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Portal Requests

Portal Requests enable patients to interact with healthcare organizations through customizable, step-by-step workflows. For patients who haven't finished registration, the system provides seamless recovery options that preserve their progress and guide them back to completion.

Overview

Each workflow type can have its own sequence of steps, forms, and completion messages. This allows organizations to create tailored experiences for different types of patient requests while maintaining consistency across the platform.

Key Features

Registration Resume & Recovery

For patients with incomplete registrations, the platform provides automatic progress tracking and recovery:

  • Automatic Progress Tracking: The system remembers where patients left off in the registration process
  • Session Persistence: Logged-in users returning to registration are automatically resumed at their last step
  • No Lost Work: Demographics, form responses, and uploaded documents are preserved between sessions
  • Clear Navigation: Progress indicators show completed steps and remaining requirements

When a patient returns with an existing account but no completed patient record, the system detects their partial registration and redirects them to continue from where they stopped—no need to re-enter information.

Post-Registration Request Types

Once registered, patients can submit various request types through configurable workflows:

  • Appointment Requests - Schedule visits with preferred providers
  • Service Requests - Request specific healthcare services
  • Prescription Refills - Request medication renewals
  • Lab Results Requests - Access test results
  • Medical Records Requests - Obtain copies of records
  • Referral Requests - Request specialist referrals
  • General Inquiries - Submit questions to care teams

State-Based Service Availability

Services display coverage indicators showing which states they're available in. Patients only see services relevant to their location, reducing confusion and ensuring appropriate care matching.

Dependent Registration

Registered patients can add family members directly from the portal:

  • Streamlined Process: Skips account creation (dependents share primary login)
  • Relationship Tracking: FHIR-compliant linking between family members
  • Full Access: Dependents get complete records—appointments, documents, care plans
  • Easy Switching: Toggle between managing your care and dependents' care

Accessing Portal Requests

  1. Sign in with an admin role
  2. Navigate to Settings > Portal Requests
  3. The organization-level workflow opens by default
  4. Instances can override organization settings when needed

Available Step Types

Service Request

Allows patients to describe their healthcare service needs and select from available services.

Configuration Options:

  • Allowed Healthcare Services: Filter which services are shown to patients. Leave empty to show all active services.
  • Custom Instructions: Additional guidance shown to patients during this step.

When a patient selects a service that has appointmentRequired enabled, they will be prompted to schedule an appointment as part of this step.

Custom Form

Displays a FHIR Questionnaire for patients to complete.

Configuration Options:

  • Questionnaire: Select from available FHIR Questionnaires configured in your organization.
  • Custom Instructions: Additional guidance for form completion.

Document Upload

Allows patients to upload supporting documents for their request.

Configuration Options:

  • Required Documents: Specify which document types are needed.
  • Required: Whether document upload is mandatory to proceed.
  • Custom Instructions: Guidance on what documents to upload.

Appointment Scheduling

Enables inline appointment booking within the workflow. When the workflow also has a Service Request step, this step follows the selected service: it is mandatory for a service with Appointment Required enabled and is skipped entirely for a service without it.

Configuration Options:

  • Service Type: Filter available appointment slots by service type.
  • Service Codes: Specific service codes to filter appointments.
  • Appointment Duration: Default duration for booked appointments.

Payment

Collects payment from the patient.

Configuration Options:

  • Association Type: Resource type to associate payment with (ServiceRequest or Appointment).
  • Required: Whether payment is mandatory to complete the workflow.

Completion

Final step showing a success message. This step is automatically added if not present in the workflow configuration.

Configuration Options:

  • Completion Title: Header text displayed on completion (default: "Request Submitted Successfully").
  • Completion Instructions: Body text with next steps and instructions.

Configuring Portal Requests

Adding Steps

  1. Click Add Step in the workflow builder
  2. Select the step type from available options
  3. Configure step-specific settings
  4. Drag and drop to reorder steps as needed

Step Management

  • Enable/Disable: Toggle step visibility without removing it from the workflow
  • Remove: Delete a step from the workflow (completion step cannot be removed)
  • Reorder: Drag steps to change their order in the workflow

Organization vs Instance Settings

Portal request workflows can be configured at two levels:

  1. Organization Level: Default workflows applied to all instances
  2. Instance Level: Override workflows for specific instances

To enable instance-level overrides:

  1. Navigate to the instance settings
  2. Enable Override Portal Requests
  3. Configure instance-specific workflow steps

Common Workflow Patterns

Appointment Request Workflow

A typical appointment request workflow might include:

  1. Service Request - Patient selects the type of service needed
  2. Appointment Scheduling - Patient books an available time slot
  3. Payment - Patient completes payment if required
  4. Completion - Confirmation with next steps

Service Request with Documentation

For requests requiring supporting documents:

  1. Service Request - Patient describes their needs
  2. Custom Form - Patient completes intake questionnaire
  3. Document Upload - Patient uploads required documents
  4. Completion - Confirmation with processing timeline

Simple Inquiry Workflow

For general patient inquiries:

  1. Service Request - Patient selects inquiry type
  2. Completion - Confirmation that inquiry was received

Integration with Healthcare Services

Portal requests integrate with your Healthcare Services configuration:

  • Services marked as Appointment Required will automatically prompt patients to schedule, either during the Service Request step or at the workflow's Appointment Scheduling step
  • Service categories and types are used to filter available appointment slots
  • Payment products linked to services can be automatically applied

Best Practices

  1. Keep workflows focused: Create separate workflows for different request types rather than one complex workflow
  2. Use clear instructions: Add custom instructions to guide patients through each step
  3. Test with patients: Preview workflows from the patient perspective before deployment
  4. Review completion messages: Ensure completion instructions set appropriate expectations

Troubleshooting

Patients can't see certain services

Check that:

  • The service is marked as Active in Healthcare Services settings
  • The service is included in the Allowed Healthcare Services filter for that step
  • The patient's instance has access to the service

Appointment scheduling not appearing

Verify that:

  • The selected healthcare service has Appointment Required enabled — services without it skip scheduling
  • There are available appointment slots for the service type
  • The scheduling configuration is properly set up

Forms not displaying

Ensure that:

  • The FHIR Questionnaire is properly configured and published
  • The correct questionnaire is selected in the step configuration
  • The questionnaire format is compatible with the portal renderer