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If you work with a large number of staff, or you have staff in multiple locations that shouldn't be able to see protected health information (PHI) for certain patients, it may make sense for you to limit a patient's PHI availability.
Combine this feature with consent forms or intake forms to make this even easier!
Use consent forms to easily disclose PHI policies to your patients and intake forms to find out how a patient wants their PHI to be limited.
Who can see PHI
Patient chart data in Electronic Health Records (EHR) and ePrescribing (eRx) includes a patient's demographics, medications, encounters, labs, and other documents and details saved in the patient's chart. By default, patient charts are accessible by all providers and staff in a practice. This includes users across multiple locations set up for the practice, if applicable.
When PHI is limited for a patient, the specified providers and users (care team members) are able to view the full patient chart. Additional staff will only be able to view a patient's chart data when they are working for ('Writing As') a provider that is on the patient's care team.
All staff and providers that are not part of the selected care team members will still be able to access the Patient Information tab, which includes demographics, insurance information, and more, but does NOT include the patient's clinical chart contents.
What is included in the Patient Information tab?
Patient's full name*
Patient photo (if added)
Chart number
Social security number (if added)
Date of birth*
Address*
Previous Address
Contact Information*
Communication preferences
Sex (Assigned at birth)*
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
Race Category
Detailed Race
Sexual Orientation
Ethnicity
Detailed Ethnicity
Tribal Affiliation
Preferred language
Marital status
Employment status
Occupation
Occupation Industry
Date and cause of death (if patient is deceased)
Patient flags (if added)
Insurance information (if added)
Referring provider
Date Referred
Preferred provider
PHI restriction status and selected care team members (if applicable)
Mother's Maiden Information
Related Person
Favorite pharmacies
Next of kin information (if added)
Displays pharmacies added by staff as the patient’s preferred locations for prescriptions, making it easier to quickly select where to send medications. Multiple pharmacies can be added. All staff can view, and edit the information at any time.
Displays any insurance information added to the patient’s chart by staff. Multiple insurance cases can be recorded, and all staff can view and edit them at any time.
This tab is not related to PHI restriction care team members and provides a place for staff to list everyone in the patient’s overall care team, such as outside providers from other specialties—primary care physicians, dentists, behavioral health therapists, and similar. All staff can view and edit the information at any time.
Allows for staff to enter a patient's Next of Kin member, such as a spouse. All staff can view and edit the information at any time.
Provides a space for staff to record notes pertaining to the patient, outside of their medical record. For example, reception staff may use this as a place to keep track of phone calls made, voicemails left, etc. All staff can create, edit, and delete these notes.
Limit access to a patient's PHI
Navigate to the intended patient's chart and click on the patient's name hyperlink or their Patient Information tab in the chart's navigation menu.
Scroll to the bottom of the demographic window and choose from the following PHI restrictions:
All practice providers and staff
All providers and staff can access this patient's PHI.
Preferred provider only
Only the preferred provider, and staff working for the preferred provider, can access this patient's PHI.
Preferred provider and selected care team members
Only the preferred provider and other staff chosen as part of the care team can access this patient's PHI.
If a user is restricted from a patient’s PHI but has the Clinical Administrator permission, they can modify the patient’s PHI restrictions. This ensures access in emergency situations when the care team or other restricted users are unavailable, even if they are not part of the patient’s care team.
All practice provders and staff
This is the default option. If you want to keep allowing all practice providers and staff to access the patient's PHI, no further action is needed. If you're changing from a PHI restriction back to allowing all practice providers and staff to access PHI, please remember to click Update to save your changes.
Preferred provider only
Select Preferred provider only.
Under Provider Information, select the patient's preferred provider from the dropdown menu, then click Update to save the restriction.
Click Confirm to attest that the patient has expressed consent to the changes in their chart restrictions.
Preferred provider and selected care team members
Select Preferred provider and selected care team members.
Under Provider Information, select the patient's preferred provider from the dropdown menu.
Choose the relevant staff members from the Select Care Team Members dropdown menu. Once you're done, click Update to save the restriction.
Click Confirm to attest that the patient has expressed consent to the changes in their chart restrictions.
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