Update – October 2022

Practice EHR is excited to share the following enhancements deployed in this October 2022 release. These enhancements include a new inventory workflow for tracking DME, and other products sold within the practice, an expanded use of the patient message feature, as well as the ability to block appointment slots on a master calendar for specific appointment reasons.

 

1. Patient Messaging

The patient messaging feature has been added and can be configured in Practice Profile in Setup to send the following patient messages:

• Pay Online, which patients can use to make payments
• Statement links, which patient can use to view statement and pay online

Setup

A user can start the setup process from Home > Setup > Practice. Three messaging methods to send predefined messages have been added, which the user can access via a dropdown menu.

Following are the methods made available for patient messaging configuration:

• By Text (Patient’s cell phone number is mandatory in demographics)
• By Email (Patient’s E-mail address is mandatory in demographics)
• By Email & Text

Sending Patient Messages

Currently there are 2 predefined messages available:

• Pay Online
• Statement

Practice can add custom messages by creating a ticket in support. We are doing to protect PHI information of patient that’s why we want approved messages by Practice.

Also, text messaging rates will apply to the Practice for each message sent.

Once the settings are in place, messages can be sent to the patient using the existing Patient Messages workflow within the individual patient’s messages screen. Upon selecting the predefined message from the dropdown, checkboxes for “By Text” & “By Email” will automatically get checked based on the practice setup.

 

2. E-Statements

This new feature will allow users to send e-statements via text message or email to patients directly

Setup

A user can start the setup process from Home > Setup > Practice. E-Statement methods must be selected from a dropdown menu.

Following are the methods available for e-Statement configuration

• Email Only (Patient’s E-Mail is mandatory in demographics)
• Email & Text (Patient’s E-Mail & Cell# is mandatory in demographics)
• Text Only (If no E-Mail is available)

In order to send an e-Statement to a patient, the e-statement checkbox must be checked in the “extra info” section of patient’s demographics.

 

3. Enhanced User’s Account Security

In this release security has been enhanced and users will now have provision to create strong passwords. The user will have to choose a password that should contain:

• At least 1 number
• At least 1 symbol
• At least 1 lowercase letter
• At least 1 uppercase letter
• At least 10 characters
• Maximum 20 characters

All new logins will be required to use strong passwords; however, the existing accounts will remain as they are but they can be converted to strong passwords upon the practice’s request.

This feature is not activated by default. In order to activate, the practice will need reach out to Client Services or our Support Representatives.

Note: All passwords must be strong passwords by the 1st of January 2023.

(User Setting > Change Password – Window)

 

4. Inventory

Practice EHR is now introducing an inventory function targeted towards the effective and efficient management of inventory.

The inventory functionality will allow the practice to add drugs, over the counter supplies and DME equipment as inventory. Each piece of inventory can be tracked via a user defined procedure code, which can also be added to individual clinical visits. This will allow the practice to:

• Monitor the number of medical supplies in stock.
• See trends in the utilization of medical supplies against your patient clientele.
• Avoid shortage of supplies which can adversely impact the delivery of healthcare.
• Manage delays in delivery of medical supplies with more flexibility.
• Be notified of low inventory levels to ensure there is never a shortage of medical supplies.
• Avoid overstocking of medical supplies resulting in monetary loss.
• Prevention of loss or theft of medical supplies and equipment.

Setup

• To utilize this new feature, start by entering the procedure codes for the supplies that the practice would like to track the drugs or products dispensed within the practice
• A procedure code can only be added to the inventory once. If a second use of a standard code or internally created code is needed, the user can create the code with the extension character “*”
• A beginning “quantity on hand” & vendor will be entered, and additional details about that inventory item entered from “Add Quantity”. Any subsequent transaction in the inventory will increase the “Quantity on Hand” of the inventory procedure.

The Inventory inquiry window has been designed with multiple search criteria to find the product and display details of available stock in the inventory. Upon creation/deletion of the encounter (financial record) the procedure code will be checked against the inventory for availability

• If the procedure is not available in the inventory, the user will still be able to create the charge
• If the procedure exists in the inventory, then the quantity on hand will increase or decrease depending upon the transaction unit on the charge
• If the procedure exists in the inventory but the quantity is insufficient, then inventory will be updated with negative quantity values to show over utilization of the product
• The Re-order level column will indicate the minimum quantity needed to be ordered for a particular product, this information will be saved in the inventory and will remind the users with interactive (Yellow/Red) colors when inventory product’s stock falls below the re-order level

Reporting

A new report “Inventory” has been added under General Reports, which will record and display all visit line items that will be billed against any inventory products and their quantity for practice to ensure that all products dispensed have been accounted

 

5. Patient Forms (Fillable PDF)

Practices will now have the availability of fillable forms to fill out on the patient demographics, which will be then saved into patient documents as in PDF.

• Forms will be filled in raw format and original PDF will gets saved into patient document upon submission
• Options of addition of fillable form fields such as blank text areas, checkboxes and multiple-choice questions
• Forms can be configured in fillable PDFs upon Practice request by client services or support representative

 

6. Scheduling Module Update

This feature will allow the practice to generate a master calendar based on appointment reason. This will allow the provider the flexibility and convenience to only accept appointments for patients that have a certain reason on certain days, meaning a provider can make it so that all appointments on Thursday for New patients.

The user will now also have the ability to send Kiosk Links and Tele-Visit Links as messages to patients from the scheduling module.

Create Provider Schedule with Reason

Users can create a new calendar with this feature from the existing workflow to create a master schedule. There are two new fields:

• Reason drop down has been added
• Blank slots will be shown on calendar with the same reason as selected in the Provider Schedule
• Enforce Reason checkbox has been added
• Enforce reason will restrict the user to create an appointment with any other reason than selected in provider schedule. If this box is checked, a user cannot at this time override this feature at the point of making an appointment
• Enforce reason will be indicated by a * on every window of scheduling
• If user tries to book an appointment with reason other than selected in provider schedule than system will display the message “The selected reason does not match with the schedule slot reason”
• If Enforce Reason is unchecked on the Provider schedule then user can book an appointment with any reason in the calendar.

If Enforce Reason is unchecked on the Provider schedule, default Reason would still be the one selected in the Provider Schedule and then user can book an appointment with any different reason in the calendar which will overwrite the existing reason.

Reasons Display on Calendar

Once the reason has been selected for a provider’s schedule, the calendar will display that reason in the reason column with a specific reason color on the appointment.

Search Appointments for Reason

With the added functionality of linking an appointment reason to a specific appointment slot, the user can now search by using the following filters in the Scheduling – Search window

• Reason drop down has been added to search the result by reason
• Status drop down has been added to search the result by status

Generate and Send Kiosk Link

(Scheduling > Calendar > Generate Web Kiosk Link)

The individual forms that are appropriate for that patient’s visit are selected within the appointment detail window. The expanded delivery options are now available in “Generate WebKiosk Link” The user may now select:

• Email (Patient’s email must be entered in demographics)
• Text (Patient’s cell phone number must be entered in demographics)
• Email & Text

Generate and Send Tele-Visit Link

(Scheduling > Calendar > Generate Tele-Visit Link)

For Tele-visit appointments, practice can send the appointment link to patients by “Generate Tele-Visit Link” to start their appointments via Email, Text or both depending upon their patient messaging setup in practice.

 

7. Clinical Section Search Enhancement

To further improve navigation and utilization of this feature, an additional field “description” has been added, which will allow the user to simply search for their required section and insert it into a clinical visit without having to accurately remember the section’s name.

This will allow providers to focus more of their time on the patient rather than scrolling to find a section template. The user can now view the additional information and filter the results by additional key words.

The “Add Section” prompt can be accessed as follows: Open Visit Tab > Blue Gear Icon > Add Section

 

8. Create Clinical Ticket

To facilitate the creation of custom templates, Practice EHR is adding the “Create Clinical Ticket” option, within an open clinical visit that can be accessed from the blue gear icon.

This grants the provider with a more precise and faster way to communicate template changes to the support staff. Ensuring that the changes are carried out to the provider’s specification more accurately and reducing the risk of errors with the template creation.

• With the patient’s account# and visit # detail populated on the ticket, a user can enter “see template” in the required Feedback box and anticipate those changes to be made within 3- 5 business days.
• A user may also use the “feedback” box to share data that may be needed to create a new template. A new template can be deployed within 7 – 10 business days depending on the complexity of the request.

Any questions or comments from the Practice EHR team will be communicated to the user via same ticket. All tickets can be viewed from the Support Center on the Home screen.

 

9. Common Drugs & Auto-Fill SIG

This release automates the process of adding Common Drugs, SIG & RX eligibility response:

• The system will automatically add the drug to the Common Drug list upon eRx without the provider having to actually to select “add to common.” Note: Medications in common list will be removed after 30 days if not used within this period

This integrates the adding to common feature with the normal workflow and this will also auto-fill the medication field if the same drug is to be selected.

• The Add Sig action will prompt the user If Quantity, Days of Supply & Qualifier is empty or 0. When a custom sig is added, the system will associate the sig with the entered Qty, Days Supplied, and Qualifier.

This will auto populate the next time that sig is selected for a specific medication.

 

10. Rx Eligibility

No Rx eligibility reason message shown in patient demographic extra info when user is not able to access the eligibility.

Reason message defines what information needs to be entered in patient demographic/provider profile setting in order to access the Rx eligibility

The automation of the above steps will allow for a faster workflow and since there are fewer steps involved, the chances of human errors, such as entering of incorrect information are highly reduced.

 

11. Patient Portal

The following additions have been made to the Patient Portal.

• Existing Patients can now activate their portal account by providing their email address
• New patients can now register themselves directly in practice whereas previously new registrations were queued in the patient messages and had to be manually registered by the practice. Its optional feature
• Practice can now allow patients to directly schedule appointments on provider calendar. Its optional feature

Existing Patient Registration

• Patient will open the Practice Portal website and choose “Existing Patient Registration”.
• The account creation window will open and require some information from the patient, those fields with a red square are mandatory as explained on the screen
• When a new patient fills up all the mandatory fields and selects “Register”, a message will pop up “Verification code is sent by email”.
• The screen will prompt the patient to verify their email address

New Patient Registration

• Patient will open the Practice Portal website and choose “New Patient Registration”.
• The account creation window will open and require some information from the patient, those fields with a red square are mandatory as explained on the screen.
• When a new patient fills up all the mandatory fields and selects “Register”, a message will pop up “Verification code is sent by email”.
• The screen will prompt the patient to verify their email address
• New Patient Registration window would now allow the patients to select their correct physical address from the suggestions listed by maps based on their entered address.

• The patient will receive an email to the email address entered that will include a verification code. It is important to remind the patient to check their SPAM folder for the email if it is not displayed in their in-box.
• The patient will enter or copy the code into the boxes provided and select “verify.”

• Once the system has verified the code entered, the screen will display the message “you have been registered as patient in the practice and email has been sent to you for setting up your portal account password”.

• The patient will receive a second email with a specific patient portal link.

• The patient will select the blue hyperlink within the email and be redirected to the Patient Portal home screen.
• The patient will be prompted to enter a password. Once the password is entered, they will be able to access all features of the Patient Portal.

The practice can still initiate the patient portal from the patient’s demographic screen. This action will generate the same patient portal link email described above.

Self Appointment Scheduling

Patients will now be able to schedule their appointments directly into the available slots on the provider’s calendar. The new option is not activated by default and can be activated upon the practice’s request.

On patient portal appointments tab, the option to Schedule Appointment for both Televisit and Office Visit is now visible as two separate options. The patient will choose which type of appointment they want to schedule. Practice can have both or any one

Televisit Appointment Scheduling

Upon selecting to schedule a Televisit Appointment option the following flow will commence:

The patient will select a Provider, Location and Reason and click ‘next’ to choose the appointment date and time.

After patient clicks on the slot, the schedule window will update with appointment date and time.

Where the slot that patient has selected for appointment is not available then system will indicate with “No available time” message.

If the selected slot is available then after clicking “Schedule Appointment” appointment will be booked with a notification that “Appointment has been schedule successfully”.

Scheduling - Provider Daily Schedule > Online Appointment

Appointment booked from patient portal will show in Provider daily schedule with status as ‘’Online’’

Provider can confirm the online appointment by clicking on the ‘’Update Online Appointment’’ from the appointment detail window.

Upon provider confirmation by clicking the “Update Online Appointment” option, appointment status will be updated as ’Scheduled ‘’

Patient Portal – Tele-Visit > Patient Check-in

Once the appointment is confirmed by the provider then Tele-Visit appointment will display the ‘’Check-in’’ option to start patient Tele-Visit session within 30 minutes of their appointment time. Patient Check-in time default setup is ‘’30 minutes prior to the appointment’’is customizable to be setup upon Practice request by client services or support representative

Office Visit Appointment Scheduling

Same process as explained for the Tele-Visit appointment scheduling will be utilized and only with a different scheduling type i.e. Office-Visit Appointment Scheduling.

The patient will select a Provider, Location and Reason and click ‘next’ to choose the appointment date and time.

After patient clicks on the available slot, the schedule window will update with appointment date and time.

Where the slot that patient has selected for appointment is not available then system will indicate with “No available time” message.

If the selected slot is available then after clicking “Schedule Appointment” appointment will be booked with a notification that “Appointment has been schedule successfully”.

Scheduling - Provider Daily Schedule > Online Appointment

Scheduled appointment from the patient portal will show in Provider’s daily schedule with status as ‘’Online’’

Provider can confirm the online appointment by clicking on the ‘’Update Online Appointment’’ from the appointment detail window and appointment status will be updated as ‘’Scheduled‘’.

Office visit will start upon patient checked-in in the Provider office.

Note:
If the practice has appointment reminders setup within Practice EHR, the patient will also receive an appointment reminder via text/email/phone at the specified interval prior to this appointment.