The Patient Portal is a module in Cloud 9 that allows patients to fill out questionnaires, make credit card payments, and schedule their appointments online. There is no additional cost to have the Patient Portal activated but there are some additional set up requirements.
If your office already has the Patient Portal set up, go to Edit>Practice Information>Patient Portal Tab. If there is a portal URL listed in that field, the portal has been set up:
If your office is not set up for Patient Portal and wants to utilize it, please contact Support by emailing cloud9support@planetdds.com, or joining the chat using the bubble in the lower right at https://cloud9support.planetdds.com/hc/en-us, or by giving us a call during business hours 8:00 AM EST to 8:00 PM EST at the 1.800.394.6050 option 2. We will send a Training Request over to the Training Team to get that set up for your practice and Training will send an online course for your office to complete.
Patient Portal Customization Options
Once the patient portal is set up, there are multiple customization options for your practice to utilize the patient portal to its fullest potential. The patient portal can be customized with the settings in Edit > Practice Information > Patient Portal tab.
In this screen you will see there are various options. Please do not change the Portal URL, that is set up by us and should not be edited. You can edit the various background colors, font colors, and the banner image and body image. We do recommend testing this on a test patient Account to see what it looks like before deciding on a particular design. Lots of images or excessive colors can make the patient portal look busy or hard to read.
Enable Patient Portal Credit Card Payments - Allows the responsible party to complete payments in the portal. You must have an integrated credit card processor to do this, such as Open Edge or FIS or Cloud 9 Pay. (Note: They will be prompted to only pay balance due now in the patient portal, though they can make a payment for a larger amount, (including future due), if they choose to.)
Enable Online Scheduling - allows specific appointment types to be scheduled by the responsible party for any patients listed under them. There is one additional step to add an appointment type to be scheduled online which I will list below.
- First you must go into Edit > Setup > Appointment Types and then find the appointment type you want to add to allow patient portal online scheduling and click edit.
- On the right hand side click the box that says allow online scheduling so that a check mark appears, then click save. (screenshot below.)
Enable Questionnaires - This option must be selected on the individual questionnaire in Edit > Setup > Questionnaire in order to display on the patient portal. If a patient completes a questionnaire, it will appear under the Patient record > View Questionnaire. Any questionnaires that you click show on patient portal in Edit > Setup > Questionnaires will show on every patients portal as an option for them to fill out.
Email Template: Portal Email. This should be setup by the Training team when they set up the patient portal and controls which document gets emailed to the responsible party when they are signed up for the patient portal. The template must use the portal URL, Portal Email, and portal password merge fields.
Setting up the Patient Portal Login for a Responsible Party
Invitations can be sent to Responsible Parties to allow them to view appointment history, future scheduled appointments, and financial ledger history.
Sending Invitations:
1. To send invitations, go to Edit Patient> Relationships tab> and enter in the Responsible Party's email address here by selecting the Edit button:
2. Once you have added the email address for the Responsible Party, click on the Create Login:
Once you select Create Login, you should see the following popup:
After you select OK on that window, you will be brought back to the edit screen. You will select Ok:
From there, you will be able to select Save at the top right of your screen for the patient menu. Once you do, the Invitation sends. This invitation will be sent using the email address that you entered.
Note:
- If the E-Mail address is changed after selecting Create Login and after you have saved, it will not use the new updated E-Mail address. If a different E-Mail address needs to be used for the initial invitation after it has been saved, you will have to repeat the process from the start.
Portal Login
The Responsible Party will receive the portal E-Mail within minutes of your hitting Save or Save and Close. The email they receive will contain their User Name (their email address), a temporary password, and the URL for the portal. They will be prompted to reset the temporary password upon logging in for the first time.
1. At the login screen they will need to type in their user name and temporary password.
2. After clicking Log In, they will be prompted to change their password.
When the customer logins into the portal, they get this screen. If you click on the appointment, you will see this screen with several clickable options.
Patient Forms - At the top of the screen there are patient forms available to fill out and saved patient forms to view. These are the questionnaires the practice has selected to show in patient portal. This is one way to manage patient Questionnaires.
Future Appointments - clicking this will hide the next appointment and display the one that is scheduled after (if applicable).
Past Appointments - Clicking this will show the patient’s previous appointments.
Cancel - Can’t be clicked if the appointment is sooner than 24 hours from now. If it is later, the responsible party can cancel their appointment from here.
Make a Payment - **Your office must have an integrated payment processor in order for this feature to work. Enter the amount of the payment, and click Make Payment. Depending on which payment processor is setup, a payment gateway dialogue box will open, and each one may look different from what is pictured. Responsible Parties will be prompted make a payment for the balance in the Due Now, but can pay more towards future due if they choose.
Reset Password is an option when you are logged into Patient Portal and is located at the top left of the screen. Once you select Reset Password you will see this screen: