: The description provided for the Portal Welcome Message. Click Show Sample to see where this occurs. Welcome Image ID: Using the link to the System Files Manager , upload an image to be seen on the portal Welcome screen. Click Add System File, select the preferred image, storing it as a JPEG image file, and set the alias as portal-landing-#### (e.g., portal-landing-40307, portal-landing-431, etc.). The desired dimensions are 650 x 412. Message Ticker: Use the message ticker to display important information, or messages, at the bottom of the portal Welcome page. The ticker will rotate through each message and scroll right to left, for long messages. Additional messages can be added, updated, or edited using the Add/Edit Messages links. A SuperUser security permission is required for adding or editing messages

Message Center

Configuration: Use the drop-down to select which chart tab will be used to determine the message types and/or documents available for the message center. Clicking the Add messages types link will take users to the currently selected chart tab. The View Preliminary Documents security setting must be set to Yes for users to view documents.  Document accept template(s): If a template is not available, click the Create a Fast Task link. This is used to control how to route accepted documents using Fast Tasks. Document reject template(s): If a template is not available, click the Create a Fast Task link. This is used to control how to route rejected documents using Fast Tasks. Conversation types: Document types selected in this list will display conversations in the Document View page. Configure by selecting the appropriate portal message document type from the dropdown, so that replies that are sent back to the portal user are visible and linked to the original message sent from the portal.

By default, if the Lab Result document is added to Message Center chart tab, ALL Lab Result documents will display unless a whereclause as outlined above is added to the Message Center chart tab.

Email notifications will be sent when new documents are available to view in either the Message Center or My Medical Information chart tab. The following 3 items need to be in place in order for the email notifications to work properly:

• Pat Portal Notification Layout- this should be included in databases by default. The layout should be reviewed to ensure that both the Message Center and The My Medical Information chart tabs are accounted for in this layout.
• PortalMessageNotification System report- this should be included in databases by default.
• Scheduled Job- this is not included in databases by default and will need to be added if it doesn’t exist. When creating the scheduled job, the type is Perform Report, select the system report name of PortalMessageNotification and set the recurrence.

Click the Next button to save and close the section, and proceed to the Select Modules section.

Select Modules

The Select Modules section is intended for customizing the functionality of the patient portal. The available modules to enable on the portal are:

• My Appointments
• Forms
• Questionnaires
• My Medical Information
• Report Work Injury or Illness
• Send A Message
• Other Health Resources
• Work Status

There are certain modules enabled, by default. How to activate or deactivate these modules is discussed below, as well as how to customize them, as needed.

1. Clicking on the Select Modules header will open a dialog window where modules can be added to or removed from the portal functionality. With the necessary modules selected/deselected, simply click the Save button to retain all changes.
2. All of the modules can be given a custom name using the Custom Module Name field, under each of the respective section headings.

My Appointments

The My Appointments module can be updated to allow certain functionality, as well as to display warnings or specified text, as needed.

Custom Module Name: The name defaults to My Appointments. Customize up to 60 characters. Schedule an Appointment: This selection allows users to schedule appointments from their portal by signing up for an appointment slot, based on appointment types and schedules set up within the system. In order for the schedules to interact with the portal, the location linked to each schedule needs to be added to the Locations chart tab of the Provider Organization chart. Appointment types that are available for selection are managed from the Appt Types chart tab of the Scheduler . Selecting Available For Portal on the respective appointment type indicates that the appointment type will be made available within the portal. Not selecting this option indicates that the appointment type linked to the schedule will NOT be available within the portal. Request an Appointment: This selection allows users to request appointments through their portal by sending an appointment request with their preferences and appointment information to the clinic. Once verified, appointments will display on the user’s My Appointments page.

Allow scheduling past due appointments: With this enabled, users will be able to schedule past due appointments. Warning message for past due appointments: Use this field to free text a warning message that will be displayed next to an appointment past due date.

Days to show past appointments: Use this field to set the number of days of past appointments to display. Days out to search for: This field can be used to set the number of days being searched, out from the present day. Days out before showing days: This field determines how many days before having to show additional days, out from the present day. Show “First available provider” option when selecting a provider: If enabled, the option for First available provider will display to users when scheduling appointments. Force any available doctor: This disables the Select Provider field from displaying on the portal, automatically assigning a provider based on the appointment type and availability. Alert text to show at top of form: Use this field to display an alert or memo at the top of the page (e.g., “If this is a medical emergency, please dial 9-1-1.”).

My Medical Information

The My Medical Information module is intended for displaying pre-defined documents in this section of the portal. The My Medical Information module will point to the My Medical Information chart tab, by default. The section within the portal will display the documents that are linked to whatever chart tab is selected during the portal setup.

• Custom Module Name: Rename this module to specify how this section will be labeled within the portal. Customize up to 60 characters.
• Message Configuration: Use the drop-down to select which chart tab will be used to populate this section of the portal.

Send a Message

The Send a Message module can have its name and header customized, the sending instructions modified, or the message types configured, to determine what can/cannot be sent to and from the portal.

Custom Module Name: The name defaults to Send a Message. Customize up to 60 characters. Replacement text for header bar: The header found on the Send a Message portal page defaults to Send a Message. Use this field to customize that header, as needed. Instruction text: Use this field to add optional instructions for the Send a Message portal page. Allowed message types for sending within portal: The following message types are supported for transmission using the portal, by default:

• My Medical Information
• Request an Appointment
• Travel Questionnaire
• Ask a Clinical Question
• Request an Accommodation
• Report Injury or Illness

Questionnaires

Adding Questionnaire modules will allow users to add custom questionnaires to the portal, as needed. Questionnaires 1, 2, and 3 can all be used to allow portal users to view or update their medical information (e.g., medications, allergies, immunizations), as appropriate. By default, systems will have a flowsheet created: My Medical Information. This flowsheet contains three layouts–one for medications, one for allergies, and one for immunizations. These flowsheets can be modified, if necessary. The My Medical Information flowsheet will allow portal users to update their medications, allergies, and immunizations within the portal. These changes will update the patient’s chart in real-time.

Databases on RC202009 and newer now have the ability to allow demographic information completed from a questionnaire to populate Enterprise Health or WebChart directly. The observations used in the questionnaire should be the ‘p.demo observations’ or ‘pev. demo observations’. For discrete data that is not free texted (such as Sex, Race, Ethnicity) the values entered into the discrete fields in the observation screen need to match what is being stored in WebChart. For example, to proper transfer Sex from a portal questionnaire to WebChart or Enterprise Health, the values that need to be entered into the discrete data fields in the observation screen must be F, M and UNK.

If users should only be allowed to view but not edit their medical information (i.e., allergies, medications and immunizations), a new flowsheet will need to be created. Users can create a new flowsheet or simply copy the My Medical Information flowsheet and edit it, where necessary. For example, the view only flowsheet could contain four (4) layouts labeled Demographics, Allergies View Only, Medications View Only, and Immunizations View Only.

Other Health Resources

The Other Health Resources module allows for additional resources to be added to the portal, as needed. These resources can be internet or intranet resources, and there is no limit to the number of resources that can be added.

• Custom Module Name: The name defaults to Other Health Resources. Customize up to 60 characters.
• Add additional health resources: To add additional health resources, simply click the Add Health Resource button. This will place a templated NoMoreClipboard health resource panel at the bottom of the list of resources.
• To update/edit a health resource, click on any area within the resource panel:

1. Title (NOMORECLIPBOARD): This is a free-text field. Click on the title and update with the preferred title of the health resource.
2. Summary: This is a free-text field. Click anywhere in the NoMoreClipboard summary and update the text with a preferred description/summary of the health resource.
3. Link (NMC HOME): Clicking on the provided link will open an Edit Link window. Determine the link type (i.e., a normal link, a form, or a pre-built questionnaire), the link title, and the URL of the webpage. Click Submit, when finished. The Health Resource panel can only accommodate up to six links, and the link is not removable from the Health Resource panel.
4. Arrows: Use the arrows in the bottom-left corner to move the health resource panel to an alternative location on the page.
5. Add Link: Click this button to add additional links to the health resource.
6. Delete: Click this button to remove the health resource from displaying on the portal. The button changes to Undelete, so the panel can be replaced prior to submitting, if necessary.

• When all edits have been completed, click the Submit button.

Helpful Tips/Information

Below is information pertaining to a few aspects of portal management and utilization (e.g., toggling between portals, editing layouts, or customizing help bubbles), which is intended to help with improving understanding and overall use of the portal functionality.

Portal Access

Certain relationships need to exist before a patient can access the patient portal. For example, a patient chart must have a relationship to the applicable provider organization (the portal). This can be done manually from the Summary chart tab of a patient’s chart, by using the Contacts patient portlet and adding the Provider Organization relationship. Automation of setting the provider organization relationship will occur if the NMC, Portal, Default Portal system setting has been configured to include the Pat ID of the portal, which can be found at the end of the portal website URL. Once a patient uses their activation code to create their portal account, a user account (found under the Access chart tab of the Control Panel) will also be created. This creates a link between the patient chart and the user account. A relationship of portal user will automatically be set.

Layouts

Layouts are simply HTML pages that have been developed and used in WebChart for several things, such as print definitions, chart tabs, system reports, email notifications, etc. The following layouts can be modified when first building a portal, so that the verbiage can be customized per client/portal.

Portal Activation Code Instruction Layout 

When an activation code is generated from the Portal portlet from the patient summary screen, a layout is triggered with an available link designed to create a Portal Activation Code Instructions document. Once the Portal Activation Code Instruction document is generated from the patient summary screen, it will store in the Document Summary chart tab by default. The document can also be mapped to additional chart tabs if desired.  A ticket may be opened with MIE to edit and modify this layout, as appropriate, per the client’s business needs.

Welcome to the Portal Email Layout

When a patient/employee signs up for the portal successfully, the following layout will be triggered, sending out the email below. A ticket may be opened with MIE to edit and modify this layout, as appropriate, per the client’s business needs.

Password Reset Email Notification Layout

To enable automation of resetting portal passwords, the system setting of ‘Reset PinCode Call URL’ should be set as follows: https://asterisk.med-web.com/password_reset_caller.php?greeting=mie&short=true Whenever a portal user attempts to reset their portal password, an email notification will be sent to the portal user. This email is sent as soon as the portal user clicks the Forget Password link and enters their username and security question.  The verbiage in this screen is C code and the phone number listed pulls from the value in the system setting of System>Tech Support>Phone Number

Resetting Portal Password via Email Layout

When portal users want to reset their password using the email option, versus other options, such as cell or home phone, this is the email users will receive. This screen is layout driven and may need to be added if it doesn’t exist in the database. The layout name is ‘Password Reset PinCode Email’. A ticket may be opened with MIE to edit and modify this layout, as appropriate, per the client’s business needs.

Identity Verification Layout

When users click the Forget Password link and provide their username and security question answer, the following dialogue box displays. Users will be asked how they wish to reset their password (i.e., email, cell phone, home phone, work phone). The MIE technical support number should be replaced with the client’s phone number and that is controlled from the value entered in the System>Tech Support>Phone Number system setting.

Help Bubble Icons

Every page or screen of a portal can have a help bubble available in the top bar of the portal page. Each help bubble on every page can point to different help documentation, as needed. The following portal pages can support customized help documentation: Main screen: Every portal comes with pre-loaded help documentation and verbiage on the main portal screen, which can be customized as needed. Other Health Resources: Every portal comes with pre-loaded help documentation and verbiage for the Other Health Resources screen, which can also be customized as needed. My Medical Information & Message Center: Every portal comes with pre-loaded help documentation and verbiage for the My Medical Information and Message Center modules. These two modules use the same layout and currently cannot be separated; however, they can be customized, as needed.

Layout Manager

All of the portal help bubbles and help documentation and verbiage is managed from the Layout Manager of the Control Panel . To see a list of existing help bubble layouts, simply search for MIEHELP.

To make edits to any of the existing layouts:

1. Click the Edit link next to the respective module, and modify the verbiage, where needed. To add a new MIEHELP module layout:
2. Click Add Layout . 
3. Enter MIEHELP for the Module Name.
4. Enter NMC:UPortal Settings in the Name field
5. Enter ==Settings== in line 1, and hit Enter to add the new help documentation verbiage. To add a new layout for the Message Center/My Medical Information screen:
6. Click Add Layout . 
7. Enter MIEHELP for the Module Name.
8. Enter NMC:UPortal Message Center in the Name field
9. Enter ==Message Center/My Medical Information== in line 1, and hit Enter to add the new help documentation verbiage.

Toggle Between Multiple Portals

In some cases, portal users may have access to more than one portal that has been setup/configured in the same WebChart database. In such cases, users who have access to more than one portal will see Portal Selection from the menu options. Once the user has established their username and password for one portal, that same username and password can be used to gain access to any of the additional portals that are set up in the database. There is no need to generate a new activation code for each additional portal a portal user accesses.

Portal Activation Code Report

The Portal Activation Code report will display the date an activation code was generated for a patient chart along with the date (if applicable) that the activation code was used to create a portal account. The users listed on this report are only those users who have actually created their portal account. The report columns include MRN, patient name, DOB, Sex, Code Creation Date, Activation Date, Portal Name (i.e., the name of the provider organization). This report can be found by going to the Reports side menu tab and then selecting the Utilization chart tab. This report can be filtered by a date range, partition, and provider organization (portal).