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Patient Portal

The PatientConnection patient portal provides a secure online channel for communication between your practice and your patients. It runs as background infrastructure within InSched, automatically managing connections, data synchronization, and secure communications.

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This page covers the portal from the InSched (Windows client) side. Patients use the portal in their browser — see Using the Patient Portal. Practice staff can work with the same conversations in the browser through the Practice Web Portal and its Unified Inbox.

Features​

Secure Messaging​

Send and receive secure messages with patients through the portal. Unlike standard email or SMS, portal messages are transmitted over encrypted connections, making them appropriate for communications that contain protected health information (PHI).

To send a secure portal message, select Events > Send Secure Portal Message from the menu.

Appointment Confirmations​

Patients can confirm their appointments online through the portal. When a patient confirms:

  • The confirmation is automatically recorded in InSched
  • The Last Confirmed Date on the event is updated
  • The confirmation type is set appropriately

Automated Reminders​

PatientConnection can send automated appointment reminders via text message and email. Patients can respond to confirm, and the confirmation flows back into the schedule automatically. See Appointment Reminders.

Online Communications​

The portal handles:

  • Uploading patient data to the cloud portal
  • Downloading patient responses and communications
  • Synchronizing data between the practice and the portal
  • Processing online credit card payments

Infrastructure​

PatientConnection operates as background infrastructure in InSched:

  • HTTP/HTTPS connections for web communication
  • SSL/TLS encryption for all data transmission
  • XML processing for data exchange
  • HL7 protocol support for clinical data
  • Proxy configuration for network environments that require it

The PatientConnection Menu​

The PatientConnection top-level menu gathers the online features in one place:

  • Online Payment Links ... — the practice-wide list of payment links and their statuses.
  • Download Online Communications — manually download new communications from the portal (InSched also synchronizes automatically at configured intervals).
  • Upload PatientConnection Records / Upload Patient Stage Log Records — send patient and stage records to the cloud for online access.
  • Upload eChart / Upload Charts for a Day — send chart documents to the cloud.
  • Upload Financial Data To Cloud — upload aggregate (de-identified) financial data for a chosen date range, used for practice benchmarking.
  • Leads ... — web inquiries; see Managing Leads.
  • Check PMP Report — see Prescription Monitoring Program.
  • Rcopia Notifications... / Rcopia Notifications for me... — see Rcopia e-Prescribing.

View Recent Communications​

All portal communications are logged alongside email and text messages. See Recent Communications.

Configuration​

The Setup > Preferences > PatientConnection tab holds the connection settings (provided by IntelliPract support): the PatientConnection username and password, the daily upload time, and how many days of past and future schedule to upload. A set of per-workstation checkboxes controls which computer performs each job — uploads, communication downloads, continuous updates, stage-log uploads, and eChart uploads — so exactly one designated machine does the background work.

Additional synchronization settings (sync timing, mirror system settings, and auto-disconnect windows for database backups) are on the Preferences > Synchronization tab.