New Patient Portal V1 Release Overview – Nov 14th, 2019

Summary:

This first release of the new Patient Portal includes the following main improvements over the previous Patient Portal:

1. Mobile Friendly: The new patient portal interface is designed specifically to suit mobile devices.  This means that accessing the portal from a mobile phone will now be a lot easier than before.  Note that Smart Forms can be used on mobile phones, however for very long forms we do not recommend using mobile phones to fill them out.
2. Access Links instead of Access Codes: Instead of sending Access Codes to patients for them to manually enter into the portal, we have updated the email notifications to include Access Links. These are links that your patients can click on to automatically gain access to medical data or Smart Forms. You can see the new Email Notification Templates here. For those patients who do not have Patient Portal account, the Access Links will automatically fill out the Access Codes into the Patient Portal registration form.
3. Cleaner and More Intuitive Interface: The new patient portal interface is cleaner, more colorful, and more intuitive, allowing patients to easily navigate the portal to access their information.

Registering for a new Patient Portal Account

Note that the new patient portal is fully compatible with all existing patient portal accounts. Your patients do not need to create new accounts, and they will be automatically sent to the new portal when they log in.

Unlike the previous Patient Portal, patients can now only create a new patient portal account under the following three conditions:

1. They have been provided an Access Link, or an Access Code via one of the new Email Notification Templates.
2. They are booking an appointment online.
3. They have been provided a Smart Form Guest Link.

Previously patients could create accounts whenever they wanted to, and were left wondering what to do when they logged in and saw nothing in their portal. This will no longer be a problem.

Registering Via Access Link or Access Code

When your patients are sent email notification for bookings, or to fill out Smart Forms, or if they are sent their Medical Records Access Code via e-mail, they will have an Access Link included in their e-mail . This is a button or link in their e-mail that they can click on to access that information in their Patient Portal.

Clicking the Access Link with take them to the Patient Portal login page. If they do not have an account, they can click on the “Register Here” link at the bottom of the login form in order to register for a new account. On this registration page, their Access Code will be pre-filled, so they do not have to type it in. All they have to do is enter their information, choose a password, and register for the account.

Once they click ‘submit’, they will be automatically logged into their Patient Portal account, and their medical data or Smart Forms will be immediately available.

If the Access Link does not work for them, or if you have provided them a printed Access Code instead of an Access Link, then the patient can go to the registration page and enter the code manually. They will not be able to create an account without a valid code.

Registering via Online Booking

During the process of online booking, patients are guided to create a Patient Portal account. Nothing has changed here, and no access code is needed or provided to them.

Registering via Smart Form Guest Link

There is no change to the Smart Form Guest Link process with this release.

Logging into an existing Patient Portal Account

When a patient wants to log into an existing Patient Portal account, they should be logging in using the new Patient Portal login page at portal.outsmartemr.com, however if they log into the practitioner portal, they will be automatically redirected to the Patient Portal page.

The Patient Portal Interface

The new Patient Portal interface is designed to be mobile-friendly and easy to navigate.

The Dashboard

The Patient Portal dashboard is the first page that patients will see when they log into their account. On the dashboard they get a summary of all the information in their account, and can easily get more details on any of the sections by clicking on them.

Main Navigation Menu

The Main Navigation Menu is intuitively accessible on all pages, and allows patients to quickly navigate to the details pages for the various types of information contained in the portal.

Details Pages

For example, if the patient were to click on the Smart Forms dashboard card, they would navigate to the Smart Forms page, where they can easily see all the Smart Forms they have completed, or need to complete.

Switching Between Patient Records

OutSmart Patient Portals are designed with families in mind, and allow a single Patient Portal account to have access to an entire family’s set of medical records. Patients can easily switch between the various patient records they have access to by selecting another patient from the patient menu at the top of the page.