Understanding Patient List Privacy For Teams

What is Patient List Privacy?

Patient List Privacy is a built-in feature of the OutSmart system.  In designing the system, we have considered both collaborative clinics as well as clinics where practitioners do not share information.  The Patient List Privacy features of OutSmart ensure that in both of these scenarios, patient information can be kept as private, or as shared as needed.  This is achieved by recording the connections, or ‘links’, between patients, practitioners and clinics/offices.

Why Is The Link Between A Patient, Practitioner, And Office Important?

The Patient Link is an important piece of information that allows OutSmart to determine what you have permission to do with a patient record.  For example:

• Another practitioner at your clinic cannot create a SOAP chart for one of your patients, or view their demographics, unless that patient has booked an appointment with them.
• A practitioner cannot create a chart for a patient at an office that the patient has never been to.  The patient would have to book in with that office or clinic first.
• Admin staff cannot access any patients that have never been to their office, even if that patient is a client of a practitioner at that office.  This allows you to maintain several locations where your patient information is isolated to those locations, until such time as one of your patients books in with you at another office.

There are more examples of why the Patient Link is important, but all are geared towards maintaining Patient Privacy.  It’s also useful to note that the OutSmart Calendar plays a central role in organically giving both admins and practitioners the permission to see specific patient records when supported by an appointment booking.

Linking a patient to other practitioners or other offices

There are two main reasons why you might want to connect a single patient record to several office locations, or several practitioners:

1. This patient is being seen by the same practitioner in multiple locations
2. This same patient is being seen by multiple practitioners at the same location.

It is important however to be able to maintain Patient Privacy, while still being able to share a patient record among offices or practitioners.

Patient Lists in OutSmart respect certain Patient Privacy Rules:

1. Patients are linked to specific offices and specific practitioners based on bookings.
2. Patients of one practitioner cannot be seen by another practitioner in the same office unless they book an appointment with them.
3. Patients can be directly assigned to practitioners by Admin staff, if the calendar is not being used or not relevant to the situation.
4. Patients can be assigned to offices by booking an appointment in that office, or by being assigned to an office by a practitioner.

Following the above rules ensures that Patient Privacy is respected, even in clinics with multiple practitioners, or in the case of a practitioner working in several locations.  These procedures ensure that either an Admin Staff member or a Practitioner are directly involved and aware of the sharing of patient information.

Manually Assigning A Patient To A Practitioner (Admin Staff only)

A patient can be assigned to a practitioner by the Admin staff, through the Master Patient List in an Admin account:

1. Open the Master Patient List by clicking on the Patients option in the Main Navigation Menu.
2. Find the Patient you are looking for by using the search field at the top right of the Patient List.
3. In the left-most column of the Patient List (Admin Accounts Only), you will see a practitioner icon.  Click on that.  In the window that opens, a Green button means that the practitioner is already connected to this patient.  Clicking the Green button will break the connection.  A Grey button means that the practitioner is not connected to the patient.  Clicking the Grey button will create a connection.

Example of active and inactive links between patients and practitioners. This is a view from an Admin account.

A patient can be assigned to a practitioner by any practitioner in an office, simply by the creation of an appointment in the Calendar between the patient and the practitioner:

1. Create an appointment in the Calendar between the patient and the practitioner.
2. Save the appointment and the link between the patient and practitioner will be created.

Assigning A Patient To An Office.

A patient can be assigned to an office by a practitioner, through the Master Patient List:

1. Open the Master Patient List by clicking on the Patients option in the Main Navigation Menu.
2. Find the Patient you are looking for by using the search field at the top right of the Patient List.
3. In the left-most column of the Patient List (Practitioner Accounts Only), you will see a office icon.  Click on that.  In the window that opens, you will see one or more grey and green buttons with office names.  A Green button means that this patient is already connected to the office.  Clicking the Greenbutton will break the connection.  A Grey button means that this patient is not connected to the office.  Clicking the Grey button will create a connection.

Example of Patient to Office links. This view is from the practitioner account.

A patient can also be assigned to an office by booking an appointment with a practitioner at that office:

1. Create an appointment in the Calendar between the patient and the practitioner, at the specified Office location.
2. Save the appointment and the link between the patient and office will be created.