Informatica

There are two ways for a patient to signup to use Appointments Online:

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• Turn up to the practice in person with some proof of identify. The practice staff can then grant the patient full access to Appointments Online using their practice management system.
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• Go to the Appointments Online signup page for their practice and apply for access over the web.
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I want to outline the second process in more detail. We are trying to strike a balance between accessibility and privacy. We want to make it as easy as possible for someone to begin using Appointments Online without opening up the possibility that someone might gain access to another person's records. Our intention at the moment is for patients signed up over the web to have only minimal functionality once they login to Appointments Online. These patients will only be able to book appointments and view appointments that have been booked via Appointments Online and not directly with the practice frontdesk. They also will not be able to post or read any messages nor will they be able to request repeat medication. If a patient with restricted access wants to use these other features of Appointments Online then they will have to present to the practice in person with relevant proof of identity. We believe that this process will make it easy for patients to book appointments over the web but hard for them to hijack someone else's identity and gain access to their personal information.

Here's the actual web signup process. First of all the patient goes to the home page for their practice on Appointments Online (the practice can link to this from their web site) and clicks on the "sign up" link:



Next the patient must provide some personal details. This will allow the practice staff to link this signup request with the relevant patient record from their clinical system:



After clicking "Sign Me Up" the patient is presented with a confirmation page. At this point the signup request is sent to the practice for verification where the practice staff will either accept the request and link it with a patient record or reject it because they cannot reconcile the personal details in the signup request with an actual patient record.



Once the practice has approved the request by the patient then an email is sent to the patient to allow them to complete the sign up process:



Clicking on the link in the mail brings up the web page to complete the signup process. At this point all the patient needs to do is select for themselves a unique user name and password:



And finally the patient has (restricted!) access to Appointments Online: