Provider Manual · Part IV

Practice setup — practice & people

Set up the organization and the people in it: practice info, physicians, staff and assistants, patient registration, and patient-portal branding.

5 sections~6 min read5 screenshots
IV
Part IV

Practice setup — practice & people

Set up the organization and the people in it: practice info, physicians, staff and assistants, patient registration, and patient-portal branding.

4.1Practice info

Set the practice record, locations, and accepted insurance

Practice Info is the organization's identity card. Org admins fill it in once; every downstream feature — claim submission, fax cover sheets, patient portal headers, online-booking landing pages — reads from this record. There is no per-physician override here; everything is at the organization level.

  1. Open Admin > Practice Info. The modal opens to the Overview tab under the Practice section.
  2. Confirm the Organization Details. Name, type (solo_practice, group_practice, etc.), address, phone, fax, email, and timezone are read from the practice record. If anything is wrong, contact Hero support — these fields drive billing identifiers and cannot be edited inline.
  3. Add Custom Info (optional). The Custom Info tab stores free-text fields shown to admins for reference — Inquiry Hero context, internal notes, third-party account numbers.
  4. Review Providers under the Records section. Lists every physician attached to the org. To add or edit them, use Physician Management — Practice Info is read-only here.
  5. Add practice Locations. Each physical address you see patients at. Locations also appear inside Scheduling > Locations when physicians assign themselves to a site.
  6. List Accepted Insurance. The plans your practice is in-network with. Used by online booking, intake, and the eligibility tools — patients see the list when picking a payer at booking.
Admin · Practice Info modal showing the Overview tab with Organization Details including name, type, address, phone, fax, email, and timezone
Practice Info reads from the org record. Use the left rail to switch between Overview, Custom Info, Providers, Locations, and Insurance.
Order of operations: Set Practice Info before Physician Management. Locations created here become selectable when you set each physician's weekly schedule.
4.2Physician management

Add physicians and keep their identifiers current

Physician Management is the source of truth for every clinician in the org. Each row carries the identifiers that downstream systems require: NPI for claims and SureScripts, DEA for controlled-substance prescribing, specialty for online booking filters, email for login. Deactivating a row hides the physician from scheduling and routing without deleting their history.

  1. Open Admin > Physician Management. The Patient Management-style table opens with every physician in the org. Filter the list with the physician dropdown or use the search.
  2. Click + Add Physician. Enter Name, Email (used for login), NPI, Specialty, and any DEA / state-license numbers. The Email becomes their sign-in identifier, so use the address you want associated with their EMR account.
  3. Use Edit to update credentials. NPI and DEA can change (relocation, renewal); always update here rather than in a downstream module. Edits propagate to claim submission, SureScripts, EPCS, and chart signatures.
  4. Use Deactivate when a physician leaves. Deactivation removes them from booking, routing, and the Schedule Manager picker, but their signed notes, prescriptions, and claims remain in the chart for audit purposes.
Physician Management modal showing a table of 50 physicians with name, email, NPI, specialty, and Active/Deactivate status badges
One row per clinician. NPI, specialty, and Active status are the three fields you'll touch most.
Before going live: Verify every physician has a valid NPI on file. Claims will reject in Office Ally if the NPI is missing or mistyped, and SureScripts will refuse to enroll the provider for e-prescribing.
4.3Staff & assistants

Invite medical assistants and front-desk staff

Staff & Assistants is the non-physician roster. Medical assistants, scribes, schedulers, and front-desk users live here. Each row carries credentials (MA, RN, scribe, etc.), an email for login, and a supervising physician link — assistants act on behalf of their supervisor for orders, in-basket routing, and chart access.

  1. Open Admin > Staff / Assistants. The Assistant Management modal opens with the full staff list. Toggle between All, Active, Inactive, and Suspended tabs to filter by status.
  2. Click + Add Staff. Walk through the staff wizard: name, email, credentials (free text — MA, RN, LPN, Scribe), access level, and the supervising physician they're paired with.
  3. Use Edit for ongoing changes. Re-link a supervisor when an MA changes pods, update credentials when they upgrade, change email if they migrate to a work address.
  4. Use Deactivate when a staff member leaves. They lose login access immediately; their prior in-basket actions and chart edits remain attributed to them.
Assistant Management modal listing staff with name, email, access level, credentials, supervising physician, status, and Edit/Deactivate actions
Each assistant is tied to a supervising physician. That link drives in-basket routing and chart-access scope.
Supervisor link matters: When a patient messages "Dr. Romero," replies and refills can route to Dr. Romero's MA pool first. Get this link right at onboarding so messages stop piling up in the wrong queue.
4.4Patient registration

Search, add, and edit patients from the admin console

Patient Registration is the org-wide patient directory. Use it to add patients that bypass online booking (walk-ins, phone bookings, migrated charts) or to fix demographics that came in wrong from the portal. The list shows every patient in the org, regardless of which physician they see.

  1. Open Admin > Patient Registration. Patient Management opens with a searchable, paginated list of every patient.
  2. Filter by portal status. Use the All Portal Status dropdown to find patients who are None (no portal), Pending (invited but not signed in), Active, or Inactive. Combine with the search box to find a specific row.
  3. Click + Add Patient. Enter First/Last name, DOB, sex, email, phone, and address. Email and phone are required to send a portal invite — leave them blank for chart-only patients (paper charts, ghost records for migration).
  4. Edit demographics. Click Edit on any row to fix name spelling, sex, contact info, or address. The Portal Access badge at the bottom tells you whether the patient already has portal access; flip it to send (or revoke) an invite.
Patient Management modal with search, portal-status filter, and a list of patients showing name, DOB, email, phone, MRN, portal status, and an Edit action
The directory shows every patient in the org. Use the portal-status filter to chase down invites that never converted.
For data migration: Bulk-import patients before go-live rather than entering them through this modal one at a time. Contact support@heroemr.com for a CSV template.
4.5Patient portal branding

Brand the patient portal without a code deploy

Patient Portal Configuration controls how the portal looks to your patients — color palette, logo, typography, and a live preview. The defaults work out of the box; customize when you want the portal to match your practice's identity or your landing site.

  1. Open Admin > Patient Portal Configuration. The modal opens to the Color Scheme tab.
  2. Pick a Theme Source. Three options: Current default theme (Hero defaults), Landing site theme (pulls colors already chosen for your physician landing site so portal and marketing match), or Custom colors (set each design token by hand).
  3. Tune the Palette. Each color chip maps to a specific portal design token: Brand button, Brand hover, Brand soft panel, On-brand text, Page background, Cards, etc. The right-hand Preview updates live.
  4. Upload a Logo. Switch to the Logo tab and upload the practice logo. SVG is preferred; PNG works for raster logos. The logo appears in the portal header and on confirmation emails.
  5. Pick Typography. The Typography tab swaps the portal font family. Defaults match the EMR.
  6. Check the Live Preview. Renders an actual portal card with the active palette. Useful for catching low-contrast combinations before you save.
  7. Click Save. Active patient sessions keep the old theme until they next reload; new sessions and emails pick up the change immediately.
Patient Portal Configuration modal with the Color Scheme tab active, showing Theme Source options, the Palette grid, and a live Preview card
The Theme Source toggle is the fastest way to make the portal match your physician landing site without manually entering hex codes.

Need help? Email support@heroemr.com.