Handling patient support tickets
Triage, assign, and respond to support requests from patients via the portal.
Overview
Patients open support tickets via their portal — billing questions, appointment issues, complaints. Front-desk and admin staff triage in Patient Support.
Prerequisites
- Owner, Admin, Receptionist, or Billing Staff role
- Tickets open in the queue
Steps
Open Patient Support. Top nav (under "More") → Patient Support.
Read the ticket queue. Sorted by oldest open. Each row shows patient, category, priority, age.
Pick up an unassigned ticket. Click the row → Assign to me. The ticket moves to your My Assigned view.
Read the patient's message. Plus any attachments — screenshots, photos, scanned receipts.
Reply with the answer. Reply → message. Markdown supported. Replies are visible to the patient in their portal Inbox.
Update the status. OPEN → IN_PROGRESS → RESOLVED. The patient sees the status change.
Loop in a colleague. Assign to colleague if it's not your specialty. They get notified.
Close when resolved. Close → optional summary. The ticket closes; the patient is asked to rate the resolution.
Expected outcome
- Patient ticket has a clear owner and current status
- Replies are delivered to the patient's portal
- Closed tickets feed into satisfaction reports
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Patient ticket invisible | Filter or wrong tab | Check filters and All Tickets |
| Reply not delivered | Patient's portal email broken | Use SMS via Communications instead |
| Ticket re-opened by patient | They didn't agree it was resolved | Treat as live; reply with more info |
| Patient rude | Document the interaction objectively | Escalate for HR-level review if abusive |
| Want to redirect to billing | Reassign to billing role user | They take over |