General Overview
This document provides detailed descriptions of primary Health Desk features. If you have additional questions, please submit a support ticket, or contact your Keona Customer Success Manager.
Nurse Triage & Interview Page
Triage and interview capability are core features of Health Desk and allow for nurses and non-clinical staff to create, edit, and handle patient encounters through a holistic single-page view. Health Desk triage and interview processes are protocol driven and are highly customizable based on our customer’s requirements. Specific features include:
Patient record selection or creation, including patient demographics and contact information.
Customizable layout to match varying workflows.
Protocols/Guidelines
Customizable branching
Multiple answer types including dropdown, radio buttons, checkboxes, text entry
Customizable notes can be displayed based on branching logic. Notes can have custom background colors.
Notes can utilize templates for calculated display (such as dosage calculations)
Triage/Acuity rules help prioritize encounters based on provided text and follow-up answers.
CDS rules suggest a disposition to clinical staff
Multiple customizable protocol sections.
Assessment
Guideline/Survey
Opening Scripts
Closing Scripts
Reportable Incident Scripts
Reminder Scripts
Secure Message Scripts
Chat Scripts
Wrap-up Scripts
Protocols are grouped by protocol category. These categories can be assigned to various protocol sections.
Protocol sections can auto-load protocols if only one exists in the assigned protocol category.
Search protocols within a category and select for completion.
Ability to select and complete multiple protocols per section.
2nd Level Triage
Checkboxes for whether a PCP or On-Call Physician were consulted.
Physician consult notes can be added to an encounter
Second level triage override
Notes can be added to an encounter.
Other selections with customizable values, including:
Outcomes
Patient Directed to (Facility)
Patient Original Intended Action
Patient Final Intended Action
Insurance Plan
Encounter Status
EHR and PM Integration
Tight integration with leading EHR, CRMs, or PM systems to allow for real time search and selection of patient EHR records and scheduling appointments.
Patient EHR health history, including patient problems, prescriptions, pharmacies, and recent appointments are automatically pulled from the EHR and PM system and presented in a simple unified interface.
Encounter summary is saved to the EHR in a customizable format with an optional message sent to a user-selected provider.
Optional save to chart workflow steps, some of which are dependent on the target EHR include:
Sending a message to a provider notifying them of the encounter
Some EHRs have additional options such as whether to auto-close the save to chart note/document or which provider to assign it to.
A custom data section displays custom data pulled from the EHR/PM system and saved in the CustomData field in the Person table.
For some EHRs, ability to save or create patient in PM/EHR
Encounters can be forwarded to a queue (user group) or user.
Users can take assignment of encounters. This assignment is reflected in queues and reports.
Ability to open existing encounters and add protocols or edit patient demographics or contact information
Encounter summary section shows summary of encounter for quick review
Encounter provided care advice section shows summary of provided care advice
Patient “sticky” information displayed at top of page as user scrolls
Stats and stopwatch are shown at the top of the page.
Organization Management
Control workflows and display relevant encounter handling information to users by practice or organization. These features are especially useful for larger practices, hospitals and contact centers that deal with multiple practice locations or organizations. Includes the following:
Supports up to three levels of hierarchy: Client → Program → Practice
Encounter can be configured to present client and program selections prior to search
Each organization can be assigned its own encounter handling and paging instructions.
Automated paging and faxing rules can vary by Organization.
Custom fields can be utilized to add additional information to organizations, which can be displayed to clinical and non-clinical users during an encounter.
Ability to limit patient search to selected program.
Protocol categories can be loaded according to the selected client, program, or practice
Workflows can be configured for specific clients, programs, or practices
Workflow Automation
Customize workflows with custom rules, event handlers and automation. A few examples of workflow automation are below. Contact your Keona Customer Success Manager to discuss how we can automate workflows for your organization.
Automatically hide or display a section based on user input or action.
Automatically set an encounter status based on user input or action.
Automatically send an encounter to a queue based on user input or action.
Automatically show an alert
Automatically set encounter custom status
Queues
Fundamental to workflows, queues allow for prioritization and distribution of encounters to appropriate teams. Each queue can be customized for specific members, roles and rules. Practices with contact centers often find queues beneficial in managing and directing call flow from the incoming call to any required call-backs. Includes the following:
One or more customizable queues can be viewed simultaneously.
Follow-up functionality coupled with workflow automation allows for delayed encounter entry into queues. Useful to set encounters aside for future follow-up.
Queue cards contain relevant and actionable information about encounters.
Queues are filterable, sortable, and searchable.
Queues are updated in real time.
(v2 Queues Only) - Ability to set an address state to a user and limit encounters shown in queue by address state selected on encounter.
Symptom Checker
Uses natural language processing to present customized workflow steps and questions to users based on typed-in patient utterances or descriptions. Symptom Checker is especially beneficial for patient assessments by non-clinical staff. Patient symptoms can be quickly captured, and the patient transitioned to a clinical resource for further evaluation. Keona also offers a patient-facing version where patients are guided through the assessment process with no involvement from staff. The patient is then passed to a clinical or non-clinical resource for further evaluation. Symptom Checker streamlines the assessment and call flow process and offloads work from the clinical team. Includes the following:
Identifies important concepts from a user’s typed-in text.
Concepts drive follow-up questions or present users with appropriate next steps.
One-click next steps allow users to launch or navigate directly into certain workflow steps, such as appointment scheduling.
Triage and disposition rules help prioritize encounters based on provided text and follow-up answers
Health Information
Searchable and selectable health information from various sources (currently includes Healthwise, STCC and Harvard Health). Selected health information is saved with the encounter for documentation. STCC health information can also be included in secure messages sent to patients. Includes the following:
Indexed and searchable health information.
Supports Harvard Health, Healthwise and custom content or STCC.
Highlight and select text to document provided health information.
Selection for whether the user has presented health information to the caller/patient.
Referral / Service Initiation
Presents a searchable referral recipient list and automatically sends referral emails to selected recipient with relevant referral info. Features include:
Present users with pre-referral workflow steps and questionnaires/guidelines/protocols.
Service protocols live in a protocol section with similar functionality for showing/hiding and loading protocols as other protocol sections (described in the protocol/guidelines section). No search but lists protocols instead.
Includes a list of services that can be provided by facilities
Facilities can be assigned these services.
Each service has a protocol assigned to it.
When a user initiates a referral from a service protocol, the referral facilities list is automatically filtered by the currently selected client, program, or practice external org and by the service associated with the selected referral protocol.
Users can also sort by distance from each facility to the patient’s current address (or home address if current isn’t specified)
Results can also be filtered by a text search field which gets defaulted from the current address’s city.
Users can select multiple locations from results.
Selected service and locations are saved as service referrals on the encounter.
Each service has communication settings which can control whether a referral message is sent and where. This can be overridden at the facility level for each service/facility combination.
Based on the communication settings, a message can be sent to the referral recipient.
Automated Messaging
Configurable automated paging and faxing. Features include:
Customizable provider paging schedules and instructions.
One-click automated paging based on provider schedule.
Paged provider can log in with a pin to view encounter details.
Automated faxing on encounter close.
Support for multiple fax recipient organizations.
Basic automation settings can be activated or deactivated per organization through an admin interface.
Configurable by event and client/program/practice.
Available channels are text, email, or fax, but not every channel is available for every recipient type (e.g. we can’t currently send an email to a provider).
Each client/program/practice is assigned its own template for text, email, or fax as required.
Communication settings can also be assigned to referral services.
Optional preview can be shown when sending a message.
Optional authorization requirement can be configured per message. Users need to indicate that the patient has approved via the encounter interface prior to the message being sent.
Optional authorization override can be configured per message. When selected by user, they need to specify why they overrode prior to message being sent.
Messages default to being sent after the encounter is closed. An option exists to send messages immediately.
The history of communication is shown on encounter details. A communication can be re-sent from this history.
A history of communications sent to providers or practices is also shown in a messaging report.
Current implementation allows for resending a pre-generated message. We can add an alternative option to “regenerate” the message in case the encounter has been updated since the last send.
Template manager admin interface.
Don’t save documents for faxes, instead save the data used to generate the document.
Secured Messaging
Health Desk users can send secure messages to patients. Health information can be searched for and included in the secured message. A patient must enter their birth date to view the message. In addition, the message has an expiration time.
Patient Profiles
Customizable patient profiles and health history. Features include:
Patient profile records can be customized to include any data.
Profiles can include various field types including single or multi-select boxes, dropdowns, text entry, date entry, ect..
Data is versioned on each update, with historical data just a click away.
Support for patients notes with expiration.
Patient management page.
Overwatch
Real-time dashboard that gives supervisors and managers visibility over the current status of the call center. Features include:
Real-time queue statistics include average handle time and queue length.
Real time view of active encounters, including metrics such as current handle time, current handling user and encounter details.
Ability to click through and open encounters from Overwatch view.
Knowledge Base
Customizable organization and provider profiles and handling instructions which can be configured to automatically display when these are selected in a ticket. Features include:
Customizable organization profile fields.
Relevant profiles are loaded and displayed automatically when organizations and/or providers are selected.
Customizable handling instructions relevant to currently selected organization are displayed automatically.
Administration views for real-time editing of organization and provider profiles and handling instructions
Intelligent Scheduling
Preference and rule-driven scheduling/rescheduling. Intelligent scheduling allows administrators to accommodate specific provider scheduling preferences based on several different criteria such as time / day, age, sex, medical condition, location, and insurance type. Includes the following:
Visit reason approach to scheduling, with customizable provider preferences for each visit reasons.
Innovative scheduling view which presents relevant open appointment slots without the need to click through multiple days/weeks.
Search results only display open appointments that meet each provider’s preferences.
Customizable branching pre-scheduling protocols whose responses can drive scheduling results based on provider preferences.
Provider preferences can be based on patient age, sex, visit reason, time of day, day of week, patient insurance, provider location, and whether the patient is new
Relevant pre-scheduling responses, appointment notes, and searched locations and resources are saved and re-applied when rescheduling, shaving minutes from rescheduling tasks.
Allows for multi-visit and sequential scheduling. When scheduling multiple visits on the same day, subsequent appointments are auto-selected taking into account appointment length and buffer time, saving scheduler time.
Visit reasons, provider preferences, and rules are all editable through an advanced administration interface.
Virtual visit options are presented according to provider preferences. Virtual visits scheduling is seamlessly handled and visit joining information is automatically emailed to the patient.
Scheduling dashboard allows providers to review and join virtual visits from any modern browser with no software download.
Round robin based on one or more visit reasons allows for equal distribution of new appointments across providers
Patient Self-Scheduling
Patient-facing preference and rule-driven scheduling. By codifying provider preferences and rules, more of the provider schedule can be made available for scheduling, while still accommodating each provider’s preferences. Patient Self Scheduling off-loads phone calls from staff allow them to focus on other tasks. Includes the following:
Customizable steps and page workflow by customer.
Supports provider profiles with optional photos.
Supports pre-population of location or provider from URL parameters
Supports landing on different workflow pages.
Configurable visual styles.
Shares an administration interface with intelligent scheduling, providing a consistent administration experience to staff.
Customizable visit list with optional pre-scheduling branching protocols that can drive scheduling results or even direct the patient to scheduling alternatives (such as call the office now to speak to a nurse)
Scheduling results are driven by the same provider preferences and rules as intelligent scheduling, including patient age, sex, visit reason, time of day, day of week, patient insurance, provider location, and whether the patient is new
Appointment confirmation and calendar invitation are automatically sent to the patient on appointment creation.
For virtual visits, appointment reminder text or email (selected by patient) is sent out prior to appointment.
Auto-matches patients to EHR/PM records based on key fields.
Virtual visit options are presented according to provider preferences. Virtual visits scheduling is seamlessly handled and visit joining information is automatically emailed to the patient.
Scheduling dashboard allows providers to review and join virtual visits from any modern browser with no software download.
Verification workflow for non-virtual visit appointments allows for staff to validate and approve appointment submissions when patients can’t be automatically matched.
An additional verification workflow can be enabled for non-virtual visit appointments, requiring auto-matched patients to be validated and approved by staff through the scheduling dashboard.
No login or registration is required. A minimal input form is presented to collect crucial information required for auto-matching and to properly apply provider preferences to search results.
SSO and Passthrough
SSO or pass-through auto-selection of patient or encounter. Other data items can also be passed in.
Mass Messaging/Marketing Campaign Support
Send texts or emails to a list of patients (either imported or based on a search results) with various available actions such as scheduling or rescheduling. Customer’s often find campaigns useful for proactive outreach for vaccination drives or to schedule recurring appointments such as physical examinations. Campaigns can be customized based on our customer’s requirements.
Support for list imports
Support for recipient list search.
Support for customizable templates
Support for actions on messages (such as scheduling, rescheduling
Telemedicine
Virtual visit functionality which can be used with or without intelligent and patient self-scheduling. As the name implies, telemedicine allows patients to see their provider in their setting of choice. Features include:
Closely integrated with intelligent and patient self-scheduling features, allowing for seamless scheduling of virtual visits.
Confirmation email with a calendar invite and virtual visit joining details are automatically sent to the patient.
When scheduling through patient self-scheduling or intelligent scheduling, virtual visit options are presented according to provider preferences.
Scheduling dashboard allows providers to review and join virtual visits from any modern browser with no software download.
Patients can click on invitation links and join their visit from any modern browser with no software download
Optional post-visit satisfaction survey can be presented to patients
Address Validation
Validates and populates missing address fields using an address validation service.
Telephone Integration
Telephone integration can significantly reduce handle time in the contact center by automatically searching on incoming phone numbers and populating patient details when available. This means call center staff are not required to type in the patient’s demographics and perform a search. Removing this process can save up to a minute per call and offer a better user and patient experience. Keona can integrate with most major phone systems. Contact your Keona Customer Success Manager to discuss details of this integration for your organization.
Auto search inbound phone numbers
Auto populate patient details when a phone number match is found
One-click auto-dialing of contact numbers for outgoing calls
Manual outbound dialing.
Ability to join call queues for incoming calls
Browser-based calling, no plugin required.
e911
Auto-detection of local 911 service number based on provided current address.
BI and Reporting
Powered by Wyn, lets users explore and report on data in a customizable manner. A set of standard reports are provided by default. Clients can create and modify their own dashboards and reports or can work with Keona to create custom reports. Features include:
Dashboards
Reports
Supports pagination
BI exploration
Support for printing and data exports
Patient Interview
Patient-facing workflow which lets patients submit documents, triage, or other questions. Patient interview allows patients to manage their own information and can offload work from call-center staff. This can be used in conjunction with other patient facing features like symptom checker to enable more self-service for patients. Features include:
Customizable document list lets users download important documents and forms
Completed documents can be uploaded with a note. An encounter is created and sent to a default queue (powered by workflow rules) with the document attached.
As an alternative to document uploads, a user can also select and complete a triage protocol, which is also sent to a default queue (powered by workflow rules).
Keona API
API that allows Keona customers to programmatically create and manage encounters. Utilities JWT tokens for security. Current API functionality includes:
Create encounters and patients
Close encounters
Prevents duplicate patients from being added