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If your practice includes a large number of staff or multiple locations, and certain users should not have access to specific patients’ protected health information (PHI), you may want to restrict access to those patients’ charts. Limiting chart access helps ensure that sensitive information is only visible to authorized providers and staff.
You can enhance this feature by combining it with consent and intake forms to streamline the process!
Use consent forms to clearly communicate your PHI policies to patients, and intake forms to capture their preferences for how access to their information should be limited. This helps ensure that chart access restrictions align with each patient’s privacy expectations.
Who can see PHI
Patient chart data within Electronic Health Records (EHR) and ePrescribing (eRx) includes a patient’s demographics, medications, encounters, labs, and other clinical documents stored in the chart. By default, this information is accessible to all providers and staff within a practice, including users across multiple locations, if applicable.
When chart access is restricted for a patient, only the selected providers and designated care team members will have full access to the patient’s chart. Other staff members will only be able to view the patient’s clinical information if they are working under (“Writing As”) a provider who is part of the patient’s care team.
Users who are not included in the selected care team will still have access to the Patient Information tab, which contains demographic and insurance details. However, they will not be able to view the patient’s clinical chart data, ensuring that sensitive health information remains appropriately restricted.
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
Chart access 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 desired patient’s chart, then click the patient’s name hyperlink.
From the Demographics tab, scroll to the bottom of the window and select an access restriction level from the Chart Access Restricted To dropdown menu. Available options include:
- All practice providers and staff - All users within the practice can access the patient's chart.
- Preferred provider only - Only the preferred provider, and staff working under that provider, can access the patient's chart.
- Preferred provider and selected care team members - Only the preferred provider and designated care team members can access the patient's chart
If a user is restricted from a patient’s chart but has the Clinical Administrator permission, they can still modify the chart access restrictions. This ensures access can be granted in urgent or emergency situations when designated care team members are unavailable, even if the user is not part of the patient’s assigned 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 chart, no further action is needed. If you're changing from a chart access restriction back to allowing all practice providers and staff to access the patient’s chart, please remember to click Update to save your changes.
Preferred provider only
Select Preferred provider only.
Under Provider Information section, 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 provided their express consent to update access to their chart restrictions.
Preferred provider and selected care team members
Select Preferred provider and selected care team members.
Under Provider Information section, 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 provided their express consent to update access to their chart restrictions.
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