Patient Portal Health Forms

athenaCommunicator

This page allows you to create health history forms for patients to complete during online self check‑in. You can associate these forms with specific appointment types for the departments, providers, and specialties you select. athenaOne pre-populates the forms with current data recorded in the athenaClinicals patient chart.

If your organization uses the newer Patient Self Check-in feature, Patient Portal health forms are accessible only when a patient initiates the self check‑in workflow. You cannot log on to the Patient Portal as a patient to display the health forms.

 

On the Main Menu, click Settings > Communicator. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Patient Portal, click Patient Portal Health Forms

 

On the Main Menu, click Settings > Clinicals. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Forms and Letters, click Patient Portal Health Forms

 

 

 

To access this page, your organization must use athenaClinicals with athenaCommunicator and have the Patient Portal Health Forms feature enabled.

 

You must have the Communicator Admin user role to access this page.

 

 

 

 

You can associate each form with specific appointment types, departments, providers, and specialties (for multispecialty practices), and you can configure the form for male or female patients only or for patients in specific age ranges. You can also configure age range and sex at the section level (for example, GYN History).

 

Making forms available for patients on the Patient Portal is a multi-step process: Please follow these steps in order:

 

  1. If you use athenaClinicals, ensure that all the questions you need are configured for the Clinicals sections that you plan to use on the forms.
  2. Determine how many forms you need to build and consider whether you will associate the forms with specific appointment types, departments, providers, or specialties.
  3. Determine whether you will categorize entire forms or sections of forms by age range and sex.

 

  1. Display the Patient Portal Health Forms page: On the Main Menu, click Settings > Communicator. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Patient Portal, click Patient Portal Health Forms or On the Main Menu, click Settings > Clinicals. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Forms and Letters, click Patient Portal Health Forms.
  2. Click Add new.
  3. Form name — Enter a name for the form.
  4. Description — You can enter a brief description of the form (this description is visible to patients).
  5. Appointment types — To use this form for specific appointment types only, click Selected and then select the appointment types.
  6. Providers — To use this form for specific providers only, click Selected and then select the providers.
  7. Departments — To use this form for specific departments only, click Selected and then select the departments.
  8. Specialties — To use this form for specific specialties only, click Selected and then select the specialties.
  9. Age range — To use this form for patients in a specific age range only, enter the minimum and maximum patient age.
  10. Sex — To use this form for male or female patients only, select the patient sex from the menu (the default value is Everyone).
  11. Live on Portal — Leave this box unchecked until the form is complete.
  12. Click Save.

Tip: If two or more forms will be very similar but will vary by appointment type, department, etc., use the copy function after you create one entire form.

 

 

  1. Display the Patient Portal Health Forms page: On the Main Menu, click Settings > Communicator. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Patient Portal, click Patient Portal Health Forms.
  2. Click build form next to the form that you want to add sections to.

    The Form Sections page appears.

  3. Click Add new to add a section.
  4. Section name — Enter a name for this section.
    Note: Any customized section names are not displayed on the Health History Form in the pre-appointment patient self check-in workflow.
  5. Type — Select the type of section.
  6. Description — Enter a description.
  7. Age range — To use this section of the form for patients in a specific age range only, enter the minimum and maximum patient age.
  8. Sex — To use this section of the form for male or female patients only, select the patient sex from the menu (the default value is Everyone).
  9. Order — Enter a number to specify where this section appears in a list of sections. By default, the sections appear in alphabetical order.
    Note: You can create multiple copies of each type of section for patients of different age ranges and sexes.
  10. Click Save.

 

  1. Display the Patient Portal Health Forms page: On the Main Menu, click Settings > Communicator. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Patient Portal, click Patient Portal Health Forms.
  2. Click build form next to the form to which you want to add section fields.
    The Form Sections page appears.
  3. Click select fields to add questions to that section.
    The Form Questions page appears.
  4. Click add/remove fields.
    With athenaClinicals, the available questions appear for the Clinicals sections that you configured.
  5. Check the box next to the questions that you want to appear on the form to the patient.
    Tip: If you need to remove only a few questions, click Select all and then remove the unnecessary questions from the Selected side by clicking the x next to the question.
  6. Click Save.
    Note: With athenaClinicals, both the Medications section and the Allergies section retrieve the data listed in athenaClinicals; therefore, you cannot add medications and allergies as questions in a section. However, patients can search the Medications and Allergy database when filling out their forms on the Patient Portal.

After you add all the necessary fields, you can edit field labels to make them easier to understand for patients, if necessary.

  1. Click edit label next to the question label that you want to edit.
  2. In the Label field, select the text that is visible to the patient and delete it.
  3. Type the label text that you want the patient to see. You can enter a label that is easier to understand than the field name. For example, if the field name is "DTaP," you can create this label: "Diphtheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis Vaccine."
  4. Click Save.

 

  1. Display the Patient Portal Health Forms page: On the Main Menu, click Settings > Communicator. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Patient Portal, click Patient Portal Health Forms or On the Main Menu, click Settings > Clinicals. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Forms and Letters, click Patient Portal Health Forms.
    Tip: After you configure a form, preview it for all your various patient combinations.
  2. Click preview form next to each form to preview the form before you publish it to the Patient Portal.
  3. Enter a patient ID for a patient that matches the criteria of that form (for example, within the age range and of the appropriate sex).
  4. Click Preview Form.
    The introduction for that form appears. Note: The preview only shows the legacy Health History Form functionality, not the current experience.
  5. Click Save & Next or click a section to the right (for example, Family Health History) to preview that part of the form.
  6. Display the Patient Portal Health Forms page: On the Main Menu, click Settings > Clinicals. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Forms and Letters, click Patient Portal Health Forms.
  7. Click edit next to the form.
  8. Live on Portal — Check this box to make the form available on the Patient Portal.
  9. Click Save.
    Patients who fit the filtering criteria (for example, age, sex, appointment, provider, department, specialty) can now access the form when they log on to the Patient Portal.

 

 

 

To remove the association of a Patient Portal health history form with a provider who is leaving your practice, follow these steps.

  1. Display the Patient Portal Health Forms page using either method.
    • On the Main Menu, click Settings > Communicator. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Patient Portal, click Patient Portal Health Forms.
    • On the Main Menu, click Settings > Clinicals. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Forms and Letters, click Patient Portal Health Forms.
  2. Locate the health form that is used for the provider and click edit.
    The Edit Patient Portal Health Form view appears.
  3. Providers — If the provider appears in the Selected list, click the X icon to the right of the provider's name.
    The provider is removed from the Selected list.
  4. Click Save.

 

  1. Display the Patient Portal Health Forms page: On the Main Menu, click Settings > Communicator. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Patient Portal, click Patient Portal Health Forms or On the Main Menu, click Settings > Clinicals. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Forms and Letters, click Patient Portal Health Forms.
  2. Click build form next to the form that you want to review or add section fields to.
  3. Click select fields next to the Social History section type.
  4. Click add/remove fields.
  5. Under Add Form Question, select the global and local Social History questions that you want to include in the self check-in process.
    Note: Unsupported global social history questions, which appear in the Other category, cannot be configured for your Patient Portal health forms.
  6. Click Save.
    Note: Questions on the Patient Portal aren't filtered by age, sex, and the patient's answers to related questions. If you want certain questions to appear only for a certain sex or age group, create a new Patient Portal health form and enter values in the Age range and Sex fields.

 

 

 

The patient's health history form status appears at the bottom of the Check-in page under the Forms heading (Portal Health History Forms).

Note: If your organization chose not to use the updated self check-in feature, the Appointment Confirmation Result column on the Eligibility and Phone page also displays the status of the patient's online check-in steps: Demographics, Health History Forms, Completed forms, and Incomplete forms.

 

 

If your practice uses athenaClinicals with athenaCommunicator, athenaOne prepopulates the Patient Portal health forms with current data recorded in the athenaClinicals patient chart. When the patient check-in process is complete, the Patient Portal health form creates a document that is immediately placed into a CLOSED status. The document will not appear in the Clinical Inbox.

 

If the patient has submitted changes via the Health History Form, you can view the documents to be reconciled by following these steps:

  1. Display the patient chart, and click the Data Reconciliation item in the Intake checklist.

  2. On the Reconciliation tab, click the show documents to reconcile link at the top of the page. The list of documents that require reconciliation appears. If you are currently reconciling a document, it is labeled "Active".

  3. To reconcile a different document, click its reconcile link.

  4. To examine the contents of a document, click the * {document name} * link.

When you are done examining the list of documents, you can click the hide documents to reconcile link to provide you with more working space. You can view changes made to the health history form on the check-in screen of the appointment.

 

 

 

If your organization uses the newer Patient Self Check-in feature, Patient Portal health forms are accessible only when a patient initiates the self check‑in workflow. You cannot log on to the Patient Portal as a patient to display the health forms.

 

If your organization chose not to use the updated Patient Self Check-in feature, patients can access forms on the Patient Portal.

  • When the patient's next appointment has a form associated with it, the form appears as one of the "Required forms" on the Patient Portal home page.
  • All appointments with associated medical forms display a message directing the patient to fill out the forms on the Patient Portal Appointments page.
  • Patients can access their forms on the Patient Portal Medical Forms page.

 

 

When patients select a form, they navigate through it section by section. A visual indicator displays their progress in the right hand section navigation bar. As patients complete each section by clicking Save and Next, the Patient Portal saves their information.

 

Patients can return to the form at any time before their appointment to update the information. After the appointment has passed, the form is no longer available on the Patient Portal. However, key pieces of information from the form are available on the My Health / Medical Form page, as well as in the electronic Patient Care Summaries.

 

When patients log on to the Patient Portal and display the Health History form, the Form Introduction page appears. The form description appears at the top of the Introduction if an introduction was created with the form. General instructions on how to navigate and fill out the form appear below the form description.

 

The patient sees a progress bar in the upper right corner of the form that shows the percentage complete as they fill out each section. Patients can return to the Introduction page at any time while they are completing the form.

 

The sections labeled on the right side of the page are selected and ordered when the form is created on the Patient Portal Health Forms page. The following sections can be added to the Patient Portal forms:

  • Medical History
  • Social History
  • GYN History
  • Family History
  • Surgical History
  • Immunizations
  • Medications
  • Allergies

If the patient is new to the practice, each section of the form is blank. If the patient is an existing patient, the sections show prepopulated information collected from the patient's chart.

 

If the patient has nothing to enter in a section (for example, if the patient has no allergies), the patient can indicate this fact at the top of the page. When the data is reconciled, it shows that the patient indicated no diseases or conditions. The No to section checkbox is not available in the Social History and GYN History sections.

 

If the patient does not need to make changes to a section of the form (for example, if the prepopulated information is correct), the patient can check Reviewed with No changes at the bottom of the form.

 

When the patient completes all sections of the form, the progress bar shows 100% completion of the form. A pop-up message also congratulates the patient for having successfully completed the entire form.

 

If the patient forgets a section of the form, a pop-up message reminds the patient to finish the incomplete sections before the appointment.

 

If the patient does not complete the entire form before the appointment but saves new information in a section, the new information will be available in the clinical document.

 

Note: If the patient makes no changes to the form, the form is not updated. If the patient enters some of the data, the entire form is updated.

 

 

 

Patient Portal health forms are linked to a specific patient appointment. Therefore, if the patient cancels the appointment, the Patient Portal health forms are not available to the patient or your practice unless the patient reschedules the appointment.

 

If a patient appointment has an associated health history form and the appointment is rescheduled, the same health history form that was linked to the original appointment will be available for the rescheduled appointment. If the patient completed some or all of the health history form sections before the appointment was rescheduled, all the health history information that the patient completed remains intact for the rescheduled appointment.

 

If a patient's appointment has an associated health history form and the appointment is cancelled and not rescheduled, the health history form information will not generate a new clinical document or be queued in the reconciliation tool. For this reason, you should use the reschedule appointment function to reschedule the cancelled appointment to ensure that the health history form stays with the patient's new appointment time.

 

When a new appointment is scheduled for the patient and the appointment is associated with a health history form, a new health history form is associated with the new appointment.

 

 

 

Form name Enter a name for the form.
Description If desired, enter a brief form introduction or overview.
Appointment types Select All or Selected, and then select the appointment types to associate with this form.
Providers Select All or Selected, and then select the providers to associate with this form.
Departments Enter a description.
Age range Enter the minimum and maximum patient ages to associate with this form.
Sex Select the patient sex to associate with this form (or select Everyone).
Live on Portal Leave this box unchecked until the form is complete.

 

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