General Tips
- Disabling/enabling the portal user only fixes some issues as its main function is to determine if the portal user can log in to their portal account or not.
- It does not change any portal user’s details
- It does not disconnect any connected charts, so you will still see this portal account connected to the patient on the facesheet
- It does not change how the portal account is connected to the patient (self, guardian, guarantor)
- It may fix the portal user’s status if it’s currently incorrect
- When you invite an existing portal user to the portal from a new facesheet (e.g., the portal user has multiple patients in care):
- Portal users will need to set the password for their portal account (they can use the same password).
- Their portal display name will not change
- The facesheet email and portal email are two different emails. When you update one, the other won't automatically update.
- You can change the email for the patient/contact on the facesheet.
- You can change the email for the portal user on the portal account page.
- Portal accounts in different instances do not conflict! Patients can use the same email for portal accounts with different facilities, these accounts will not be connected.
EMR/KIPU Access Management (KAM) Questions
- Super Admin users may enable the Use Portal feature under Settings > Instance.
- Yes, all linked episodes of care (charts) will be accessible to patient users. Contact users (guardians and guarantors) also will have access to linked charts for which they were added as a contact.
- Yes, the user’s email address is the identifier for such cases. If the email address matches, an EMR user will be able to connect all charts to the user’s portal account.
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Navigate to Manage Users > Portal Directory to see a list of all patients and contacts:
- The action Patient Portal Active indicates the patient/contact has a portal account associated
- The action Invite to Portal indicates the patient/contact has not yet been invited to the portal
A list of all portal users is available under the Portal Accounts tab in the same area.
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From Kipu Access Management, EMR users can view portal registration status, resend portal invitation emails, change users' portal login email addresses and display names, view charts connected to a portal account, disconnect patient/contact from a portal account, and disable/enable a portal account.
Additionally, a portal user's last login time is recorded for each account (in the portal user's local time zone).
- No. For security reasons, an EMR user cannot manage a portal user’s password. EMR users should direct the portal user to the Forgot Password link and workflow on the Patient Portal login page.
- At the moment, only EMR users with Super Admin or Manage Users permissions can access Kipu Access Management. Other users can access individual portal accounts from the patient's facesheet.
- After an EMR user invites a patient or contact to the portal, they will see text on the patient's facesheet indicating pending portal account confirmation. Super Admin users can also configure the notification Portal Registration Completed under Settings > Notifications.
- No, EMR users will use their existing EMR user account for all interactions with portal users (e.g., scheduling an appointment, launching a telehealth session, sharing documents, and messaging).
- No, EMR and Portal share the same ecosystem, so users can only be logged in to their EMR account or their Portal account in the same browser session. If there is a need to be logged in to both simultaneously, use different browsers.
Portal Login, Patient Information, & Account Management
- https://yourinstance.kipuworks.com/portal/
- No. Consistent with current published best practices, users will be guided to Forgot Password workflow.
- Not at this time.
- Yes, the user may change their password in the My Account section in Patient Portal or use the Forgot Password workflow from the login page.
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Yes, the user may change their email address in the My Account section of Patient Portal. The user must confirm the new email address by clicking a link in the related email before they can log in to the account.
Alternatively, clients will be able to update the email address of the portal user from Kipu Access Management in the EMR.
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Super Admin users can configure a notification for email address change under Settings > Notifications. EMR users will also see a warning on the patient's facesheet if the patient or the contact is currently in the process of changing their portal email address.
Important: Changing the portal login email does not update the facesheet.
Currently, the portal user cannot change their phone number via the portal.
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Currently, portal users cannot change their names.
However, EMR users are able to update a portal user’s name from Kipu Access Management in the EMR. It is important to note that changing the portal user’s name will not update the facesheet.
Open the portal user’s account and click on the pencil in the right-top corner. Update the first and/or last name then click Save.
- As long as the portal account is active, any patient (or their guardians/guarantors) can use Portal to access their medical records. The EMR chart can be in the pre-admission, current census, discharged, or even closed statuses.
- The dashboard photo is the patient’s facesheet photo. It is managed by the EMR user. The patient cannot change or hide their photo on the Patient Portal Dashboard. They can upload a photo using the My Files feature, but the EMR user receives and manages incoming files.
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Patient users will see their preferred name (if applicable) and gender identity (if applicable). However, other portal user roles (Guardian and Guarantor) will see only the patient’s full legal name and have no access to gender identity data.
Preferred Language is available for patients and their Guardian(s), but not to their Guarantor(s).
Pronouns are not yet available in portal accounts.
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Patients have full access to their information (including preferred name and gender identity). They can see documents and treatment plans shared with them.
Guardians see most patient information, excluding preferred name, gender identity, and any outcomes assessments. They can see documents and treatment plans shared with them.
Guarantors only have access to documents and treatment plans shared with them. They do not have access to the patient's information, appointments, and medications.
All three user roles have access to the File Upload functionality. For more information, check out this article.
- No. Patient, Guardian, and Guarantor portal roles are not customizable.
- All displayed data is from the EMR facesheet.
- Only active insurances are displayed.
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Super Admin users can configure the following notifications under Settings > Notifications:
- Portal Account Registration Completed: When a patient or contact has activated their Portal account
- Portal Document Completed: When a portal user has signed or completed a consent, evaluation, or outcome form
- Portal Treatment Plan Signed: When a portal user has signed a treatment plan
- Portal File Shared: When a portal user has uploaded a new file
- Portal Email Changed: When a portal user has changed their email address
- Portal Consent Revoked: When a portal user revokes a consent form
You can also configure notifications such that only Care Team Recipients receive them.
- There are several reasons and solutions for fixing this error. Please check out this article for more information.
This issue occurs when a portal user attempts to access a section of the EMR only available to EMR users. If an EMR user has shared EMR URLs with a portal user, the portal user will not be able to open them. EMR users should provide verbal/written directions on how portal users can access the desired area.Important: EMR and Portal share the same ecosystem, so users can only be logged in to their EMR account or their Portal account in the same browser session. If there is a need to be logged in to both simultaneously, use different browsers.
Documents & Treatment Plans
- Any EMR user with the Allow Documents Share feature enabled.
- No, any consent or evaluation form can be made available in Portal by checking the Available in Portal box in Templates. There are no restrictions on evaluation fields or formatting. Keep in mind, though, that some evaluation form fields are intentionally hidden from the portal user’s view or made read-only. Please refer to this article on shared files and documents in Portal for more information. Kipu Messenger forms are available on Patient Portal by default, no additional actions are required. Treatment Plan forms are shared in read-only view. CRM live forms and recurring evaluations cannot be shared to the Portal at this time.
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Forms can be shared to the Portal in Signature Only mode if needed. Otherwise, shared consent forms will be fully editable and evaluations be editable, read-only, or hidden according to their properties in the EMR. Editable evaluation form fields are exposed to the portal "as is.” That is, if data is in the field when shared to the Portal, a portal user will see it and be able to change it. Treatment Plan form fields are read-only.
Please refer to this article for more information on sharing forms in general, click here for more information on setting up Signature Only mode in evaluations, and here for information on consents.
- Yes, you may invite patients (and their contacts) in the pre-admission status and share any pre-admission documents marked as Available on Portal in the template.
- Yes, if the setting Available on Portal is selected in the template. None of the billable elements will be visible to the portal user (billing codes, rendering provider, place of service, etc.).
- No, at this time recurring assessments cannot be shared to Patient Portal even if the setting Available on Portal is selected in the template.
- Yes, any consent or evaluation form can be set to Available on Portal in the template. As part of the EMR, status changes to the form will be reflected in Chart✓.
- Yes, any consent or evaluation form can be set to Available on Portal in the template and then transferred via Chart Tracker.
- Yes, any form marked as Available on Portal can be shared with any portal user at any time in any status.
- Yes, for more information, check out this article on Patient Portal packages.
- The share icon has a small check next to it when a document is shared with at least one portal user.
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The portal user will receive an email notification when a new document (outcome assessments included) is shared with them.
Once they log in to the portal, they will see a blue dot indicating that they have documents to sign.
- Super Admin users can configure a notification under Settings > Notifications. Notifications for documents and treatment plans are configured separately.
- Not at this time. Only patient, guardian, and guarantor users may access the portal. Based on research and client feedback, this may be considered as an enhancement in the future.
- At this time, validation is restricted to EMR functionality and does not impact Patient Portal.
- Yes, when an additional signature is needed for active (In Use) treatment plans, an EMR user may click the Add Signature button in the Share menu. This sends an email to the portal user, moves the treatment plan to Pending status, and allows them to sign the treatment plan again. Once signed, the treatment plan remains in Active status until another signature is requested or the treatment plan is closed.
- Each click prompts an email notification, so the portal user would receive multiple email notifications to obtain a single signature.
- Yes, when a patient signs a treatment plan, the signature will be applied to all unsigned patient statuses in the treatment plan. This is true for signatures obtained in person in the EMR, or via Patient Portal.
- Patients can access any document or treatment plan that an EMR user has shared with them. Patients will also be able to access all their outcomes assessments by default. Portal users with Guardian and Guarantor permissions will be able to access any document or treatment plan that an EMR user has shared with them. Guardians and Guarantors cannot see patient's Outcome assessments. For more on outcomes assessments click here.
- The portal user may be viewing older charts. For instructions on navigating to the most current chart, click here.
- This is an older issue that can sometimes still affect portal accounts. Check out this article for the solution.
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Yes, the Kipu team can make all forms created from a specific template shareable (both consents and evaluations). Please contact our Support Team and provide a list of the forms you would like to make available for Portal.
Important: This will not share the forms with portal users automatically but will add a Share icon to all such forms -- thus allowing the facility to share older forms as needed.
Calendar & Appointments
- Not at this time. Since existing appointment statuses have not been patient-facing, we will not expose statuses to the portal user.
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For organizations with the Calendar enabled, only calendar appointments will be displayed in My Appointments. This is consistent with the EMR’s Appointments tab in the patient chart.
For clients with Scheduler enabled, Group Sessions and Appointments will display in the Patient Portal, and telehealth visits can be joined directly from the Portal.
- The new appointment notifications functionality remains in the EMR. Patient Portal's My Appointments section will display future appointments and allow users to add the appointment to their calendar, but the text or email notification should be triggered in the EMR.
- Yes, the My Appointments section includes a link to telehealth sessions.
- Not at this time. Based on research and client feedback, this may be considered as an enhancement in the future.
- Patients and their guardians can access the patient's appointments. Guarantors do not have access to the My Appointments widget.
File Sharing
- Yes. Portal users can upload files in the My Files area of Patient Portal, and EMR users will receive those files in the External Attachment Directory of the patient's facesheet.
- Accepted file types include JPG/JPEG, GIF, PNG, PDF, DOC/DOCX, and XLS/XLSX. These files cannot exceed 10MB.
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Yes, EMR users can share a PDF with the patient using an evaluation form with an Attachment field.
Important: Portal users cannot upload an attachment using an evaluation or consent form.
- No, all uploaded files are received and stored in the External Attachment Directory on the facesheet. EMR users may download the photo and update the facesheet.
- Super Admin users can configure a notification under Settings > Notifications.
- All portal users (i.e., patients, guardians, and guarantors) can upload files to the portal.
Medications
- Any medication order submitted to eRx will automatically display in My Medications.
- Any medication order that was submitted to eRx but is past its end date, cancelled, or discontinued.
- Not at this time. Based on research and client feedback, this may be considered as an enhancement in the future.
- The highlighted pharmacy is pulled from the ePrescribe Default Pharmacy on the patient’s facesheet. If no pharmacy is selected, the patient will not see the highlighted pharmacy box.
- No, only EMR users can update the ePrescribe Default Pharmacy on the patient’s face sheet. Patients must contact the facility to request the change. Based on research and client feedback, requesting a change to patient data could be considered as a future enhancement.
- At this time, we do not send notifications when a new medication has been submitted to eRx. The pharmacy contacts the patient when the prescription is ready. Based on research and client feedback, this may be considered as an enhancement in the future.
- The portal displays data from the EMR. If a doctor’s order is updated and re-submitted to eRx, the Portal information also will be updated.
- Not at this time. Based on research and client feedback, this may be considered as an enhancement in the future.
- Not at this time. The My Medications section is only displayed in the Portal if the Use ePrescribe setting is enabled in the instance.
- Based on research and client feedback, this may be considered as an enhancement in the future.
- Patients and guardians can access any of the patient's medications that were submitted to eRx. guarantors do not have access to the My Medications widget.
Messages
- Yes. Patient Portal’s My Messages feature, which allows portal users (including guardians and guarantors) to send and receive messages from the patient’s care team, is available. Users with the Manage Portal Settings role can enable or disable the Messages feature under Settings > Portal.
- Yes, when the feature is enabled, EMR users with the Available for Portal Messaging feature can exchange messages with patients, their guardians, and guarantors via Patient Portal.
- Users with the Available for Portal Messages feature enabled can exchange messages with portal users. Using the Care Team Only setting will require the user to be on the patient’s care team before they can send messages.
- Not at this time. Based on research and client feedback, this may be considered as an enhancement in the future.
Other Questions
- Yes, Patient Portal is browser-based and mobile-responsive.
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Not at this time. Based on research and client feedback, this may be considered as an enhancement in the future.
Users are encouraged to add a portal login page to their mobile device's home screen for easy access.
- It is the same as the Kipu EMR. Please refer to the Kipu System Requirements article for details.
- Not at this time. Based on research and client feedback, this may be considered as an enhancement in the future.
- Not at this time. Based on research and client feedback, this may be considered as an enhancement in the future.
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From EMR > Settings > Company > Company Logo by default.
If your instance has multiple locations with individual branding for those locations, you can navigate to EMR > Settings > Portal > Location Settings and change the default from company to location logos for email notifications. (The login and Portal pages will still display the company logo.)
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From EMR > Settings > Company > Company Name and Company Phone. Super Admin users can change the values in these fields (e.g., edit or remove the phone number or rename the company).
If your instance has multiple locations with individual branding for those locations, the signature will be pulled from EMR > Settings > Portal > Location Settings.
- Except for the logo, there is no facility information displayed in the Portal, Contact information only appears in emails.
- At this time, the following email notifications are delivered to portal users:
- New Registration with Activation Link: This notification is sent when an EMR user invites a patient or contact to Patient Portal or when an account invitation is re-sent.
- Account Successful Registration: This notification is sent when portal users complete the account registration workflow.
- Forgot Password with Reset Password Link: This notification is sent when portal users click the Forgot Password link on the login page.
- Password Successfully Updated: This notification is sent when portal users reset their password via the Forgot Password workflow or in My Account.
- Email Address Updated: This notification is sent to the portal user’s old email address when the Change Email workflow is initiated by portal users in My Account or by EMR users in Kipu Access Management (KAM).
- Confirm Email Address with Confirmation Link: This notification is sent to the portal user’s new email address when the Change Email workflow is initiated by portal users in My Account or by EMR users in Kipu Access Management (KAM).
- Document Shared with Link to Document: This notification is sent to portal users when a consent, evaluation, outcome, or treatment plan is shared or re-shared with them and when an additional signature is requested for the treatment plan.
- New Message Alert: This notification is sent when a portal user received a new message from an EMR user. The email does not contain any message information and instructs the portal user to log in to Patient Portal to read it.
- Patient Portal email messages are sent from portal@kipuhealth.com.
- Not at this time. Based on research and client feedback, this may be considered as an enhancement in the future.
Patient Portal and Kipu Messenger
- Yes, Patient Portal has fully replaced Kipu Messenger.
- Check out this article for a feature comparison.
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Once Patient Portal is enabled, you will no longer be able to invite new patients (or contacts) to Kipu Messenger. Existing patients and their contacts who have been enrolled in Kipu Messenger already will be able to continue using Kipu Messenger. You will be able to send Kipu Messenger forms for signatures and receive them back, and outcomes will continue being sent to Kipu Messenger automatically.
All Kipu Messenger templates will become available on Portal by default and you will be able to use them freely in any chart (whether enrolled in Kipu Messenger or Portal or not). You will not be able to create new Kipu Messenger templates, but you can modify existing ones as needed.
- Yes, it is possible to continue using Kipu Messanger, but we strongly recommend enrolling all your remaining Kipu Messanger patients in the portal.
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Once the user completes their Portal account registration, they will fully switch to using the Patient Portal account instead of Kipu Messenger:
- All forms they have previously signed in Kipu Messenger will be shared to their portal account as Completed.
- All forms that have been sent via Kipu Messenger but not signed yet will be shared to their portal account as Pending, and the user should be able to sign them in Portal instead.
- All Kipu Messenger forms created in the patient's chart will become shareable.
- EMR users will only be able to share the forms to Portal, and will not be able to send any forms via Kipu Messenger anymore.
- Outcomes will be shared to Portal instead of Kipu Messenger.
Important: Even after being enrolled in Portal, patients/contacts will be able to log in to their Kipu Messenger account. It will not be disabled or closed at this time.
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If you are fully switching your entire client base to Portal, you can delete the Kipu Messenger Konnector. Doing so will prevent you from using any functionality related to Kipu Messenger but you will be able to continue using Kipu Messenger templates, which will be re-labeled as legacy evaluations, even after the Konnector is deleted.
Important: Even after deleting the Kipu Messenger Konnector, patients/contacts will be able to log in to their Kipu Messenger account. It will not be disabled or closed at this time.
- EMR users will not have a separate portal account. All functionality will reside within their EMR user login, such as sharing documents, viewing uploaded files, receiving portal-related notifications, and exchanging messages with portal users.
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