Using Ocean to Collect Email Consent

Ocean makes it easy to collect email consent from your patients. In Ocean’s core eForm library, there is an Email Consent eForm available for all clinics to use. This form will allow any patient who uses an Ocean Tablet, or checks in at the Ocean Kiosk, to easily either provide or deny email consent. From there, their consent or refusal of email communication with your clinic will automatically get recorded into the patient's chart in your EMR and be available to be available for future tracking.

Benefits of Collecting Email Consent

Even if you currently have no plans to use email for clinical communication purposes, there are many good reasons to start collecting email addresses and explicit consent from patients. Consent may be required to communicate with patients via email for, but not limited to, any of the following purposes:

  • Appointment reminders
  • Office announcements
  • Clinical advice and test result notifications
  • Distributing educational resources
  • Clinic policy updates and reminders (including block fee details)
  • Consultations among health care professionals
  • Notice of a clinical trial, research or other studies for which the patient may be eligible

Automating Email Consent Collection

By setting up a process to collect email consent now, your organization can "future-proof" itself to take advantage of the rapid technology developments affecting the healthcare sector. Below, you will learn about how you can automate collection of email consent on your tablets by pulling up Email Consent eForm via Tablet Rules.

  • To add rules to your tablet(s):

    • Log in to the Ocean Portal. Click the "Menu" button in the top left corner and select Tablets & Kiosk. Choose "Edit" for the tablet group that you want to add the rule to.
    • Enter the Rules tab and choose "Create Rule". Search for the "Email Consent Long Form" from the list of forms that pops up.
    • Click "Choose" to add a rule line for that form.
    • Use one of the following JavaScript rules to define when you want this email consent form to show up automatically for patients.
    • To request email consent from all patients once a year:
    • daysSinceLastCompleted > 365
    • Copy Rule
    • To request email consent the first time an adult patient comes to your clinic:
    • firstTime && pt.getAge() > 18
    • Copy Rule

If you have other rules for collecting email consent that you would like to share with the Ocean community, let us know by reaching out to us at: info@cognisantmd.com.

To learn more about other available Tablet Rules, please refer to "Tablet Rules".

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