How do I set up and configure the Pulse pet owner portal?

Give your clients access to the system to enhance the client experience and their interaction with their animal's medical information. It is optional for you to turn this on in your practice and you can control what your clients have access to. Additionally, you have the option to allow clients to request an appointment or to schedule an appointment for a specific day and time.

In order to configure the Client Site, Click Menu > Settings > Client Engagement > Client Site. Once your settings have been configured you can allow clients to access the portal.

To enable client access, click Menu > Settings > Practice Setup > General > Miscellaneous Settings >  Select the option "Allow client access" > save. 

When first creating the client record you must click on the box to "Allow login?" to access to the site and create their username as a valid email address. They will receive a congratulations email asking them to create their password. More information on initially creating a client can be found here: How can I add a new client?

General Restrictions

In the General Restrictions section at the top of the Client Site Configuration page is where you designate what information your clients can update as well as if you want them to be able to see estimates you've generated for them and any payment history.

• The fields "Allow client to change name?" through "Allow client to change referral?" allow the client to make the following changes that you may or may not want them to change. The below image shows what the client would see when logged into the portal as if each of these fields were checked off.

The next check boxes allow them to create new pets or edit existing pets. For example, if their pet passed away they could update the Status to "Deceased" and the pet would no longer show up on their dashboard in the portal. The pet will then show up on the practice administration side as Deceased.

Next, you can choose whether or not to allow the client to see their estimates and payment history.

Below is a sample view of the Account Balance and Estimates from the portal:

Below is the sample estimate after the client clicks the icon under "View" in the Estimates section.

Medical Records Restriction

The Medical Records Restriction section in the middle of the page is where you can choose to let clients view their pets' medical and/or vaccination records.

Appointments

The bottom section allows you to show your Office Hours and to give your clients the ability to request a general appointment time (i.e. Morning, Afternoon, Evening) via the portal. Furthermore, you could also allow clients to actually schedule an appointment for a specific date and time, based on availability.

Displaying Office Hours

If you'd like to display your Office Hours on the portal, leave the box beside "Show by appointment only and hide operation hours" unchecked.

Additionally, you can have a special message to display under the Office Hours by entering it into the text box beside "Optional text to include below operation hours".

Note: If you choose to not show your hours of operation, the message you enter in the "Optional text to include below operation hours" text box will not be visible in the portal.

Request an Appointment

To allow your clients the ability to submit an appointment request for a specific date and a general appointment time (Morning, Afternoon, or Evening):

5. Check the box beside "Allow client to request an appointment".
6. Update the "Appointment request label", if desired.
7. Update the “Email to notify upon client appointment request or scheduling” field with an email address you would like an email notification to be sent to when a client submits an appointment request.  You can leave it blank if you don’t want to receive an email at all. The appointment request will still show on your Calendar view under a section titled "Appointment Requests."
8. Click Save.
9. Appointment Reasons should be configured, with at least one of them active; otherwise your clients will not be allowed to submit their request. You can inactivate any you do not feel you will need or add new ones by clicking "Add Appointment Reason." 

• • • Name: Here you can specify the name (this is what the client will see)
    • Description
    • Is Default: Indicates whether or not it is the default (the one that the client will see first before clicking on the drop down box)
    • Type: To map to the actual Appointment Type that you, as a Practice, choose from when you schedule an appointment

Note: If you previously were allowing clients to request an appointment and are now going to allow clients the ability to directly schedule an appointment, you should first enable the "Allow client to select a specific date/time based on availability" option, click Save, then edit each of your existing Appointment Reasons to map the Type selection to your Appointment Types.

• Is Active: and whether or not it is active (you should not uncheck this box unless you no longer wish to use this reason)
• Click Save.

If you allow your clients to request appointments, they will only be able to select a a specific day and a general time frame for the appointment: Morning, Afternoon, or Evening. They will also be required to have a Reason for Visit (e.g. Appointment Reason), and a Reason for Visit. They can also add an additional message.

Schedule an Appointment

You will also want to review your Hours of Operation, which is located under Settings > Practice Setup > Practice Profile.  This will drive what times are available when the pet owner goes to schedule an appointment.  If a particular day is set to closed (e.g. Sunday), there will be no time selections listed for the client to choose from - thus not allowing them to schedule an appointment for that chosen day.

Once submitted by the Client, if you have an email setup for practice notification, you will receive an email.  The appointment will appear on your calendar immediately without any further action.

The available times displayed to the client to choose from when scheduling an appointment is restricted by a number of factors: 

• Hours of Operation
• Current schedule for that day chosen
  • We exclude conflicting boarding appointments and all-day appointments
  • All other appointments on your calendar are accounted for when determining open slots (patient, non-patient, etc.)
• Duration of the appointment is based on the Reason for Visit chosen by the Client, which you map to your actual Appointment Types you choose from when scheduling an appointment which have a specified default duration (e.g. 30 minutes).

DIRECTING YOUR CLIENTS ON HOW TO LOG IN

Your clients will need to go to login.evetpractice.com and click on Pet Owner Login. Here they will log in the same way you and your employees log into the system.

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