Using the Client Portal
- Videos
- Configuring the client portal
- Configuring Out-of-Office Auto-Reply Settings
- Inviting a New Client to the portal
- Manage client portal for Minors
- Sharing Forms and Documents through the portal
- Notifications
- Frequently asked questions
Videos
Your client portal is the command center of your practice. From the portal you will set permissions for various features, select initial paperwork to send to your clients, and identify your practice with your personal account name. Please see our client portal tutorial videos here.
Configuring the client portal
Permissions: This feature requires administrator permissions. If you don't have permissions, please contact your account administrator regarding this feature.
When initially setting up your account you may turn on your client portal under Account Settings > Portal.
When you first set up the client portal, you will be prompted to enter a subdomain. The subdomain is a custom name you may give your client portal. As long as the name is available, you may use whatever you'd like for your subdomain. For example, if your clinic is called My Clinic, your portal address could be https://myclinic.sessionshealth.com/
Features
The client portal offers the following features:
These features can be enabled on your Account Settings > Portal page. If the feature is enabled at the account-level, you can override portal features for specific clients under the Portal tab in client's chart . Here, you can un-check any features you would like to disable for the specific client, such as Client Uploads, in the example below.
Online Booking
Online booking allows both current and new clients to schedule appointments with you.You can choose the services, duration, your availability, and other settings preferences. See our Online Booking Using the Client Portal support article for more details.
Cancel Appointments
If Online Booking is enabled in your account you can create a cancellation policy. By enabling this feature, your clients may cancel upcoming appointments from the client portal. However, you can set the time frame around how close to a session they can cancel, or automatically mark it as a late cancellation.
Once you enable cancel appointments, a Cancellation Policy section will appear. Click Edit to set up the time frame.
Here, you can specify:
- How close to a session the cancellation will be considered a late cancellation. Your appointment will remain on your calendar but marked as a late cancellation, and any default late cancellation fee you set in your Billing Settings > Billing tab will be applied to the bill.
- How close to a session to prevent clients from cancelling. This is helpful if you don't want your clients to be able to cancel within a certain number of hours before your session. If a client attempts to cancel within that window, there will be a prompt indicating they need to contact you directly to cancel.
Secure Messaging
If Secure Messaging is enabled under the Account Settings > Portal page > Features section, assigned practitioners can securely communicate with their assigned clients through the client portal, which is HIPAA compliant.
To do this, simply click the Messages icon displayed in the top right of the dashboard beside your profile initials. Clicking the icon will open the Secure Messaging page.
Here, you will select Start New Message to create a new message chain with a client or an internal message with another staff member on the account. Type the recipient in the To: add field. Next, add your message in the Message... box and Send.
If a client responds to or initiates a message to their assigned practitioner from their portal account, a red badge with the number of unread messages will appear at the top-right of the screen next to the Messages icon for the member it’s intended for.
Members may select and view previous conversations beneath the left-hand search bar, as shown in the image above.
Sharing Files with Secure Messaging
You can add attachments to secure messages by selecting the paperclip icon at the bottom-right corner of the messaging field, then selecting Send to share it through the client portal.
See the Secure Messaging article for more details from the client's perspective.
Configuring out-of-office auto-reply Settings
The out-of-office auto-reply feature is a great way to keep your clients aware of your time away and to provide pertinent details for who they should contact in case of emergencies.
An administrator on the account will have permissions to configure and manage the auto-reply message and date and time range for any members on the account.
To begin, administrators may click on Messages in the top-right corner of their account and select the Cog icon in the upper right-hand corner of the Secure Messaging screen.
Next, you’ll see the Out-of-Office Settings modal, where you can manage the following functions:
Select Team Members:
Choose which team members you want to configure out-of-office settings for by selecting the checkbox next to their name individually or clicking Select All to capture all members. Choose Clear All to remove all member selections.
Enter the Auto-Reply Message:
Type in your auto-reply message where it says “Enter out of office message…”.
Set the Date & Time Range:
This feature allows you to set a future date and time for when a practitioner is out of the office. Choose the Date and Time Range by clicking inside the start date and time fields for when you'd like the auto-responder to activate, and repeat the same steps for the end date and time. Once the end time has passed, the system will automatically disable the auto-reply from being sent.
Configure Settings:
After there is an entry for each function above, the Configure Settings button, along with a count of the members the settings apply to, will highlight in blue. Click this button to enable the auto-reply message settings, or select Cancel to discard and close the settings window.
Practitioners and non-practitioners without administrator permissions may toggle on or off their Out-of-Office Message. In addition, they may set their own auto-reply message and Date & Time Range for themselves using the same cog icon under the Messages button.
While the out-of-office reply is active, an indicator will display on the Messages button to indicate the out-of-office reply is active.
Clients receiving the auto-reply
Once all settings are configured and the auto-message is within an active timeframe, the auto-reply will populate instantaneously when a client sends a message during that period.
Note: Clients will receive only one auto-reply per hour when multiple messages are sent. A one-hour auto-reply interval prevents additional automatic replies.
Editing and replacing settings
Administrators can update a member’s existing Out of Office Settings during an active time period by clicking Edit Settings in the yellow alert indicator from the Secure Messaging navigation area.
This will repopulate the Out-of-Office Settings modal, where it displays which members are currently away. By clicking on a member’s Currently OOO option, you will see the following choices:
- Edit out-of-office: Allows you to update the existing message or shorten or extend the date and time range. Any updates that are configured will replace the existing settings.
- Cancel out-of-office: Disables the active auto-reply settings, making the member available again.
Moreover, you may choose to enable settings for any members who do not have an OOO status by checking their box, entering a message and date and time range, and then selecting Configure Settings.
Client Uploads
By enabling client uploads, you are allowing your client to share files with you through the client portal. Once logged in, your client will go the Document & Forms tab and scroll down to the My Uploads section. Here, they can click Add to upload a new document.
Note: Clients may also share documents through Secure Messaging via the attachment icon.
You can access any client uploaded forms by going to the client's chart in the right-hand panel. Scroll down to the Files area to view any files from your client in the Uploaded by the Client section.
Online Payments
When Online Payments is turned on, clients can make payments towards bills when shared through the client portal. Please see Online Bill Pay for more details.
Inviting a new client to the portal
There are two ways to invite a client to the client portal, which depends on if you're inviting a new client or an existing client that you may have imported from another EHR.
Note: We currently don't provide code to embed the portal within your web site. However, you may post a link directly on your website to your client portal. This is found at Account Settings > Portal.
After adding a new client's first name, last name, and email address, the setup wizard will ask if you would like to give your client access to the portal. You can decide what features to enable, information to collect, and forms and documents your client should complete or sign.
To add a client to the client portal, within the client's chart in their Details tab, select Start Setup.
You will confirm information on the first page and continue to the second page. Here, you can choose to grant your client access to the portal, by clicking Invite to Portal.
Once sending an invitation to the client, you can select which features, requested information, or forms you'd like your client to complete as part of the onboarding process.
Inviting an imported client to the portal
If you've imported your client details from another EHR, you will want to invite each of them to your new portal. You can do this in the Clients > [Client Name] > Portal tab.
Re-send an Invitation to the Client Portal
If your client has not yet accepted the client portal invitation, you may resend the invitation by going to the client's chart in their Portal tab, click "..." to Resend Invitation.
Note: You may only resend the portal invitation if the client has not yet accepted the portal invitation. Once the client accepts the invitation, the client can click on your public portal URL found in your Account Settings > Portal tab to log back into the portal.
Putting it All Together
The client portal is essential for you to streamline your practice and save you valuable time. We recommend you invite all your clients to the client portal, and re-deliver the invite if needed. Not only will this help you, your clients will appreciate being able to see upcoming appointments, sign documents, fill out assessments, and more. To view your client's experience, view the Client View of the Client Portal video tutorial.
Managing the client portal for minors
Contacts who have been given access to the minor's portal, may manage documents for the minor. When there are multiple contacts, such as in the case of divorced parents, each contact will only have visibility to documents they have submitted.
To give the parent access to the minor's portal, navigate to the Portal tab.
You may toggle access for both the minor and any contacts from this tab. Toggling access to the client portal doesn't immediately send an invitation. You will be presented with a modal before sending the invitation. The modal for sending the portal invitation to the minor and/or contacts will allow you to determine access and select any consent and/or intake forms.
Once a contact has been invited to the portal, you may further manage the contact's permissions for the minor client.
- View Appointments will allow the contact to see upcoming appointments.
- Manage information will allow the contact to manage the minor client's details from within the portal.
- Manage Documentation will allow you to send additional forms and documents to the contact through the portal.
Client portal documents
Contacts will see any paperwork for the minor client in the client portal under the Documents and Forms tab
Note: Contacts and clients can only see paperwork in the portal that was explicitly shared with them.
Sharing forms and documents through the client portal
Occasionally, there may be new forms or documents to share with your clients. Sharing a new form or document will notify your client by email that there's a new document to review.
We recommend sharing assessments, intake forms, and questionnaires by creating custom forms and sending those to your clients to fill out. This saves both you and your clients time.
If you've created a new consent or intake form that you'd like to share with a client, go to Clients > [Client Name] > Portal. In the Requested and Shared Documents section, click Manage Documentation.
From there, you can check any new forms you'd like to share or uncheck any forms you'd like to un-share, then click Save. If any new forms are sent, you'll have the opportunity to customize your email message.
Note: Forms can also be filled out from the Details tab of the client chart. When a new form is created from this tab, it will be labeled Private. Only the clinician will have visibility to this form and will not be shared through the client portal. The intent of using this approach is for the clinician to fill out forms on behalf of the client.
Sharing a PDF Document or File Through the Client Portal
To share a PDF or other type of document, go to Clients > [Client Name] > Portal. In the Requested and Shared Documents section, click Manage Documentation. Scroll to the bottom to find the Shared Document section. Click +Add and follow the instructions to upload an attachment.
Click Continue and add a custom email message if you'd like.
You may store practice PDFs for sharing in your Account Settings > Portal > Shared Documents
Notifications
We send a notification when a client completes their on-boarding through the portal (which includes any initial intake paperwork they've been requested to fill out). Outside of that, we also notify via the Daily Digest email of any completed/signed treatment plan or assessment, and any client uploads.
FAQ
How do I remove or delete a client portal access?
You may revoke access to a client's portal by going to Clients > [Client Name] > Portal. Click the '...' menu to revoke access.
How do clients reset their password on the client portal?
Direct them to the log-in page of your client portal. You will find the link to your portal under Account Settings > Portal. On the log-in page, click the Forgot Password link.
Are clients emailed when I send them a secure message?
If unread after 2 minutes, and a client has allowed emails to be sent in Communication Preferences, then an email will be sent notifying them that they have a secure message in the client portal.
Do you offer personal branding and logos in the client portal?
Your client portal will include your name, address, and ability to schedule appointments online if you choose to make that available. We currently do not have the option to include more customizations such as your logo, however, we intend to build in more flexibility for you to customize the portal later this year.
My client is trying to access their client portal and is getting a message their email is not found. What can I do?
The vast majority of the time when we hear about this, the client is trying to sign in at the wrong location. For example, they may be attempting to sign in at https://app.sessionshealth.com (the Sessions Health practitioner login) rather than your portal address. We recommend confirming they're logging into your portal, which will be the URL located in your Account Settings > Portal tab.
If your client continues having issues logging into their account, please contact support@sessionshealth.com