Invite Your First Patient

With your practice profile and membership plans in place, you are ready to enroll your first patient.

Patient enrollment in DPC Pro can happen two ways: you send an email invitation that guides the patient through creating their account, or your staff creates the patient record directly. Both methods result in the same outcome: an active patient with a membership on your roster.

The process is the same whether you are onboarding your very first patient or your five hundredth. Once a patient is enrolled, they appear on your patient roster with an active membership, and you can begin scheduling visits and communicating through DPC Pro.

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Prerequisites

• Set up your practice profile
• Create at least one membership plan
• Payment processing connected (recommended). Navigate to Billing → Payment Setup to connect your payment processing account.

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Staff-Assisted Enrollment

The most common way to add patients during initial setup is to create their records directly. This gives you full control over the enrollment and is faster when onboarding patients in bulk or during a conversion from another system.

Create a Patient Record

1. Navigate to Patients → Add Patient.
2. Enter the patient’s basic information:
   • First Name and Last Name (required)
   • Date of Birth (required)
   • Email Address: required for portal access and secure messaging
   • Phone Number: optional, used for SMS notifications
   • Gender (optional)
3. Select the Practice this patient will be enrolled in (if your organization has multiple practices).
4. Select a Primary Provider for this patient (optional but recommended).
5. Choose the patient’s Relationship to the account holder: select “Self” if the patient manages their own account.
6. Select Save.

DPC Pro creates the patient record, generates a medical record number, and enrolls the patient at your practice.

Assign a Membership

After creating the patient record, assign them to a membership plan:

1. Navigate to Billing → Memberships.
2. Select New Membership.
3. Select the Account Holder: This is the person responsible for payment.
4. Choose the Membership Plan.
5. Select the Billing Interval (monthly or annual).
6. Select Create Membership.

The account holder is now enrolled and billing begins according to the plan terms.

Family memberships

To add family members to an existing membership, open the membership detail page and select Add Member. Choose the patient and their relationship to the account holder (spouse/partner, child, parent, or other dependent). The membership price adjusts automatically based on the plan’s family pricing tiers.

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Patient-Side Enrollment

You can also invite patients to create their own account and enroll themselves through the patient portal.

Sending a Patient Invitation

When your staff registers a new patient account, DPC Pro can automatically send an invitation email that gives the patient access to the patient portal.

1. Navigate to Customers → Register Customer.
2. Enter the patient’s First Name, Last Name, and Email Address (the email is required for the invitation).
3. Optionally fill in their Phone Number, Date of Birth, and Gender.
4. Leave the Send invitation email checkbox enabled (it is on by default). If you want to create the account without notifying the patient yet, uncheck it.
5. Select Register.

DPC Pro creates a user account for the patient and sends an invitation email to the address you entered. The email contains a link to the patient portal where the patient can set their password and complete their profile.

When to skip the invitation

Uncheck Send invitation email if you are pre-loading patient records before your practice goes live. You can trigger the invitation later by resetting the patient’s password through the portal, which sends them a link to set up their account.

What the Patient Sees

When a patient receives an invitation or visits your enrollment page:

1. They create an account with their email address and a password.
2. They enter their personal and contact information.
3. They select a membership plan from your active plans.
4. They enter a payment method.
5. They review and confirm their enrollment.

Once enrollment is complete, the patient immediately appears on your roster with an active membership.

Portal access

After enrollment, patients can log in to their portal to view their membership details, send messages to your practice, request visits, and manage their profile. You can control which portal features are available to each patient.

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Verify Enrollment

After a patient enrolls, whether through staff-assisted or self-enrollment, verify that everything is set up correctly.

Check the Patient Record

1. Navigate to Patients and search for the patient by name or email.
2. Open their patient record.
3. Verify:
   • Status shows “Active”
   • Primary Provider is assigned (if applicable)
   • Practice is correct
   • Medical Record Number has been generated

Check the Membership

1. From the patient record or navigate to Billing → Memberships.
2. Search for the patient’s membership.
3. Verify:
   • Status shows “Active”
   • Plan is the correct membership plan
   • Billing Interval matches what was selected
   • Covered Members lists the correct family members (for family plans)

Verify Payment

If payment processing is connected:

1. Open the membership detail page.
2. Confirm that a payment method is on file.
3. Check that the initial payment has been processed or is scheduled.

No payment processing?

If you have not connected payment processing yet, memberships can still be created but payments will not be collected automatically. Connect your payment processing account in Billing → Payment Setup before going live with patients.

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Add Family Members

To enroll additional family members under an existing account holder:

1. Navigate to Patients → Add Patient.
2. Enter the family member’s information.
3. Under Account Holder, select the existing account holder (the person responsible for payment).
4. Set the Relationship (spouse/partner, child, parent, or other).
5. Select Save.

Then add them to the family membership:

1. Navigate to Billing → Memberships and open the account holder’s membership.
2. Select Add Member.
3. Select the family member from the list.
4. Confirm their relationship.
5. Select Save.

The membership pricing adjusts automatically based on the plan’s family pricing configuration.

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Bulk Enrollment

DPC Pro does not currently offer a CSV import or bulk upload tool. Patients are added individually using the staff-assisted enrollment process described above.

Tips for Efficient Onboarding

When converting from another system or onboarding a large group of patients, these practices help your team move quickly:

• Prepare your data first. Export your patient list from your previous system and organize it in a spreadsheet with columns for first name, last name, date of birth, email, and phone. Having this ready lets staff work through the list without switching between systems.
• Batch the work across staff. Multiple staff members can create patient records at the same time. Divide your patient list alphabetically or by provider panel and have each team member work through their assigned segment.
• Skip invitations during initial load. When pre-loading records before your go-live date, uncheck Send invitation email during patient registration. This lets you build your roster without sending premature portal invitations. You can trigger invitations later through a password reset email.
• Assign memberships in a second pass. Create all patient records first, then return to assign membership plans. This two-pass approach is faster than completing every step for each patient before moving to the next.
• Start with a test patient. Before enrolling real patients, add yourself or a team member as a test patient. This lets you experience the patient portal firsthand and verify that invitations, messaging, and billing work as expected.

Bulk import roadmap

If you need to onboard more than 50 patients and want assistance, contact the DPC Pro support team at [email protected]. The team can help coordinate a large onboarding effort.

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What Happens After Enrollment

Once a patient is enrolled, they can:

• Log in to the patient portal to view their membership, send messages, and request visits
• Receive secure messages from your practice via the messaging system
• Self-schedule visits (if your practice has scheduling enabled and configured)
• View and pay invoices through their portal account

On your side, the patient appears in:

• Patients: your searchable patient roster, filterable by practice, provider, and status
• Billing → Memberships: their active membership with billing details
• Schedule: available for visit scheduling with their assigned provider

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Related Pages

• Set Up Your Practice
• Add Providers and Staff
• Create Your Membership Plans
• Go-Live Checklist

Need Help?

If you run into issues during patient enrollment, reach out to the DPC Pro support team at [email protected] or visit the troubleshooting guide.