What patients see in the portal

Ona has two patient-facing surfaces. The public Welcome page introduces your clinic before sign-in. The secure patient portal is where an invited patient signs in, completes tasks, views shared information and manages their own settings.

What is the patient portal?

The patient portal is the signed-in area patients use to work with your clinic outside the staff dashboard. Patients must sign in with a verified email address. If a clinic team member opens the patient portal, Ona redirects them back to their staff dashboard.

Use Needs your attention (1) for items the patient should review next. The Care plan (2), Health records (3), Forms (4) and Billing (5) quick links open those areas from the portal home.

The portal home is task-oriented. It shows the patient's next or live visit, anything that needs attention, assigned forms when present, and quick links to the main areas: Health records, Forms, and Billing, and, when available, Care plan and Food journal. When a patient has an active membership, the next visit sits beside a Membership widget instead of filling the whole top row. Guardians also see a Family section on home. Health records includes shared files. Eligible upcoming visit cards tell patients to open the visit details to reschedule or cancel, and recurring visit cards show a Recurring label. On the visit details page, a recurring-visit note tells patients that rescheduling or cancelling changes this visit only. If a reschedule fee applies the reschedule dialog warns them before they confirm while the cancel dialog changes its move-the-visit text to mention the fee.

Patients only see portal areas that apply to your clinic and to that patient. Care plan is available only when care plans are enabled and the patient has a plan. Food journal is available only when food journaling is enabled. Lab orders and lab reports appear in health records when the order or report is shared or available to the patient. Shared photos, videos and documents appear in Health records when your team has shared them with the patient.

How do patients get access?

For setup self-service, in the left sidebar, click Patients, then click the patient's name. In the patient chart sidebar, click Details & Settings. This lets the patient complete their own setup from their device.

Use Share a setup link when you want the patient to enter or confirm their own details. The Share a setup link button (1) opens the share popover (2), where you can choose Copy setup link (3) or QR Code (4).

The setup flow can collect profile, contact, address, emergency contact, authorized person, ID photos, insurance card photos, insurance, payment method and pharmacy information, depending on your clinic setup. It can also require more profile details before the patient can finish setup. If your clinic requires a payment method, patients have to add one before they can submit setup. If your clinic uses more than one billing profile, setup can ask for a card for each required profile before the patient can finish, and the payment step can be tied to a specific billing profile.

For step-by-step instructions, see Inviting patients with setup links and QR codes.

When should I use patient self-service?

Use patient self-service when the patient can supply or confirm the information better than your team can. It is most useful before the first visit, before a telehealth appointment, and when a payment, form or consent is waiting.

A patient can self-serve these tasks when the related features and records are available:

• Book a visit from online booking, if booking is enabled.
• See upcoming and past visits in Visits.
• Reschedule or cancel an eligible future visit from the visit detail page when the visit is scheduled or confirmed. If a reschedule fee applies, the reschedule dialog warns the patient before they confirm, and the cancel dialog changes its move-the-visit text to mention the fee. Recurring visits are labeled on the card, and the visit details page adds a recurring-visit note that rescheduling or cancelling changes only that visit.
• Join online visits from Join or Join video call when a patient meeting link is available.
• Complete forms, sign consents and answer interviews in Forms & Interviews.
• Read clinical notes that your team has shared.
• View health records, including shared files, diagnoses, observations, allergies, medications and recommendations.
• Open shared photos, videos and documents, and download files when available.
• View shared lab orders, open or download requisitions, and view lab reports and accepted lab values.
• Review a care plan, mark steps complete, open shared documents and download a PDF when care plans are enabled.
• View invoices in Billing and pay online when an invoice is payable.
• Message the care team in the secure chat. While acting as a dependent, Chats is hidden.
• Manage portal settings, including profile, notifications, security, authorized person, insurance, payment method, card auto-charge consent and memberships options, and the Photo ID section in profile settings. Insurance card photos can appear in setup and insurance when the clinic requires them. Payment method settings can be tied to a specific billing profile. Food journal is not available while acting. Account stays tied to the guardian's own login while acting for a dependent.

How does the patient portal work?

The patient portal organizes tasks by area, so patients do not need to know where the information came from in the staff dashboard.

Use Visits (1) to see upcoming and past visits, Records (2) to see shared clinical information and files, Forms (3) for forms, consents and interviews, and Billing (4) for invoices.

Visits (1) shows Upcoming and Past visits. Live visits appear with Live now. Online visits show Join or Join video call when Ona has a patient meeting link. In-person visits show the location when one is set. The portal home tells patients to open the visit details to reschedule or cancel when a visit can be changed online, and the home can sit beside a membership widget when the patient has an active membership. On an eligible future scheduled or confirmed visit, the visit detail page shows Reschedule and Cancel visit. Reschedule opens Pick a new time, where the patient selects an available slot and chooses Confirm new time. If a reschedule fee applies, the dialog shows a warning that the clinic charges the fee for moving the visit within the notice window. Cancel visit opens Cancel this visit?, where the patient can choose Keep visit, Reschedule instead or Yes, cancel visit. If a reschedule fee applies, the text under the buttons changes to say they can move the visit to another time instead for the fee. If a late cancellation fee applies, the dialog shows a warning that the clinic charges the fee for cancelling within the notice window. The visit detail page can also show visit-specific interviews, shared visit notes, shared photos and documents, and records from that visit. When visit-specific files are available, All files opens the full Health records file section.

Forms & Interviews groups forms, consents and interviews into To do and Completed. Patients can filter by Forms, Consents or Interviews. Completed interviews open read-only.

Records (2) shows shared clinical information and shared files. Shared notes appear as expandable rows and can be downloaded as PDFs. Photos & documents shows photos, videos and documents your team has shared with the patient. Files may appear in shared folders, with files outside a folder under Other files. If there are no shared files, the section says Nothing shared yet. Patients can open a shared file to view it. Images, videos and PDFs can preview in the portal when the file is available. Download saves the file when it can be opened. If a file cannot load, the viewer may say This file isn't available right now. If the file type cannot be previewed, the viewer says This file can't be shown here. Download it to open it on your device. If opening fails, the patient sees Couldn't open that file. Lab orders appears above lab reports and shows orders your team has shared with the patient. Each lab order row shows the title, lab, date, ordering clinician when available, and a status label when the order has one. Patients can open a requisition PDF in a new tab or use Download requisition to save it. If there are no shared orders, the section says No lab orders yet. Lab reports show the original document and, when available, reviewed results. Lab values that have not been accepted by the care team are not shown to the patient.

Care plan shows the patient's current plan when one exists. Patients can see goals, recommendations, health concerns and shared documents. They can mark their own steps complete and download the care plan as a PDF.

Billing (4) separates payable invoices into To pay and other invoices into History. Patients can open an invoice, view details and pay online when the invoice status and balance allow online payment.

Messages gives the patient a secure conversation with the care team. If the patient belongs to a group chat, the portal shows those group conversations too. Internal notes are not sent to the patient portal.

What does the public Welcome page show?

At /welcome, the public Welcome page is an optional patient-facing page for your clinic. When it is enabled, visitors can reach your clinic's public experience before signing in. When it is disabled, visitors are sent to sign in instead.

Use Book an Appointment (1) to go to booking when online booking is enabled, Patient Portal (2) to sign in, and Call +1 (938) 839-0799 (3) to use the clinic phone number shown on the page.

The Welcome page can work with other public-facing features. Book an Appointment (1) can send visitors to book when online booking is enabled. Patient Portal (2) takes visitors to sign in. Call +1 (938) 839-0799 (3) is the clinic phone number shown on the page. If the website chat widget is enabled, the widget loads on the Welcome page. If your AI Receptionist has a phone number configured, that phone number is available to the Welcome page.

For setup details, see Your website and online booking page, Setting up the AI Receptionist, and Chatting with website visitors.

What are the limits?

Open the patient portal after the patient signs in. Patients do not see the staff dashboard, clinic settings or internal notes. Clinic team members do not use the patient portal; Ona redirects them to their staff dashboard.

Some portal items are feature-gated or patient-specific:

• Care plan is not available when care plans are off or the patient has no active plan.
• Food journal is not available when food journaling is off, and it is unavailable while acting for a dependent.
• Photos, videos and documents appear only when your team has shared them with the patient. Some file types cannot be previewed in the portal and need to be downloaded.
• Lab orders appear only when your team has shared them with the patient. A shared order's requisition may show Requisition not available yet if the lab has not issued the file yet. Lab values are shown only after they are accepted for the patient-facing report.
• Book a visit appears only when online booking is enabled.
• Insurance, payment method, memberships, authorized person and account settings appear only when they apply to your clinic.
• Account settings include deleting the account.

Patients see only notes your team has shared with them. They can open shared notes in the portal and download them as PDFs.

Common questions

Can patients join telehealth visits from the portal?

Yes. Online visits show Join or Join video call when a patient meeting link is available. In-person visits show the visit location instead.

Can patients book their own visits?

Yes, when online booking is enabled. The portal can show Book a visit when the clinic booking page is available.

Can patients reschedule or cancel their own visits?

Yes, when the visit is in the future and has a scheduled or confirmed status. The patient opens the visit detail page, then chooses Reschedule or Cancel visit. Cancelling asks them to confirm with Keep visit, Reschedule instead or Yes, cancel visit, and if a reschedule fee applies the text changes to mention moving the visit to another time instead. Recurring visits are labeled Recurring, and the visit details page adds a note that rescheduling or cancelling changes only that visit.

Can patients see lab orders?

Yes, when your team has shared the order with the patient. Shared orders appear in Health records under Lab orders, where the patient can open or download the requisition if one is available.

Can patients pay invoices themselves?

Yes, when the invoice can be paid online and has a balance due. Those invoices appear under To pay in Billing. Paid or otherwise non-payable invoices appear in History.

Do patients see clinical notes or files automatically?

No. Patients see notes that your team shares with them. Shared notes can be opened in the portal and downloaded as PDFs. Photos, videos and documents appear only when your team shares them with the patient.

Do patients see internal messages or staff notes?

No. Internal notes are not sent to the patient portal. Patients see the secure conversation intended for them, and group conversations only when they are part of the group.

What can patients change in setup and portal settings?

They can confirm their profile, contact, address, emergency contact, authorized person, ID photos, insurance card photos, insurance, payment method and pharmacy details when those options are part of your setup. If the clinic requires a payment method, they have to add one before they can finish setup, and if there are required billing profiles, they may need a card for each one. They can also manage portal settings for profile, notifications, security, authorized person, insurance, payment method, card auto-charge consent and memberships, and the Photo ID section in profile settings. While acting for a dependent, profile, notifications, insurance, payment method and memberships can reflect the dependent when the guardian has billing scope, but security stays tied to the guardian's own login. Chats is hidden while acting for a dependent, and Food journal is not available while acting.