With the recent released v5.0.2 patch 1 and a soon to follow patch 2, there are a couple notable usage changes for which patients and administrators need to be aware.
Patch(1)
- Includes changes to portal appointment settings where patient can now select what category to set the appointment. Previously only Office Visit was available.
- Patients may now cancel appointment.
Patch(2)
Important Note: Remember the portal Reset and Register features requires that practice email is setup at Administration->Globals->Notifications. There are several resources/how to’s on this matter but a quick tutorial for Google is: Don’t forget to authorize in your Google account.
- Patient Reminder Sender Email: must be populated for any type email setup. Can be any return address if you don’t want return email from recipient. I use noreply@noreply.com
- Email Transport Method: SMTP
- SMTP Server Hostname: smtp.gmail.com
- SMTP Server Port Number: 587
- SMTP User for Authentication and SMTP Password for Authentication: Is your email credentials i.e email address and account password…
- SMTP Security Protocol: TLS
- Any other entries are obvious for what content to use.
If you don’t have an email account, I recommend creating one for your clinic specifically for portal use.
Moving On with usage:
- Patients may now change their username and password once logged into portal or if allowed in Globals->Portal, reset their credentials and change as necessary.
Logged in and using Account menu item Change Credentials:
Patient may change password or username:
The same options are available on new patient first login, credential resets by patient, self registration as new patient and a manual reset by administrators from OpenEMR demographics.
Other Notes for portal in general
- A practice may turn on the Register feature in Globals->Portal then link to portal login screen allowing a person to self register through a wizard that collects much of their profile and insurance. They are then sent by email a temporary username and password. Once they complete the necessary more permanent credential changes and login, appointments can then be made. Also secure messaging(mail) is available.
- One day soon, if enough interest is shown, I hope to have telemedicine whereby patient may video/audio call reception or provider.
- Portal now has the ability to take credit card payments using one of three methods. Authorize.Net or Stripe gateways or administration can receive and authorize a credit card in house via Portal Dashboard (CC is still collected and number validated same as gateways except card authorization is withheld until a card audit is done by administrator. Then patient is notified of transactions authorization and receipt issued).
- Also available since v5.0.1(7) is ability to use portal document templates from demographics patient documents. Say you want to have a patient sign a Hipaa agreement during an office visit. Once done, document is locked and available on the patients portal or in patient documents under the category selected when creating the document i.e. becomes part of their chart.
Then:
And so forth.
Due to the import of critical fixes needed in patch 1, I kind of ran out of time to get the username/password changes in that patch however, Brady is working hard to do a quick turn around patch 2 so you folks can get these helpful changes asap. May be as soon as next week.
Hope this helps and feel free to ask questions.
Thanks
