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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. A solo practice opens My Instance > Portal Requests. Other organizations open Settings > Portal Requests. Solo practices do not have a separate organization-level portal requests page.
  3. On Settings > Portal Requests, the organization-level workflow opens by default
  4. An instance can override the organization workflow when needed

Available Step Types​

Open Add Step to insert one of these. Except for Custom Form and Consent, each type can be added once.

Every step except Completion can also carry custom instructions, the text patients see during that step.

Request Details​

Shown in the builder as Request Details. Patients describe their request and choose a healthcare service.

Configuration options:

  • Allowed Healthcare Services: The services patients can choose. A newly added Request Details step leaves this list unset. If this list has never been set, patients see every active service. Once someone edits it, only the selected services are shown, and an empty list blocks every request.
  • Configure options (step menu): Default priority, status, intent, and category; whether patients see an additional notes field and whether notes are required; instructions for this step.

When a patient selects a service that has Appointment Required enabled, they are prompted to schedule as part of the workflow.

Custom Form​

Displays a FHIR Questionnaire for patients to complete.

Configuration options:

  • Questionnaire: Select from the FHIR Questionnaires in your organization.

Document Upload​

Lets patients upload supporting documents. The portal request step does not list required document types and does not have its own required toggle. Those options belong to registration, not to portal requests.

Appointment Scheduling​

Books an appointment inside the workflow. When the workflow also has a Request Details step, this step follows the selected service: it is mandatory for a service with Appointment Required enabled and is skipped for a service without it.

Configuration options:

  • Required step: Patients cannot skip scheduling.
  • Configure Options opens the scheduling dialog. The choices there are calendar style (Standard or Streamlined), location selection, a reason-for-visit field, showing the provider on each slot, minimum and maximum days out, and whether payment must be completed before booking (including an optional payment timeout). Default Participants is shown and disabled, so you cannot choose practitioners there. The dialog does not set a service type, service codes, or an appointment duration.

Payment​

Collects payment from the patient. The step does not have a required toggle, and it does not attach a product. A healthcare service can have one payment product; that product is what the patient is charged.

Configuration options:

  • Associate Payment With: Service Request or Appointment.
  • Appointment Status After Payment: The appointment status to set after a successful payment.

Patients must read the consent text and explicitly agree before continuing. Opening the step is not consent. You can add more than one Consent step.

Configuration options:

  • Consent Text: The statement the patient must agree to. This text is recorded on the patient chart.
  • Associated Form (optional): A questionnaire the patient must also complete.

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. Request Details - 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. Request Details - 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. Request Details - 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 prompt patients to schedule, either during the Request Details step or at the workflow's Appointment Scheduling step
  • Each healthcare service can have one Payment Product. That product is applied when the patient chooses the service.

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
  • If Allowed Healthcare Services was edited, the service is one of the selected services. A saved empty list blocks every service. A list that was never set shows every active service.
  • 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