Any changes that a patient makes or submits in the Patient Portal come into the EHR as requests, which are reviewed and accepted (or dismissed) via the Patient Portal Queue (PPQ). For more about the Patient Portal queue, see Patient Portal Queue and Filters.
General
Show a confirmation (i.e., "Are you sure?") when archiving queue requests (marking them as completed)?
Clicking the green checkmark beside an incoming request in the patient portal queue marks that request as completed and moves it into the archive. You can always access the archive by clicking on the reverse clock icon at the top of the PPQ.
Clicking that green checkmark does not complete the requested action - that is generally done by replying by secure message (in the case of secure messages), or using the yellow action/ helper button to complete the request. A confirmation message can help to prevent PPQ requests from being archived by mistake, especially when staff are first learning the system.
Default for "How should the request be handled?" when responding to secure messages and for other requests
You can choose for this to default to marking the request as completed (archiving it), leaving the request open in the PPQ, or in the case of secure messages, rejecting the request (archiving it marked as not completed).
When a portal request is marked as completed, automatically update any associated task as complete as well
An incoming Portal request can be assigned as a task to a specific user, which puts the request on that user's task list (under Standing Tasks). Generally, if the Portal request is marked as completed (archived), it should automatically update any associated task to mark that as complete. However, if your clinic workflow would involve closing the PPQ request but leaving the task open, you can toggle this setting off.
Calendar Blocks
Use these settings to control how requests appear in the PPQ and Appointment request mini blocks at the right of the main calendar page.
Only show unassigned requests in the "Patient Portal Queue" block on the calendar page
By default, the PPQ mini block will show all incoming/ open requests from the Patient Portal. If your clinic has a system of triaging open requests and assigning them out to various staff members, you can use this setting (practice-wide or per user) to only show unassigned requests in that mini block. That can make it easier to see which requests require attention.
Exclude appointment requests in the "Patient Portal Queue" block on the calendar page
Given that incoming appointment requests are generally handled via the Appointment Requests mini-block, they can be hidden from the PPQ mini block to reduce visual clutter. Note that they can also be hidden in the main PPQ using saved PPQ filtered views. See Patient Portal Queue and Filters.
Only show appointments assigned to the logged-in user in the mini "Appointment Requests" block on the calendar page
If appointment requests are triaged to different users to handle within the PPQ, you can use this setting to make it so that any given user looking at the mini Appointment Requests block at the right of the calendar page only sees those appointment requests that are tasked to them.
Note that this setting can work with the setting below to automatically assign appointment requests to the requested provider for providers that handle their own appointment requests.
Specific Request Type Settings
Auto assign appointment requests in the Patient Portal Queue to the requested provider for that appointment
If different providers within a clinic generally handle their own incoming appointment requests, you can use this setting to automatically assign those appointment requests to the requested provider within the Patient Portal Queue.
When reviewing a medication refill request, the option to handle the request should be
Use this setting to control whether completing a prescription refill request from the Portal automatically creates an encounter note, or adds the refill directly to the Medications block with no encounter note. Clicking the yellow helper button with an rx refill request does the same thing as right clicking on the medication in the chart and selecting the renew option. But you can choose whether that should happen within or outside of an encounter note.
Submitted questionnaires should default as "Needs Review"
When a patient submits a questionnaire via the Portal, that is saved to their chart using the yellow helper button by the request in the PPQ. If you often want questionnaires to go on the For Review task list (for a specific user, or for all users), you can use this setting to have those default to "Needs Review". That Needs Review box would then be manually unchecked when saving the questionnaire for any that do not need to go onto a task list for future review.
Default document tab for submitted questionnaires should be
Select the desired default document tab/ category for patient-submitted questionnaires. These are selected from among your patient documents categories, which you can customize via the Documents section of System Settings.