Build trust with patients by communicating with them through using their Preferred Name. Communicating with patients by using their Preferred Name helps support your organization in remaining sensitive to patient preferences while fostering a meaningful connection with patients.

How is Preferred Name set up?

Integration work is required to support Preferred Names. Artera Harmony Federal Edition (AHFE) will work with your organization’s stakeholders to schedule a technical scoping conversation and review integration requirements. To begin the integration process, please connect with your Customer Success Representative. 

At a high-level, your organization and AHFE will complete the integration work to allow your EMR to send AHFE your Patient Preferred Names. Once the interface updates have been completed and verified by a member of the AHFE team, it is recommended that a Patient Extract Load is performed to update all existing patients’ Preferred Names in AHFE to match the data in your EMR.

Once the integration work is complete, there is no additional work necessary to support Preferred Name in AHFE. If a Practice needs to use a patient’s Legal Name in outbound communication, the Legal Name Smart Phrase(s) can be leveraged. 

How to use Preferred Name in AHFE Outreach

Once your organization and AHFE have completed the integration work, you may begin to communicate with patients using their Preferred Name. The {clientFirstName} and {clientFirstNameProperCase} Smart Phrases will automatically use the patient’s Preferred First Name, if available. If the patient does not have a Preferred First Name, these Smart Phrases will fallback to using the patient's Legal First Name from your EMR. 

The {clientLastName} and {clientLastNameProperCase} Smart Phrases will automatically use the patient’s Preferred Last Name, if available. If the patient does not have a Preferred Last Name, these Smart Phrases will fallback to using the patient's Legal Last Name from your EMR.

If you have completed the integration work to support Preferred Names but are not interested in using a patient’s Preferred Name in calls for a specific patient or Practice, be sure to use the Legal Name Smart Phrases instead. These Smart Phrases will always use the patient’s legal name, regardless of if a Preferred Name is available:

• {clientLegalFirstName}

• {clientLegalLastName}

• {clientLegalFirstNameProperCase}

• {clientLegalLastNameProperCase}

How to Configure AHFE to Support Patient Legal Name

Quick Response

If you would like for a patient’s Legal Name to be leveraged when using a Quick Response to initiate a phone call to the patient, create or edit an existing Quick Response and include the appropriate Legal Name Smart Phrase, such as {clientLegalFirstNameProperCase} Smart Phrase within the message.

NOTE: It is recommended that you update the Quick Response’s Display Name to indicate to users that this Quick Response uses the patient’s Legal Name rather than their Preferred Name and prevent users from inadvertently sending the wrong Quick Response to a patient. For example, label the Quick Resopnse as "No Show - Patient Legal Name." Click here to learn more about how to create Quick Responses.

Manual Message

If a user needs to refer to a patient by their Legal Name when initiating a manual call to a patient directly through their Patient Channel, they should insert the {clientLegalFirstNameProperCase} Smart Phrase into the communication box along with the rest of the call message they want to make. 

Campaigns

Based on intended recipients of your Campaign, you may choose to send a Campaign that refers to patients by their Legal Name instead of their Preferred Name. If this is the case, be sure to include the {clientLegalNameFirstNameProperCase} Smart Phrase within the Campaign's phone message. 

Where will a Patient’s Preferred Name be displayed in AHFE?

If you have completed the integration work to support Preferred Names, a patient’s Preferred Name will display in the following areas within quotation marks:

• Across the Patient Channel 

• Patient Facesheet

• Inbox

• Scheduled View

• Event Messages that include a patient's name

FAQs

Can we search for patients using their Preferred Name?

Yes, patients can be searched by their Preferred Name in the Patients Area and within the Inbox. If the search is successful, the Patient Channel will display with the following format: Last Name, "Preferred Name".

Our organization completed the integration for Patient Preferred Name, but patient names are still displaying their Legal Name. How do we fix this?

If your organization did not perform a Patient Extract Load when implementing Preferred Name in AHFE, then your team must wait for patient updates to come in as new ADT/SIU messages are received through our integration. Therefore, you may see some patient’s Preferred Names come over sooner than others. Connect with your Customer Success Representative for further troubleshooting.

Our organization wants to use Patient Legal Names, how do we set this up?

If your organization has implemented Preferred Names, you will need to use the appropriate Legal Name Smart Phrase(s) in your messages.

If your organization has not implemented Preferred Names, then no additional work is required and you may continue using the {clientFirstName} and {clientFirstNameProperCase} Smart Phrases in call messages to patients, where appropriate.