Building an Intake Flow in Osmind

Osmind's intake flow tool lets you bundle paperwork into a seamless digital experience for new patients. When a patient is added to your practice (or moved into a new client group), the flow triggers automatically — they receive an email prompting them to complete their forms before they can fully access the patient portal.

This guide walks you through how to create, configure, and manage intake flows in Osmind.

What Is an Intake Flow?

An intake flow is an ordered sequence of forms that patients are prompted to complete upon onboarding. This can include consent documents, health history questionnaires, insurance and billing info, photo ID, and more. All forms are completed electronically and stored directly in the patient's chart once submitted.

Patients must complete (or explicitly skip) every form in the flow before they gain full access to their Osmind portal — including the ability to view documents, access packages, and message their care team.

Step 1: Navigate to Intake Flows

From your Osmind account, go to:

Forms → Intake Flows → Create Intake Flow

You'll be prompted to give the intake flow a name. Choose something descriptive and internal-facing — patients will not see the name of the flow itself.

Step 2: Associate the Flow with a Patient Group

Each intake flow is tied to one or more patient groups. When a patient is added to (or moved into) an associated group, the intake flow triggers automatically.

If you have multiple patient populations — for example, self-pay versus insurance-based patients, or adult versus pediatric — you can create separate groups and separate intake flows for each.

Default intake flow: The default flow assigned to patients not in a specific group. To change which flow is the default, navigate to Forms → Intake Flows → [Flow Name] → Default. An Intake Flow can be set as default at an organization or provider level.

• If a provider sets their own default intake flow, all of their clients who are not assigned to a group will receive that intake flow.

• If a provider does NOT set their own default intake flow, all of their clients who are not assigned to a group wthe organization's default intake flow.

Step 3: Add Forms to Your Flow

Click Add a form to this Intake Flow to select forms from the dropdown. You can pull from:

• Osmind's built-in form library — includes standard forms such as consent documents and health history

• Osmind's specialty form library — available directly within the platform

• Custom forms you've built — any intake forms you've created in the form builder will appear here

Required vs. Optional Forms

Each form can be marked as Required or left optional.

• Required forms must be completed before the patient can advance or access the portal

• Optional forms display a "Skip Step" button in the lower-right corner, allowing patients to move past them

Special Forms (Billing, Insurance, Photo ID)

Certain forms — Billing Info, Insurance Form, Photo ID, and Profile Picture — are not stored in the standard Forms Library. They can only be added through the Intake Flow builder. To preview what these forms look like for patients, use the Preview button at the top right of the intake flow page.

Step 4: Arrange and Customize

Once your forms are added, you can:

• Reorder forms by dragging them into the sequence that makes sense for your workflow

• Edit form copy by clicking the Edit icon on individual forms — useful for customizing instructions or introductory language without changing the underlying fields

• Add documents to forms if you want to include a handout, policy document, or resource alongside the paperwork (documents must first be uploaded to your Osmind Documents Library, then embedded in a form field before they can appear in the flow)

Note: If you need to edit the actual fields within a form (not just the copy), navigate directly to Forms → Your Forms Library and edit the form there.

Step 5: Preview the Flow

Click Preview at the top right of the intake flow page to walk through the patient experience before it goes live. This is especially useful for verifying the order of forms, reviewing copy, and confirming how optional forms behave.

How Patients Experience the Intake Flow

When a patient is added to a group with an associated intake flow, they'll receive an automatic email prompting them to complete their forms. Upon logging into the Osmind patient portal (web or mobile), they'll see a welcome screen and be guided through each form in sequence. All submitted forms are automatically stored in their chart for your team to review.

Managing Multiple Intake Flows

Osmind supports multiple intake flows — one of the most powerful ways to tailor onboarding to different patient populations.

Common use cases include:

• Separate flows for self-pay and insurance-based patients (the insurance flow would include the Insurance Billing form to collect coverage details and a card image)

• A minimal or no-paperwork flow for free consultations or discovery sessions, with the full intake flow reserved for patients who convert to ongoing treatment

• Separate adult and pediatric flows with age-appropriate language and different form sets

Adding Patients to Existing Flows

A few things to keep in mind as your practice grows:

• Patients who have already completed their intake flow will not automatically receive new forms if you add them to an existing flow after the fact. You'll need to send those forms manually.

• No email is sent when you add a new form to an existing flow — even if the form is marked as Required. If you want patients to complete newly added forms, send them a form reminder directly from their chart.

• To resend an intake flow (for example, if a patient used the wrong email address), navigate to the patient's profile and send a form completion reminder. Clients will receive a new email notification regardless of whether their email address has been updated since they started.

Tips for a Strong Intake Setup

Keep required forms focused. Only mark forms as required if they're truly necessary before the first appointment. Reducing friction at the start of the patient relationship builds trust.

Use patient groups strategically. Setting up distinct groups for different treatment types, insurance statuses, or programs makes it easy to route patients to the right flow automatically.

Test before you go live. Create a mock patient account using a secondary email address and run through the full intake experience. This is the fastest way to catch sequencing issues or confusing copy before a real patient sees it.

Preview special forms within the flow. Since Billing Info, Insurance, and Photo ID forms don't appear in the standard library, the Preview tool is the only way to review what patients will see for those steps.

Related Resources

• Creating Custom Intake Forms

• Setting Up Patient Groups

• Sending a Form Reminder to a Patient

• Adding Documents to Your Library

• Onboarding Insurance-Based Patients