Patient lists & patient outreach

Open the Patient List workspace

The Patient List workspace turns your whole panel into actionable cohorts — instead of opening charts one at a time, you slice the practice into groups like “diabetics overdue for an A1c” or “patients with no visit in 12+ months,” review them in a configurable table, and act on the whole group at once. It opens from the Patient List button in the top toolbar, just to the right of Chart and Schedule (route /dashboard/patient-lists).

1. Open the workspace. Click Patient List in the top toolbar. It opens as its own tab in the workspace tab bar, with a left rail of lists and the selected list’s patient table filling the rest of the screen.
2. Know the three kinds of list.
   • Preset smart lists — ready-made cohorts that ship with Hero EMR and recompute live (see Preset lists).
   • Custom smart searches — your own rule-based cohorts built in the condition builder; they also recompute live (see Custom search builder).
   • Manual curated lists — hand-picked sets of patients you add by name and that stay fixed until you edit them (see Manual & shared lists).
3. Pick a list and work it. Choosing a list in the left rail loads its patients into the table; the header carries the row count and the list’s actions — Columns (shape the table), Snapshot (freeze a smart list into a manual one), Duplicate (make an editable copy), and Export (download to CSV). Click any patient row to open that chart.

Start from a preset smart list

Hero EMR ships with 17 ready-made smart lists grouped into six categories in the left rail. Each one is a saved rule set that recomputes live against your panel every time you open it — a patient who gets their A1c drawn drops off the “overdue” list on its own — so the presets always reflect the current state of the practice.

Two header actions make the presets your own. Pin a preset you use often and it floats to the top of the rail as a favorite. Duplicate a preset to get an editable copy in the condition builder — the presets themselves are read-only, so duplicating is how you tweak a built-in cohort (loosen the A1c interval, add a payer filter) without disturbing the original.

Build a custom smart search

When no preset fits, build your own cohort. A smart search is a saved set of conditions that recomputes live — patients flow in and out as their data changes — so it behaves like a standing query rather than a fixed list.

1. Start a new search. Click New list → Smart search. The condition builder opens with an empty rule and a live N patients match count that updates as you add conditions.
2. Choose how conditions combine. The match mode at the top sets the logic: Match ALL (AND — every condition must be true), Match ANY (OR — at least one is true), or Match NONE (NOT — exclude patients who match).
3. Add conditions and groups. Condition adds a single rule (a field, an operator, and a value). Group nests a sub-set of conditions with its own ALL/ANY/NONE mode — you can nest up to two levels — so you can express things like “diabetic AND (no A1c in 6 months OR last A1c above 9).”
4. Pick from the field catalog. Each condition draws from the search-field catalog organized into eleven categories — Demographics, Status & access, Care team, Insurance & financial, Visits & engagement, Problems & diagnoses, Medications, Labs & vitals, Questionnaires & screeners, Care programs, and Preventive & history. Care team holds one field, Seen by provider, and it is the way to narrow a cohort to a particular clinician’s patients — it matches on documented encounters, so it follows who actually saw the patient. Some fields take a parameterized code input — a lab condition asks for a LOINC code, a procedure for a CPT code, an immunization for a CVX code — so you target the exact test, service, or vaccine.
5. Watch the count, then save. The N patients match banner tells you how big the cohort is before you commit. Name the search and save it; it joins your lists in the left rail and recomputes every time you open it.

Find patients by chart alert

Under Status & access, use Has an active chart alert, Chart alert text, or Chart alert severity. Text searches the title and details of active alerts. Resolved alerts do not match. Combine these conditions with your other criteria to make a follow-up list.

Find patients by their latest screener score

Under Questionnaires & screeners, Latest screener score finds patients by their most recent scored result, for example the latest PHQ-9 at least 15.

1. Pick the Questionnaire. PHQ-9 (the default), PHQ-A, GAD-7, PHQ-2, GAD-2, DASS-Y, PCL-5, EPDS, AUDIT-C, DAST-10, ISI, PSC-17, or K6. Pick several and a patient matches when any one of them does. DASS-Y uses its total (0–63); its subscales are not separate choices.
2. Choose the operator and number. At least, at most, or between.
3. Optionally limit the date. Only if scored in the last (months) ignores older results.

The latest scored result decides: a later questionnaire without a score does not hide it. Scores brought in from another system count. Because scores are questionnaire results, the criterion, and any saved list that uses it, is hidden from staff who may not see questionnaire answers and scores (see Questionnaires).

A patient list can also decide who may book a visit type online: a visit type’s Who can book this online can be set to Only patients on a patient list (a preset or a list shared with the practice). A list that a visit type uses this way cannot be deleted; Hero names the visit types that use it.

Curate manual lists & share them

Not every cohort is a rule. A manual list is a hand-picked set of patients that stays exactly as you built it — useful for a recall batch, a study group, or any roster that doesn’t map cleanly to conditions.

1. Create the list. Click New list → Manual list, name it, then use Add patients to search for and add patients one by one. They stay on the list until you remove them.
2. Drop a selection in from any list. Check rows in any list (smart or manual) to reveal the bulk selection bar, then click Add to a list to drop the selected patients into a new or existing manual list. This is the fast way to skim a smart cohort and hand-pick the ones you actually want to work.
3. Freeze a smart list with Snapshot. A smart list moves under you as data changes. Snapshot captures its current members into a brand-new manual list — a frozen point-in-time roster — without touching the live smart search it came from.
4. Pin and share. Pin floats a list to the top of your rail. Share toggles a list between private and Shared with org — a shared list is visible to everyone with Patient Lists access, so it’s how a care team works one roster together. Lists you haven’t shared stay private to you.

Shape the table columns & export

The patient table is yours to shape. The Columns manager lets each list show exactly the data points that matter for that cohort — contact details for a recall list, last-lab values for a chronic-disease list — plus custom worklist columns you fill in yourself, and Export turns the current view into a CSV for outside work.

1. Open the Columns manager. Click Columns in the list header. The dialog shows your currently selected columns on top and an add-a-column catalog below, grouped into Demographics, Contact, Status, Insurance, Care team, Encounters, Problems, Medications, Labs, Programs, and Custom. Money columns such as Account balance appear only for staff with a billing permission — for everyone else the catalog omits them, and a saved list that sorts by one falls back to its default order.
2. Add, remove, and reorder. Add a column from the catalog, remove one you don’t need, and reorder with the up/down arrows — the table reflows immediately, and the layout is saved with the list.
3. Add a parameterized column. Some columns take a parameter so they read a specific value — a Last A1c column, for example, is tied to the relevant LOINC codes and shows each patient’s most recent result with the custom label you give it. The same pattern surfaces a specific lab, vital, or program metric as its own column.
4. Add a custom worklist column. The Custom group adds columns you fill in yourself rather than ones Hero computes:
   • Checkbox — a tick-box column for working a list (e.g. “Called,” “Reviewed,” “Scheduled”). Give it a label, Apply columns, and a checkbox appears on every row that you and your team click to mark patients done. Add several with different labels to track multiple steps.
   • My sticky note — a read-only column that surfaces your own private sticky note for each patient (the one from the chart), so you can scan your notes across the whole cohort.
5. Export to CSV. Export downloads the current list — the rows you see, with the columns you’ve chosen (checkbox marks included) — as a CSV file for reporting, mail-merge, or registry work.

Add the Chart alerts column to read active flags directly in the list, ordered by severity. It shows the same kind of alerts displayed beneath the patient’s name in the chart.

Medications and supply

Two columns under Medications show each patient’s current medicines as the chart’s Medications tab does: Medications & supply (all current medications) and Controlled meds & supply (C-II to C-V only). Each medicine shows its last fill and when it runs out, with the ones that ran out or end soon first, and chips such as C-II, On hold, Not taking, Scheduled or Needs review. Up to six lines show, then +N more; hover a medicine for its course, dated as on the chart’s coverage line, with Rx when a prescription is behind it (for example Rx Aug 18). Run-out dates match the chart’s on the same day. In a CSV export each medicine is written as name [qualifiers] (filled day; runs out day). These columns appear only when someone adds them to a list.

Latest screener score

The Latest screener score column (under Questionnaires) shows each patient’s most recent scored result for one questionnaire, with its band and date, headed PHQ-9 latest unless you pick another Questionnaire or give it a Column label. When a smart list’s filter starts using a screener score, Hero adds the matching column once; if you remove it, it stays removed. Like the criterion, it is absent for staff who may not see questionnaire scores, and left out of their exports.

Saved filters show newly added columns straight away, and the live preview waits until a new condition is complete before counting.

Reach a whole cohort with a campaign

Communications turns a patient list into outreach: one message sent to an entire cohort at once — a recall reminder, a flu-shot push, a balance notice — with delivery and engagement tracked per patient. It lives as a tab inside the Patient List workspace, so the cohort you just built is one click from a campaign.

1. Find the Communications tab. Inside the Patient List workspace, switch to the Communications tab next to Lists. You can also launch a campaign from a cohort directly — select patients in any list and click Send communication in the bulk selection bar, which opens the composer pre-loaded with that audience.
2. Choose how the message goes out. A campaign sends on one of three channels:
   • Portal message — a secure portal message, with an email fallback for patients who don’t have a portal account.
   • Email only — a plain email to the address on file.
   • SMS text — a text message, capped at 160 characters and 25 recipients per campaign.

Compose, preview, and send a campaign

Click New campaign to open the composer. It walks you from naming the campaign through choosing a channel, writing the message, picking the audience, and reviewing exactly who will receive it before anything goes out.

1. Name it and pick a channel. Give the campaign a Campaign name (for your tracking, not shown to patients), then choose the Channel — portal message with email fallback, email only, or SMS text.
2. Set the message type. Message type is required, and today there is only one choice: Treatment / care — “care, scheduling, results — transactional patient communication.” The Marketing card next to it is visible but greyed out (“Not yet available — requires unsubscribe & consent setup”), so promotional outreach can’t be sent from the composer yet. Keep campaign content on the treatment side of that line.
3. Write the message with placeholders. Fill the Subject and Body. Personalization placeholders are filled in per patient at send time — type them literally:
   • {{first_name}}, {{last_name}}, and {{full_name}} — the patient’s name.
   • {{org_name}} — your practice name.
   • {{portal_url}} — a link to the patient portal.
4. Pick the audience and review the preview. Choose a Patient list as the audience, then read the recipient preview — it resolves the channel for each patient (for example a portal recipient with no account shown as email), and marks each one Deliverable Yes or No with the reason (such as No phone number on file). Patients who have opted out of SMS are excluded automatically.
5. Mind the SMS limits. On the SMS channel a live 160-character counter tracks the body, and the 25-recipient cap auto-trims a larger audience — an amber alert tells you when the list has been limited so you can split a big cohort across runs.
6. Add reminders to re-ping non-responders (optional). Reminders automatically follows up patients who haven’t responded — set the cadence (days between attempts), Max attempts, and the Reminder channel.
7. Schedule for later (optional). Schedule sets a Send at date and time, interpreted in your clinic’s timezone, so a campaign can go out at a sensible hour instead of immediately.
8. Send yourself a test first. Send test delivers the message you have composed — subject, body, and all — to your own email address, confirming with Test … sent to …. It is the safest dry run before anything reaches patients, and the quickest way to see how the personalization placeholders and your practice’s formatting actually land. It is offered on the portal and email channels only; there is no SMS test, because the composer never collects a phone number to send one to.
9. Save or send. Finish with Save draft to come back later, or Send now — or Schedule if you set a send time — to launch it.

Track delivery and engagement

Once a campaign launches, its detail page becomes a live dashboard — you watch the rollups climb as messages send, open, and get answered, and you can drill into any single patient to see what happened on their channel.

1. Read the stat cards. Six cards summarize the campaign at a glance: Total (recipients), Sent, Opened, Responded, Reminders sent, and Failed.
2. Drill into the recipient table. Below the cards, one row per patient lists Patient, Channel, Status, Sent, Opened, Responded, Reminders, and Error — so a failed delivery shows both the patient and the reason it didn’t land.
3. Know what counts as a response. What “responded” means depends on the campaign’s definition — either Opened or replied (any engagement counts) or Replied only (an actual answer is required). Email opens are detected by a tracking pixel; SMS and portal replies register as they arrive.
4. Stop future reminders. Cancel campaign halts any scheduled reminders that haven’t fired yet. It does not unsend messages already delivered — once a message has gone out, it’s with the patient.

Invite many patients to the portal at once, with your own message

Invite patients to the portal sends every active patient who has no portal account a personal sign-up link and 6-digit code, with a message you can write yourself, and keeps reminding them until they create an account. Use it to move a panel onto the portal or to send invitations with your own wording.

1. Open the Communications tab and click Invite patients to the portal. Until your practice has run one, a Moving patients onto the portal? banner offers the same thing. The composer notes: “Reminders stop on their own once they create an account; opening the email does not stop them. Patients who already have portal access are skipped.”
2. Name it and pick the Channel. Email is recommended (the link and code travel best by email); SMS sends from your practice number to a limited number of recipients.
3. Write the message. Use the recommended message fills in Hero’s wording, which you can edit. The Body must include {{portal_invite_url}} so each patient gets their own link; you can also use {{greeting}}, {{first_name}}, {{org_name}}, {{portal_invite_code}}, {{invite_expires_on}} and {{practice_phone}}. Previews show the message for an adult patient and for a parent or guardian.
4. Check Who gets an invitation. It starts from every active patient without portal access; pick another list or untick anyone. Patients are grouped as Will be invited, Guardian contact missing, No email on file, Already has portal access and so on. Minors and teens with no parent or guardian email are invited only if you tick Also invite minors and teens who have no parent or guardian email on file, using the email on the chart.
5. Set Reminders (“Nudge patients who have not created an account yet. Reminders stop automatically once they do.”): the days after sending, Max attempts, and the Reminder channel.
6. Optionally choose what is Handed out at sign-up: consents and questionnaires each patient gets right after creating their account.
7. Click Send invitations (or Schedule), read the count, and click Confirm send. There is no Send test for invitations; read the previews instead.

Track who created an account on the campaign’s page (Track delivery and engagement). Single invitations from Patient Registration keep Hero’s standard wording (Change the message in portal invitations).

Send practice-wide follow-up and recall reminders

Hero EMR reminds patients who are due for follow-up in three ways: automatically from each visit’s follow-up, from a follow-up request on one patient, and with a campaign to a recall list. There is no single “send recall to everyone due” button, and patient lists cannot filter on open follow-up requests.

1. Automatic reminders from each visit (most follow-ups)

When the provider picks a follow-up time in the visit’s Follow-up section and signs, Hero creates a follow-up request and reminds the patient to book until they do (Schedule the follow-up). The practice sets when and how in Admin → Scheduling → Patient Notifications, under Follow-up Reminders, including a Care Team Escalation to staff when a patient still hasn’t booked (Patient notifications).

2. One patient, without a visit

On the chart’s Appointments tab, Follow-up requests → Request follow-up sends the same reminders for a patient you want back (Appointments).

3. A recall list for a whole group

1. Build the list. Open the preset No visit in 12+ months, or make a Smart search with Last completed visit → not in the last (months) and Upcoming appointment → has none, plus any condition you need (Custom search builder).
2. Send a campaign to it. On Communications, New campaign with that list as the audience, a message with {{portal_url}} so patients can book, and Reminders for those who don’t respond (Compose a campaign). Communications needs admin access or the communications permission.
3. Work the phone calls. Add a checkbox column such as Called to the list so the team can mark who has been reached (Columns).

Clear follow-up selections

• Selected patients on a list: click Clear in the selection bar (next to Add to a list and Send communication).
• Ticks in a checkbox column: untick them one patient at a time; there is no clear-all.
• A follow-up time picked in a visit: clicking the chosen time again does not unselect it. Click No follow-up (or As needed (PRN)) instead; neither sends a reminder. Those buttons appear only when Offer No follow-up and As needed (PRN) buttons is ticked, in Admin → Scheduling → Follow-up Buttons or, when providers set their own, with Edit buttons in the visit’s Follow-up section (Follow-up buttons).
• A follow-up request already sent: click Cancel on its row under Follow-up requests on the chart’s Appointments tab. It cancels at once, with no confirmation.