Patient portal

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hjoesaar
Posts: 68
Joined: Wed Sep 12, 2007 10:47 am

Patient portal

Post by hjoesaar » Thu Mar 03, 2016 7:34 am

Does anyone use the patient portal feature in their practices? We occasionally send treatment plans to patients. What about secured office to office emails? I've been reading the setup instructions and it seems pretty hard to setup. I do know that we need to utilize secure, encrypted communications and I'd like to start implementing them in our office. Ideas?

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Rickliftig
Posts: 764
Joined: Thu Jul 10, 2008 4:50 pm
Location: West Hartford, CT
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Re: Patient portal

Post by Rickliftig » Thu Mar 03, 2016 10:49 am

I started using it to send referrals securely. Once you get used to it, it's fairly straightforward. The referred doctors have had no problems opening the e-mails or attachments. I will add, there are a lot of steps involved:

1) You have to make sure you are logged on as a secure user
2) Your referral docs have to be set up as patients. I preface their last name with an asterisk to bring them to the top of the patient list ie) "*Drperio"
3) Generate a referral slip in Open Dental (CTRL-Z)
3) The referral docs need to be sent a sheet with username and password (we fax it)
4) I have to export my radiographs from Vixwin (gendex)
5) I have to export a pdf of the referral slip from Open Dental
6) These are both attached to a secure e-mail

BTW - as of this month, the Office of Civil Rights has clarified and simplified some of the HIPAA communications rules allowing for *a little* more common sense (but no that much). Check it out on http://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-profession ... leasedfaqs also http://www.ada.org/en/publications/ada- ... cure-email

Rick

PS - Have one of the Open Dental staff walk you through the setup.
PPS - I have not used it with patients. Now with the new HIPAA clarification, if the patient consents or requests, you can send Treatment plans (and most dental office communications) unsecured - but they have to consent or request.
Another Happy Open Dental User!

Rick Liftig, DMD FAGD
University of CT 1979
West Hartford, CT 06110
srick@snet.net

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