In our high-speed connected world, your patients are accustomed to being able to log on and find self-service. The Patient Portal provides patients access to their account information, online forms, and secure messages. Best of all, the portal is designed to require very little administrative and maintenance effort from your team.
And right now, during these times when you will have extra safety measure in your office, the patient portal can help you reduce or eliminate the need to pass tablets or clipboards back and forth between patients so they can fill out their forms. Patients can log in to their portal and fill them out online before they arrive.
Setting up the Patient Portal on Your Website
Patients can access their own Patient Portal account through a link you provide on your website or a button you include in your email messages. You can include information in your emails to all patients and in your appointment reminders directing patients to go to your website to set up and access their Patient Portal.
To add a Patient Portal link on your practice website, from the Dentrix Hub, click Settings, then Business Information. On the right side of the page, look for Patient Portal URL. Copy this link and add it as a link on your webpages wherever you’d like it to appear.
Including a Patient Portal Link in Emails
You can also use the URL you found in the previous step and add it as a button that appears on your emails. From the Dentrix Hub, click Settings, then Communications, and Email Settings. Under the Customize section, look at the Links you have available. You can change any of the links to use a custom link. In the second box, type the text you want to appear (such as “Patient Portal”), and in the third box the paste the URL for your portal.<
Send Personal Invitations by Email
You can be a little more personal by sending a patient a message with an invitation. From the Dentrix Hub, select Patients. Open the patient record, and scroll to the Patient Portal Management section. At the right side, click Send patient portal invite.
Patients Using the Portal
No matter which way the patient gets the invitation, they will be directed to your office’s patient portal site. There they can create an account using their name, birthday, and email address. After creating the account, they can log in to their Portal where they’ll see a home screen that summarizes their information and activity with your office.
Encourage your patients to log in and click Online Forms prior to each appointment, where they can update their forms online before their appointment instead of waiting to do so when they arrive at the office. When a patient submits an online form, their responses appear in both the patient’s Questionnaire module in Dentrix and in the Dentrix Hub under the Communications, Online Forms.
Encouraging patients to fill out their forms online using the Patient Portal is part of the virtual waiting room you can set up with Dentrix and other integrated tools like Patient Engage and QuickBill eStatements. Visit https://magazine.dentrix.com/setting-up-a-virtual-waiting-room-with-patient-engage/ to read the article and get other ideas.