Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Updox portal communication - how to save them?

We love Updox, primarily for its help in document management. In fact, we really have barely used the portal until recently. We are starting to experiment with portal communication more frequently and I am a bit confused about how these conversations with patients should be stored and documented.

Question 1: How do I save a portal message I send to a patient? Do I need to go into "sent messages" and save to chart from there? Do you do this routinely, for all messages?

Question 2: If I have a document in my Updox queue, to save it to the patient's chart I think I start by hitting "send item". The box than then opens automatically populates with the patient's name, but it appears it cannot be saved to that chart without first erasing that name,re-entering and selecting it, which then gives the option "send to EHR". Am I correct about that?

I've been working on this too. On Question 1 when you send the message you should see multiple tabs including EMR and portal. If you click both of these it will send to portal and also save the message to the pt's chart under unknown. The only hitch I see is that it opens two small windows on the SEND screen (one for EMR, one for portal) and the message doesn't always populate to both.

As far as the second question, the document never populates automatically for me, we always have to enter the name manually.

Jon,

In response to question 1, I need to clarify I have chosen not to click on the SECURE icon to migrate updox and AC(hover over and it says "Patient Portal and Direct Messaging") and I use the cloud based Updox and my nurse uses the server based Updox. I personally do very little document management with Updox, my nurse dose 99% of the work. It gets a bit complex on how to answer your question depends on how you send the portal message. So I will give an example. I will type in the message "Mrs X needs to make an appt to discuss DEXA" into my nurses inbox in AC. When she gets a break she will see the message in her inbox, then type in this message to Updox by opening address book clicking on Mrs X and hit the compose icon, click on send to patient portal, fill in subject "DEXA" and then message section the message. "Dear Mrs X, please make an appt to discuss DEXA" then hit send.
My nurse will save this message to the chart in AC, so we have a record in AC and the sent message in Updox will be archived and saved too, furthermore one can go to the address book in Updox and click on message and find time and date this message was sent.
This sounds like it would take for ever and cumbersome, but it really isn't and in fact easier than a phone call a lot of the time, because it gets the point across and the nurse can get on with her next task without all of the phone etiquette distractions. It would be nice if my nurse could right click on the original message in her inbox and paste to the message section in updox, but that doesn't work, therefore I try to keep these messages short, concise.
However, if it is a longer message my nurse or I will find patient in Updox address book, and do the steps as above to send to patient portal, but then can right click and drag to copy and then paste into AC, my inbox or nurse's inbox to save to AC.

In response to question #2, I will give an example with this too. The mammogram of Mrs X is in queue, so my nurse will click the box at bottom of mammo report in Updox and then click on send 1 selected page icon, then click on send to patient portal AND send to EHR. So my nurse will fill in subject "Mammo and letter" click on the upside down triangle by templates icon and select mammogram letter (I designed multiple templates through updox-another discussion) and scroll down fill in subject "mammo and letter" category, click radiology, notify dr, and date of item and then hit send. Instantaneously the mammo and letter received in pt portal and my inbox. So the patient may get the result before I sign off, so I have trained my nurse to go ahead and do this if mammogram result normal so the patient can get results as soon as we get them in Updox inbox. Again this sounds cumbersome and time consuming but is not and done multiple times a day.

We have over 800 pts using the portal actively, I just recently had to make a switch in my nurse of 7.5 years and my new nurse of just over a month has learned the system quite well and really likes the portal.

I think two things are really important for the portal to be successful, having the nurse manage it and do most of the work, if the doc is doing the work it is a waste of his time. And using it as a direct connection to the nurse so it is easier for the patient to use the portal than trying to phone in having to go through front office staff to get to nurse.

Jon,

I realized I didn't address the second part to your first question, "do you do this routinely for all messages?". I do, but messages coming from the patient via the portal, I defer to the nurse, often how she documents phone calls. Such as "hey what time is my appt" no need to save that message, she responds and archives so is kept in Updox but not in AC. However the beauty of Updox is the ability to copy and paste into AC the multiple complex questions, usually requiring a visit. A phone call, my nurse has to listen, write and type, but the portal system is really great for getting the exact message as typed by the patient easily put into AC in the record, so that when I see the patient a week or two later, I can see the exact message as typed by the patient, and show that to the patient on the large wall mounted TV, very helpful. Hope this helps.