How the portal works behind the scenes

This chapter explains, in plain words, what the portal does on its own and when.

One system for every clinic

Every clinic uses the same Membership Management system. There is one set of screens and one set of rules. What is different for each clinic is:

• its settings (membership types, schedules, reorder notice, auto-prepare, dashboard cards, the daily summary, sign-in timeouts)
• its plan (which features it has)
• its connections (which EMR, which pharmacies, which fax line), set up by Prescripta
• its data. Each clinic's patients, orders, faxes and audit log are kept apart. Staff of one clinic can never see another clinic's data.

When Prescripta improves the portal, every clinic gets the improvement at the same moment.

Times

All automatic jobs run on Eastern time (New York), for every clinic. The "today" used for due dates and overdue also follows Eastern time. The clinic's own time zone (shown on Account → Support) is used only for the hour you pick for the daily summary. For a clinic outside Eastern time, this means "today" (for due dates and overdue) changes at midnight Eastern, not at the clinic's own midnight. For example, a clinic on Pacific time sees the new day start at 9:00 PM its own time.

The morning run (8:50 AM Eastern, every day)

Once a day, at 8:50 AM Eastern, the portal does its big daily update for each clinic. It runs at 8:50 because some EMRs (like Zenoti) finish their own daily membership processing around 8:30 AM.

In order, for each clinic:

1. EMR sync. The portal gets the latest patients and memberships from your EMR.
   • Pull-style EMR (for example Zenoti): the portal asks the EMR for everything new.
   • Push-style EMR (for example OptiMantra): the EMR has already sent messages to the portal during the day; the portal processes any that are waiting.
   • No EMR, or EMR sync off: this step is skipped. Everything else still runs.
   • If the EMR pull fails or runs out of time, the rest of the run still happens. A failed pull is written to the Audit log. An unfinished pull picks up where it stopped on the next run.
2. Pharmacy pull. For each pharmacy with an online connection, the portal looks for orders placed at the pharmacy since yesterday that were not placed through the portal (for example by phone or the pharmacy's own website). Each one is matched to a patient and recorded on their record, so no duplicate reorder opens. Orders that match nobody go to Pharmacy → Found at the pharmacy. If the prescription differs from what is saved, the patient shows on Rx differs at pharmacy, review.
3. Pharmacy history refresh (starts). The portal begins its daily pass through every current patient's order history at the pharmacy, so each patient's last orders are up to date. Each patient is re-checked about once a week. The morning run starts the pass and the hourly checks continue it.
4. Settle finished orders. Orders that were recorded from pharmacy history, that the pharmacy says are finished, and that are more than a week old, are marked Delivered.
5. Sweep. The portal looks at every patient and keeps everything correct (see "The sweep" below).
6. Daily summary. One e-mail per clinic with counts only, sent to every activated owner, admin and provider (minus anyone opted out on the Users page), plus any extra addresses in Settings → Notifications. If the clinic has team chat, the same counts are posted there. If the clinic picked a different hour (Send the summary at), it is sent at the first hourly check at or after that hour instead.
7. AI brief. The AI writes a fresh morning brief for the Dashboard from the day's counts.

Also each morning: clinics whose cancelled subscription has passed its end date are paused.

The sweep

The sweep is the portal's "tidy up" step. It does not contact the EMR. It looks at what is already stored and, for every patient who is not archived and has a membership:

• opens a reorder cycle when a reorder date comes within the reorder notice
• closes an early, untouched reorder cycle whose date is not due yet (it reopens on its own when due)
• prepares the prescription automatically when auto-prepare is on and the reorder is due (it never sends)
• adds newly due medications to an already-prepared order
• marks reorders overdue when the date passes, and raises or swaps alerts
• moves the next follow-up date to the next step of the follow-up schedule
• raises or clears Not reached on follow-up and Payment failed alerts
• rolls forward the autopay date for memberships the portal bills itself, and fills a missing autopay amount from the membership type
• turns reorders and follow-ups on or off to match the membership type settings (and cancels an open, unordered reorder if reorders were turned off for that type)

The sweep runs in the morning run, at every hourly check, after Sync now, and when someone clicks Re-run alert sweep (Admin → Settings → Data). Running it many times is safe.

The hourly checks (5 minutes past each hour, 6:05 AM to 11:05 PM Eastern)

Every hour, at 5 past, from 6:05 AM to 11:05 PM Eastern, the portal does a smaller update for each clinic:

1. For push-style EMRs (like OptiMantra): processes EMR messages that arrived since the last check.
2. Runs the sweep.
3. Asks each pharmacy about orders that were sent and not yet answered (accepted, rejected). Accepted orders become Ordered.
4. Asks the fax company about faxes still Sending (both order faxes and Fax page faxes).
5. Continues the pharmacy history refresh.
6. Settles finished orders from pharmacy history as Delivered.
7. Rewrites the AI brief if any count changed.
8. Sends the daily summary if the clinic chose an hour and that hour has come (once a day only).

The hourly checks do not pull from a pull-style EMR such as Zenoti. That happens once a day in the morning run, or when someone clicks Sync now.

What "the next hourly check" means

When a screen says something will happen "on the next hourly check", it means at the next :05 past the hour between 6:05 AM and 11:05 PM Eastern. For example, a change at 2:20 PM shows up after 3:05 PM. A change at 11:30 PM waits until 6:05 AM the next morning.

Other automatic jobs

• 1:15 AM Eastern, daily: the previous day's audit entries are copied to locked storage.
• 4:20 AM Eastern on the 1st and 15th: a routine security key change for pharmacy connections.

Why some screens update right away and others later

Ways to make it happen now:

• Sync now (Admin → Settings → EMR connection): pulls from the EMR now (refreshing contact details), settles finished pharmacy orders and runs the sweep. Needs Run the EMR sync / sweep. Only one sync runs at a time; a full run takes about 10 minutes. If one is running you see A sync is already running (started N min ago; a full run takes about 10 minutes). Wait for it to finish, this page updates when it does.
• Re-run alert sweep (Admin → Settings → Data): runs the sweep now, without contacting the EMR.
• Re-apply rules to existing patients (Admin → Settings → Membership types): re-types patients from the membership rules now, then sweeps.
• Check the pharmacy for orders now (Admin → Settings → Pharmacies): runs the pharmacy pull now.
• Check now on a Sent fax.
• Verify last order on a patient page: refreshes that patient's pharmacy history now.
• Regenerate on the AI brief (daily limit).
• The top-bar badges refresh every 60 seconds.

The demo clinic

A demo clinic is a separate, practice clinic that Prescripta creates for demonstrations, training and people trying the product.

• Every patient is fictional (about 40 of them), spread across every Dashboard card so there is something to see everywhere.
• Every feature is on.
• The pharmacy, fax and EMR are stand-ins. The demo pharmacy behaves like a real one (it has order history, accepts orders, and "ships" about an hour later with tracking). The demo fax delivers nothing; a sent demo fax shows Delivered (demo) at the next check or when you click Check now. There is no real EMR.
• No e-mails or chat posts are sent from a demo clinic.
• A yellow banner on every page says it is a demo.
• Prescripta can reset a demo clinic: every fictional patient, order, note and fax is wiped and rebuilt. Staff logins stay.
• In the clinic switcher, a demo clinic shows (demo).

Privacy and security in plain words

• No patient information in e-mail or chat. The daily summary e-mail and team chat posts contain counts only, never names, dates of birth or anything else about a patient. The e-mail ends with Open the portal for the patient lists, nothing patient-identifying is ever e-mailed.
• The AI brief sees counts only. The AI that writes the Dashboard brief is given numbers, never patient details.
• Fax reading stays inside the portal's secure hosting. The AI that reads received faxes runs inside the same secure, protected hosting as the portal, covered by a business associate agreement. The fax is not sent to an outside AI company. The AI read is stored encrypted.
• Patient contact details are encrypted and only shown where needed (for example the patient page).
• Fax documents are stored encrypted. A link to open one lasts 2 minutes. Documents are kept for 90 days.
• Everything is recorded. Every view of patient information and every change is written to the Audit log, which nobody can change or delete. If the record cannot be written, the action is refused.
• Sign-in protection. Every account needs a password and an authenticator app code. A browser can be trusted for a number of days (set by the clinic; 0 by default, meaning always ask). You are signed out after a period of no activity (default 15 minutes), after the sign-in window (default 60 minutes), and always after 10 hours. When the sign-in window ends, the portal signs you out and you sign in again (with password and authenticator code) before more admin changes.
• Each clinic is separate. Staff can only see their own clinic's data.
• Prescripta support can enter your clinic only to help, sees a banner while inside, and everything they do is in your Audit log.
• When you contact support, never put patient details in the e-mail. Quote your account reference instead.

Questions people ask

Q: What time does the daily summary e-mail come?

A: Right after the morning run, a little after 8:50 AM Eastern, unless your clinic picked a time in Admin → Settings → Notifications → Send the summary at. Then it comes at the first hourly check at or after that hour (for example 2:05 PM for 2:00 PM).

Q: We set the summary for 7 AM. Why are the numbers from yesterday?

A: At 7 AM the morning run (8:50 AM) has not happened yet, so the EMR data is from the day before. Pick an hour after 9 AM if you want the fresh EMR numbers.

Q: I didn't get the daily summary.

A: It goes to activated owner, admin and provider logins, plus extra addresses in Settings → Notifications. A pending invite or turned-off login gets nothing. Someone may also have turned your summary off on the Users page. Also check that Daily summary email is ticked in Settings → Notifications, and look in your spam folder.

Q: I changed a setting. When does it take effect?

A: Screens that read the setting change at once. Things the sweep does (new reorder cycles, alerts, follow-up dates) change at the next hourly check. Click Re-run alert sweep to do it now.

Q: A patient changed in the EMR this afternoon. When will I see it?

A: With a pull-style EMR (like Zenoti): at the next morning run, or click Sync now. With a push-style EMR (like OptiMantra): at the next hourly check.

Q: Does the portal ever send a prescription by itself?

A: No. Auto-prepare only fills in the prescription and puts it under Pending provider approval. A person must approve and send it.

Q: Does the portal work at night?

A: Yes, you can use it any time. The automatic hourly checks pause from 11:05 PM to 6:05 AM Eastern.

Q: Is my clinic's data mixed with other clinics?

A: No. Every record belongs to one clinic, and the portal only ever shows you your own clinic.

Q: Can I try the portal without real patients?

A: Ask Prescripta for a demo clinic.