Setting up online forms

Overview

To get started with the online forms feature, a user with the appropriate administration privileges will have to manage settings at the following places in the Setup menu:

1. Setup > Online forms > Settings: enable the feature, set the sending address, set the default form expiration period, and set the email templates for online forms requests
2. Setup > Templates > Forms: ensure that your online forms and their properties are as desired
3. Setup > Scheduling > Event types: associate the right forms with the right appointment types, so that Blueprint OMS can send patients the forms that pertain to their appointments.

Enabling the feature for the first time

Setting sending addresses

At Setup > Online forms > Settings, click ENABLE ONLINE FORMS to launch the Online forms setup wizard, where you can set the sending email address for any online form requests sent to patients.

Users with the Maintain locations user privilege can assign location-specific sending addresses at Setup > Locations. This will override the general sending address set at Setup > Online forms > Settings.

Setting the default form expiration period

At Setup > Online forms > Settings, under Options, you can set the default expiration period for online forms requests. 

Setting the default behavior for processing QuickAdds' forms requests

At Setup > Online forms > Settings, under Options, you can set how Update patient wizard behaves when processing online forms of QuickAdds.

Setting email templates

At Setup > Online forms, you can change the default templates for the emails that instantiate online forms requests, and for the messages that let respondents know that their submissions have been received. To edit any of these, select the template you wish to edit, click EDIT, and, in the dialog that pops up, modify the template as desired. 

Optionally, use the merge fields listed on the right-hand side of the dialog box, in your email template.

The IF clause of the default template is there to allow the emails to include individualized messages to patients, entered by the user at the time the request is sent or resent. The option to enter an individualized message is especially useful when resending a form, to clarify the problem with the patient's original form submission. 

Setting online form templates

Ida Institute tools

At Setup > Online forms > Ida Institute tools, you can view and manage the properties of the four available Ida Institute telecare surveys for patients, which behave like other online forms in that they can be associated with event types and sent as parts of online forms requests.

These interactive and colorful HTML surveys allow you to engage patients before their appointments by getting them to think about the ways in which their hearing problems affect their lives.

• Living Well
• The People I Talk To
• Tinnitus Thermometer
• Why Improve My Hearing

All other online forms

At Setup > Templates > Forms, you will find, among your other forms, the generic Blueprint OMS online forms, which you can start using immediately after enabling the online forms feature. These region-specific templates have merge fields that will populate your clinic-specific and location-specific information, such as logos, clinic names, and location names. Below is a list of the standard forms for the US.

• COVID-19 pre-visit survey
• Demographic intake form
• HIPAA and insurance consent
• Medical history intake form
• Medical waiver

Special properties of online forms

Requires processing	If a form with suitably configured form fields is set to require processing, then the form's field data, once received, will be used to create or update a patient file in Blueprint OMS. Patient-related, alternate contact-related, and insurer-related fields can be updated via online forms. The processing of an online forms request is user-initiated but mostly automatic after that; for more information, see: Handling incoming forms. If you have an online form you intend to send to prospects who don't exist in your system yet, the online form should require processing so that the processing of the request will create a patient file to which to archive the form.
Auto archive	When an existing patient or QuickAdd submits a form that has Auto archive set, the form will automatically be archived to their Documents tab. If the form has Required processing set as well, the automatic archiving will happen after the form is processed.
Only required once	When a user goes to create an online forms request in Blueprint OMS, the names of all the system's active online forms appear in a menu. Badges may appear beside the form names, indicating the date the patient last submitted that form, and whether the form is only required once. This is to stop users from sending forms unnecessarily. So, if a form has Only required once set, then it will appear with a badge saying so, whenever it occurs in a menu of forms available to send to a patient. If an online forms request is being made in connection with an appointment whose type is associated with an online form that is only required once, and the patient has already submitted that form, then Blueprint OMS will, by default, not select that form for sending. When a patient books an appointment online and receives an online forms request in connection with that appointment, any form that is only required once and has already been submitted by the patient, will not be included in the online forms request sent to the patient.
Display in audiology by default	If an online form has Display in audiology be default set, then once it is archived to a patient's Documents tab, it will be available in that patient's Audiology tab as well, alongside audiological assessments and certain journal entries.
Archive category	When an online form is archived to a patient's Documents tab, it will be archived under the category chosen here. At Setup > Documents > Categories, you can manage your system's document categories, provided you have the Maintain document properties user privilege.
URL/iFrame HTML	These options allow clinics to share their online forms via URL or by embedding them on websites. This way, internet users can find, complete, and submit online forms without the need for a Blueprint OMS user to initiate an online forms request. See also: Using online forms to capture leads.

Associating online forms with event types

At Setup > Scheduling > Event types, you can edit the details of an event type and, in the Edit event type dialog, choose the default list of forms that will be sent to patients who book appointments of that type. In this dialog you can also drag and drop the forms to set the order in which the patient views the forms, if there are multiple selected.