Common questions related to administrative features and general management of Ocean.
You can view the Ocean End-User License Agreement (EULA) at any time by following the steps below:
If you selected 'Patient Engagement Licence (Plus)', you will first be prompted to assign an EMR Schedule to activate for Online Booking. After selecting the desired EMR Schedule, click 'Next'.
Note: If you selected 'Patient Engagement Licence (Basic)', this step will be automatically skipped.
Assign an EMR Schedule to activate for Patient Reminders. After selecting the desired EMR schedule, click 'Next'.
If you assigned an EMR Schedule to activate for Online Booking in the previous step, it will be pre-selected in this step for your convenience.
Assign a provider to activate for Patient Messages. After selecting the desired provider, click 'Finish'.
Alternatively, click 'Finish & Assign Provider Later' to finish adding your Ocean Licence without assigning a provider to activate for Patient Messages. For more information on unassigned providers, please refer to the Licence Management article.
Ensure that the Accuro Provider Permissions for the 'OceanAPI' EMR User have been configured for all providers using Ocean.
Once a provider has been activated and assigned to send Patient Messages, up to 3 Clinic Support Staff (per Ocean Licence) can also send messages at no additional cost.
Note: Clinic Support Staff includes all users with any of the following User Roles: MOA/Secretary, Administrator, Nurse, Resident, Medical Student, or Physician Assistant.
Data dictionaries are available in the following support articles:
Ocean works best with a modern, up-to-date web browser. For an optimal experience we recommend using:
Although Ocean is designed to be compatible with a wide range of web browsers and versions, your experience may not be as smooth as it could be using an older browser. You might encounter some limitations, and certain features may not perform optimally.
Using the latest browsers not only enhances your experience but also helps us deliver new and exciting features seamlessly. Modern browsers are equipped with advanced technologies that can significantly improve the speed, security, and functionality of your Ocean experience.
Our most recent Ocean feature release included an update that allows an Ocean user to seamlessly switch between Ocean Sites on different EMRs, while retaining single sign-on (SSO) with each of their EMR user accounts. This update ensures that Ocean "remembers" the unique Ocean User-to-EMR User Account relationship for SSO and eliminates the need for an individual to maintain multiple Ocean accounts.
While every Ocean User is required to have a unique user account and login, it has come to our attention that some Ocean Users have been "sharing" a single Ocean username and password. As a result, some of these users are now unable to launch into Ocean from the EMR to manage patient activity in the portal, send or manage eReferrals, or send messages to patients.
Clinics that are in this situation should follow the steps below to resolve this issue:
Invite all team members to create a free Ocean user account connected to your Ocean Site:
If more than one person is sending Patient Messages using a single Ocean User Account:
We are very pleased to share that we will be releasing a new feature that will allow an unlimited number of MOA team members to send messages with their own Ocean user account at no additional cost, as long as their Ocean Site has one or more Provider Message licences enabled. This feature is expected to be available as of Friday, February 9 2024.
If your clinic has been sharing a single licence for patient messages, you should:
If you require support through this process:
Please complete the form at ocean.tips/account-review and an Ocean Practice Consultant will follow up to schedule a meeting time at your convenience.
If you are logging into the Ocean Portal to send Ocean Messages, please follow the steps below:
If the patient is not already found in Ocean using the surname search, you can manually upload them using their PHN.
Start by locating the patient's healthcard number in your EMR. Copy this number and paste it in the 'Upload from EMR' field, and then click the blue upload icon.
The table below indicates the languages that are currently supported across the Ocean platform. As additional language support becomes available, this article will be updated to ensure accuracy.
Product and language combinations denoted with a 'Y' indicate that the language is supported, while an 'N' indicates that the language is not currently supported.
Ocean eForms are denoted with a 'Y*', since clinics must translate the eForm into another language themselves.
| Language | ISO 639-1 Code | eForms | Tablets (v194+) | Messaging/ Reminders | Website Forms | Authenticated Website Forms | Online Booking |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | en | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| French | fr | Y* | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Arabic | ar | Y* | Y | N | N | N | N |
| Armenian | hy | Y* | Y | N | N | N | N |
| Chinese | zh | Y* | Y | N | N | N | N |
| Farsi (Persian) | fa | Y* | Y | N | N | N | N |
| Filipino (Tagalog) | tl | Y* | Y | N | N | N | N |
| Hindi | hi | Y* | Y | N | N | N | N |
| Italian | it | Y* | Y | N | N | N | N |
| Japanese | ja | Y* | Y | N | N | N | N |
| Korean | ko | Y* | Y | N | N | N | N |
| Portugese | pt | Y* | Y | N | N | N | N |
| Punjabi | pa | Y* | Y | N | N | N | N |
| Romanian | ro | Y* | Y | Y | Y | N | N |
| Russian | ru | Y* | Y | Y | Y | N | N |
| Spanish | es | Y* | Y | N | N | N | N |
| Tamil | ta | Y* | Y | N | N | N | N |
| Turkish | tr | Y* | Y | N | N | N | N |
| Ukrainian | uk | Y* | Y | Y | Y | N | N |
| Urdu | ur | Y* | Y | N | N | N | N |
| Vietnamese | vi | Y* | Y | N | N | N | N |
If you choose to cancel your Ocean services at any time, please refer to the following guide:
You can cancel a tablet or kiosk licence by deregistering the tablet through the Ocean Portal. Tablet licence fees automatically stop accruing once the tablet is deregistered. For more information on how to deregister your tablet, refer to: Deactivating Tablets
A 'Patient Engagement Licence (Basic)' can be cancelled within the Licence Management area by removing a provider from the 'Patient Messages' table and removing an EMR Schedule from the 'Patient Reminders' table.
Ocean Unlimited licences can be cancelled by creating a ticket with your Ocean Site name, site number, and reason for cancellation here: ocean.tips/support
A 'Patient Engagement Licence (Plus)' can be cancelled within the Licence Management area by removing a provider from the 'Patient Messages' table, removing an EMR Schedule from the 'Patient Reminders' table, and removing an EMR Schedule from the 'Online Booking' table.
Alternatively, to downgrade to a 'Patient Engagment Licence (Basic)', simply remove an EMR Schedule from the 'Online Booking' table.
Website Forms can be deleted through the Ocean Portal, Admin > Website Form Links. Website Form Links stop accruing fees once the Website Form Link is deleted. For more information on how to delete a Website Form, refer to: How do I delete a Website Form?
Basic Ocean Studies can be deleted through the Ocean Portal in the Studies view. For more information on how to delete a basic Ocean study, refer to: Deleting Studies Upon Completion
Sitewide Ocean Studies licences can be cancelled by creating a ticket with your site name, site number, and reason for cancellation here: ocean.tips/support
You can easily find your Ocean site number in the Admin view of your Ocean Portal.
Ocean sends alerts via email to notify users of various activity, including: invoices, system message and/or clinical notifications, and new eRequest/eReferral notifications.
You can learn more about how to define the email address that receives each of these notification types below.
e.g. Study export alerts, "notes require download" notifications, Ocean reminder-related messages
e.g. eForm completion notifications, secure message read notifications, patient responses to secure messages, "no response" secure message notifications
Please refer to: Where do eConsult and/or eReferral notification emails get sent to?
Each Ocean Site has access to various reports that provide insights on Ocean usage. You can access the following reports by signing into the Ocean Portal, navigating to the Admin area, clicking on Reports and choose one the following options.
Note: Ocean only maintains 60 days worth of retrospective data. Should you require access to data beyond the 60-day period, OceanMD will need to make a request to have the data formally restored. There is a starting cost of $250 for this service. In order to ensure that you are able to access Ocean data, we suggest doing a monthly export of all data that you require.
This report provides you with insights regarding referral data over time. For more information on accessing eReferral Analytics, refer to: Accessing eReferral Analytics
Note: Referral analytic data specifically is maintained indefinitely in Ocean (i.e., beyond the 60-day period referenced above).
This report provides you with insights regarding user actions in the Ocean Portal. Actions include tablet registrations, referral creations, viewing patients, and deleting patients.
There are multiple activities that audit data can be exported for:
This report provides insights for sites that are using the patient group messaging function with an Ocean Unlimited Bundle. Some data includes failure reasons when sending group emails.
Whenever a patient record is loaded into Ocean, it is given its own Ocean reference number ("ref"). Although Ocean is constantly deleting patient data when no longer needed (i.e. after the results have been downloaded to the EMR), you may find yourself running out of "space" in Ocean since the default 3-digit number only allows 900 patients to be loaded at any one time.
Furthermore, Ocean attempts to generate a random number for each loaded patient, so as you approach 900 records, you may find that Ocean takes a bit longer to respond and occasionally gives up and returns an error. Consider this an early warning that you are running out of space.
Fortunately, you can easily change your Ocean site to use 4, 5, 6 or even 7 digit reference numbers by following the steps outlined below.
Note: When changing your number of patient ref digits, keep in mind that the more digits you use, the more numbers your staff will need to enter into the Ocean Tablets for every patient who needs to complete an eForm.
Once you change the number of ref digits, you may find that some patients still have old refs in their charts. To load those refs on the tablet, simply put zero(s) at the front. For example, if a patient has ref 123 already and you change to 4 digits, your tablets will accept 0123 to load the 123 patient. That being said, it would be wise to change the number of digits for your Ocean site at the end of the day or over the weekend to minimize the number of patients requiring zero padding.
Ocean is not an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system and does not store patient data long-term. This approach follows privacy guidelines that recommend minimizing the storage of personal health information.
Every Monday morning, Ocean checks for patient data that is scheduled for deletion and may require a manual export or download to an EMR. This includes online referrals, website form submissions, and patient notes. An automatic deletion warning email is sent to the Ocean site contact at that time to alert them.
The deletion warning email includes a list of items that are due to be removed from Ocean. Ocean Sites should review these to determine if any action is needed. This may include a manual export or download of information to the EMR, extending the purge date, or allowing the information to be deleted.
If there are any eReferrals/eConsults that are due to be removed from Ocean, the email will indicate those that are pending removal and how to review them.
Note: eReferrals/eConsults that are 'Completed', 'Processed', 'Externally Managed', or 'Incomplete' (i.e., Saved for Later), will not trigger deletion warnings.
Examples of potential actions for you to take when an eReferral/eConsult is due to be removed from Ocean include:
If an eReferral/eConsult is flagged for scheduled removal and upon reviewing it you discover that the appointment date has passed and the patient has been seen, you can click the 'Completed' button within the eReferral/eConsult.
This updates the referral status to 'Completed' for all stakeholders involved in the referral, and indicates that the lifecycle of the referral has come to an end. Accordingly, once marked as completed, the referral will be removed from Ocean as per the scheduled removal date.
If an eReferral is flagged for scheduled removal and upon reviewing it you discover that no appointment date has been specified within the referral (e.g., you plan on seeing the patient, but have not yet provided an appointment date), you can add an appointment date within the 'Scheduling' area of the referral.
Once an appointment date has been specified in the referral, the referral's scheduled removal date may* be adjusted to a minimum of 30 days after the last appointment date.
If an eReferral is flagged for scheduled removal and upon reviewing it you discover that no appointment date has been specified within the referral (e.g., you plan on seeing the patient, but have not yet provided an appointment date), but you are not immediately able to specify an exact appointment date, you can add an 'Anticipated Wait Time to Appointment' within the 'Scheduling' area of the referral.
Once an anticipated wait time has been specified in the referral, the referral's scheduled removal date may* be adjusted to a minimum of 60 days after the latter estimated wait time value.
Example: If a referral was sent on January 1st, 2024 and an 'Anticipated Wait Time to Appointment' of 14-18 months was specified in the referral, the referral would be scheduled to be removed 18 months and 60 days (i.e., a grand total of 20 months) after January 1st, 2024. This means that the scheduled removal date would be September 1st, 2025.
If an eReferral is flagged for scheduled removal and upon reviewing it you determine that it requires the attention of another user on your Ocean Site, you can assign it to them for review.
Once it has been assigned for review by a particular user, the referral's scheduled removal date may* be adjusted to a minimum of 365 days after the date that the review was requested.
If an eReferral is flagged for scheduled removal, you can locate it in the 'Deletion Warnings' folder within the eConsults & eReferrals area and click the refresh symbol (circular arrow) at the end of the row to extend the scheduled removal date by 60 days from the current date (i.e., the date that the refresh symbol was clicked).
The examples provided above specifically use the term "may" when referring to the adjustment made to the scheduled removal date as a result of the action taken. This language has been purposefully used as it cannot be guaranteed that the action being taken is the sole contributor to a referral's scheduled removal date.
For more details regarding eReferral/eConsult storage in Ocean, please refer to this support article: How long will my eConsults/eReferrals be stored in Ocean?
If there are any Website Form submissions that are due to be removed but have not been exported/downloaded, the email will tell you how many are pending removal and how to review them. Even if you are processing the submission as part of the initial "acceptance" workflow, it's a good idea to heed these warnings and export them for audit purposes.
You can do this by clicking the 'Import to EMR' button within the submission to trigger the download of the submission into your EMR (if your Ocean Site is integrated with your EMR), or you can manually download a PDF copy by opening the 'Action' menu within the submission and clicking 'Download Referral Record'.
You can then mark the submission as 'Completed', if appropriate.
Note: Website Form submissions that have been marked as 'Completed' do not trigger deletion warnings.
For Ocean Sites that are not integrated using Ocean Cloud Connect, the email contains the EMR ID and the Ocean reference number of patients that have not been marked "downloaded to the EMR". We call these "orphaned notes" since the EMR has not claimed them promptly.
These notifications can be confusing. See below for a few quick FAQs.
The PS Suite Custom Form integration and the OSCAR Classic EMR integration (i.e., Ocean Sites that do not use Cloud Connect) are only able to download notes when the chart for a particular patient is open and connected to Ocean. If the patient's chart isn't open or the chart doesn't know about the Ocean note, the note can remain orphaned.
A tablet session was completed and the initial note was downloaded, then the same ref was used to load the tablet again for the same patient. In this case, the Ocean Custom Form would be deleted after the first tablet session completed -- the notes associated with subsequent completions will be orphaned since the link to the EMR chart is broken.
Note: If you are only using tablets (and not web questionnaires), most likely any "real" missing notes would be noticed at the time of the appointment and you can ignore the notifications.
Hint: If you want to pull a note back into PS Suite, simply insert the Ocean custom form as you would normally for that patient, click the generated 3 or 4 digit number and update it to the Ocean reference you want to import -- within a few seconds the note and any demographic changes will be downloaded and applied automatically.
It depends on why you are getting orphaned notes.
However, the root cause of these issues may be something else specific to your workflow or process. If you think that you are getting too many orphaned notes, let us know at ocean.tips/support.
Depending on the nature of the data due to be removed and the configuration of your Ocean Site, the deletion warning emails may get sent to different email addresses. The logic for deletion warning emails is outlined below:
By default, a single EMR instance should always be associated with a single Ocean site. This approach eliminates the risk of numerous issues that can arise when an EMR instance is associated with multiple Ocean sites. These may include technical, billing, and usage concerns.
There are some limited cases where an exception may be made, allowing a single EMR instance to be associated with multiple Ocean sites under extenuating circumstances. Special attention and consideration must be given when determining whether or not an exception should be made for a specific practice and/or EMR instance.
The series of questions below walks through the factors that must be considered before deciding to create an additional Ocean site(s) for a single EMR instance. Please ensure that you complete the entire series of questions to determine whether or not multiple Ocean sites are appropriate.
Only certain EMRs are capable of being associated with multiple Ocean sites.
It is not possible for clinics using OSCAR Pro or Med Access to have multiple Ocean sites associated with their single EMR instance. Clinics using these EMRs can only have a single Ocean site.
If the clinic is using either PS Suite or Accuro, please proceed to the following question.
This includes administrative staff, physicians and allied health staff.
If staff are not being shared among clinics, please proceed to the following question.
There are certain EMR-specific considerations that must be taken into account when deciding if multiple Ocean sites are feasible for a single EMR instance. Please expand the appropriate EMR tab below.