Practice Management on Embodia - Part 1: Charting - Sharing a chart entry with an external user

Embodia enables you to securely share your chart entries with external users instead of relying on antiquated methods such as faxing. When you share a chart item with an external user:

• They will be able to access it using a unique URL that expires after a certain time (defined by you);
• Their access to the chart entry will be recorded and shared with you;
• They will not be able to modify any chart items that you completed;
• You can also include additional chart items and ask the external user to complete them (such as adding a drawing to collect a signature).

Enabling external sharing

The actions described in this section require a Manager permission in your clinic.

By default, external sharing of patient charts is disabled for your clinic. The clinic manager can enable this feature by going to Charting > Charting settings > Genera settings:

Check the Allow external sharing of patient charts checkbox. If you would like to receive a notification when an externally shared chart has been completed by the external user, check the corresponding checkbox as well. Then click Submit.

Sharing a chart entry with an external user

To be able to share a chart entry with an external user, the following 2 conditions must be met:

1. External sharing of patient charts must be enabled for your clinic (if you are not sure if this is enabled for your clinic, please contact your Clinic Manager).
2. The chart entry must be signed.

When sharing a chart entry with an external user:

• They will be able to access it using a unique URL that expires after a certain time (defined by you). For additional security, you can optionally require the external to enter a password (also defined by you) to access the chart entry.
• Their access to the chart entry will be recorded and shared with you.
• They will not be able to modify any chart items that you completed.
• You can also include additional chart items and ask the external user to complete them (such as adding a drawing to collect a signature).
• Only signed chart entries can be shared. Once shared, you will no longer be able to revert the signing of the entry.

It is recommended not to share the chart entry with the patient themselves. If you would like to share it with the patient, it is best to change the chart visibility to "Visible to patient", so that the patient may access their chart from their patient portal.

Sharing a chart entry with an external user

If external sharing of patient charts is enabled for your clinic, and the chart entry is signed, you can share it with an external user by clicking on the Share button at the bottom of the chart entry:

You will be redirected to a page that lists all the previous shares of this chart entry.

Click on Share chart entry:

Fill in the popup form with:

• The name of the external user 
• The expiration date of the share. The chart entry will no longer be accessible to the external user after the expiration date. We recommend setting a short expiration date of no more than a week or two.
• Whether you'd like to hide the patient information from the external user (the patient name, and any patient properties included in the chart entry)
• A optional password. If provided, the external user needs to enter it to gain access to the shared chart entry.

After submitting the form, you will be redirected to the chart entry share page.

If you would like to ask the external user to add some information to the chart entry, you can add chart items by clicking on Add a chart item in box #1 in the image above. The external user will only be able to complete those chart items; they will be able to see the other chart items in the chart entry, but they won't be able to edit them.

The external user can access the shared chart entry using a unique Access URL. You can find the Access URL in box #2 in the image above. You can either copy the URL and provide it to the external user, or you can send the external user an email with instructions on how to access the share chart entry by clicking on Send instructions via email (box #3 in the image above) and providing their email address. Embodia will send them an email with the instructions needed to access the chart entry.

The access to the shared chart entry by the external user is recorded and shared with you in box #4 in the box above. In the example above, the external user has not accessed the shared chart entry yet. Once they do, the date and time will recorded and listed:

The external user experience

The external user can access the shared charted entry using their unique Access URL. Embodia can also send an email to the external user with instructions on how to access the shared chart entry.

When the external user visits the unique access URL, they will be asked to consent to their access being recorded:

If the user consents to their access being recorded, they click Access chart entry and are then redirected to the chart entry page.

If the external user needs to complete some chart items, they will see a notice and the chart items that need to be completed will be highlighted in yellow.

When the external user completes the requested chart items, they can sign their input by clicking on the link in the notice. Once the external user signs their input, no further modification can be made.