Handling patient support tickets
Triage, assign, and respond to support requests that patients send from the portal.
Overview
Patients send support requests from the Support page of their portal, for example billing questions, appointment issues or complaints. Staff answer them in Patient Support. The patient reads your replies when they open the request in their portal.
Prerequisites
- Owner, Admin, Receptionist, or Billing Staff role
- Tickets open in the queue
Steps
Open Patient Support. Top menu, then Patients, then Patient Support.
Read the ticket queue. Higher priority tickets show first. Use the filters for status, category and assignment (Unassigned or Assigned to Me).
Open a ticket. Click the row. Read the patient's description and the Activity Timeline.
Assign the ticket (Owner or Admin). Click Assign and select a staff member. The staff member gets an email. An open ticket moves to In Progress.
Reply to the patient. Type in Add Comment and click Send Comment. The patient sees the reply when they open the request in their portal. If the patient has an email address on their record, they also get an email with a link to the request.
Add an internal note. Tick Internal note (not visible to patient) before you click Send Comment. Only staff see internal notes. The patient gets no email for them.
Update the status or priority. Click Change Status or Change Priority. Statuses are Open, In Progress, Waiting for Patient, Waiting for Staff, Resolved and Closed. When the patient replies to a ticket that is Waiting for Patient, it moves back to In Progress.
Resolve, then close. Click Resolve and enter a resolution summary. The patient gets an email that the ticket is resolved, if they have an email on record. They can rate how you handled it in the portal. Click Close when nothing more is needed. Use Reopen if the issue comes back.
Expected outcome
- The ticket has a clear owner and current status
- The patient can read your replies in their portal. Internal notes stay hidden from them.
- Ratings from patients show in CSAT on the Patient Support page
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Patient ticket invisible | A filter is set | Set the filters back to all statuses, categories and assignments |
| Patient did not get an email about your reply | No email on the patient record, or the reply was an internal note | Tell the patient to open Support in the portal, or add their email to the record |
| Patient cannot add to a closed ticket | Closed tickets do not take new comments | Click Reopen |
| Assign button missing | Only Owners and Admins assign tickets | Ask an Owner or Admin |
| Issue needs platform support | The problem is with MyDentalPractice itself | Click Escalate. See Escalating difficult cases |