Patient users

A patient user is a patient’s sign-in to the patient portal, the website where patients see their appointments, treatments, prescriptions, lab results and invoices, and request appointments. A portal account is separate from the patient’s record in Meddesk, and the two are linked so the patient sees their own information.

Portal accounts are created in two ways:

• by staff, from the patient’s record (below), or
• by the patient, who registers on the portal. Such an account isn’t linked to a patient record until staff link it.

Who can do what

To…	You need
Open Patient Portal › Patient Users, create, link, edit and disable portal accounts	Manage patient portal users
Reset a patient’s portal password	Reset patients’ passwords
See portal users’ phone numbers and emails	Read patient contact info

The list

Patient Portal › Patient Users lists every portal account: name, contact details (only if you can read patient contact info), the linked Patient ID, registration date and status (Active or Disabled).

• Search by name, email or phone.
• Filters: User status, Patient linking (Linked users / Unlinked users), Patients, and Registration date.
• Export downloads the list as a CSV file.

Select a user, or View details in their menu, to see their details, when they Last signed in and were Last active, and their Patient record.

Give a patient portal access

From the patient’s record (Details › Patient portal card), select Create portal user. The patient record must have a first and last name, gender, phone and email, and no other portal account may use that email.

Choose how they get their password:

• Send password reset email: a link goes to the patient’s email address so they set their own password. If the email can’t be sent, for example because password reset emails are turned off in Email settings, Meddesk tells you and nothing is created, so you can choose the other option. If a still-valid link was sent recently, Meddesk tells you it was already sent instead of sending another.
• Generate temporary password: shown once, for you to pass on to the patient yourself. Select Copy before closing. The patient must choose their own password the first time they sign in.

You see Portal access created.

Link a self-registered account

An account a patient created themselves shows as Not linked. Open it and select Link to patient:

• Link to an existing patient: search the clinic’s patient records. Suggestions are based on the account’s own details.
• Create a new patient record: made from the account’s own name, date of birth, gender, phone and email.

Select Link patient. You see Patient linked. Link carefully: the account will see that patient’s records in the portal.

Edit or disable an account

Select Edit to change the account’s First name, Last name, Date of birth, Gender, Email and Phone. Without Read patient contact info, the email and phone fields are locked. Turn off Portal access active to stop the patient signing in. Select Save changes.

The account’s details are what the patient entered on the portal, and they can differ from the clinic’s patient record. When they do, the patient’s record shows which ones changed. The clinic’s record is never changed automatically.

Reset a portal password

With Reset patients’ passwords, select Reset password (on the account, or on the patient’s portal card), then choose Send password reset email or Generate temporary password, as when creating access.

A temporary password signs the patient out of the portal everywhere, and they must choose a new password when they next sign in.