Spruce <> Athenahealth Integration: Sync Contacts and Conversations to the Patient Chart

The Spruce integration with Athenahealth syncs patient demographics and Spruce conversations into the Athena chart, so messages are recorded without leaving Spruce. Existing Athena patients import into Spruce in a one-time sync, new Athena patients create Spruce contacts automatically, and conversations post to the patient record as Phone Messages.

IN THIS ARTICLE

• Setting up your Spruce-Athena Integration
• Initial sync of existing Athena Patients with Spruce
• Customizing your Spruce-Athena Integration 
• How to Selectively Sync Messages from Spruce to Athena
• Linking Patients to Athena
• Frequently Asked Questions

Athenahealth is a cloud-based electronic health record (EHR) that integrates with Spruce to seamlessly update your patient's medical record without leaving Spruce. By integrating Athena and Spruce, you can sync demographic information and the content of your Spruce conversations to the patient chart in Athena. 

What’s Included in the Athena-Spruce Integration:

• Patient Record sync
  • One-time initial sync of existing Athena patients into Spruce
  • New patients added in Athena will automatically create Spruce contacts
  • Note: Creating contacts in Spruce will not create patient records in Athena
  • Ongoing sync of demographic and contact details between Spruce and Athena (this can be configured)
• Conversation sync 
  • Option to selectively or automatically sync messages from Spruce to Athena
  • Messages will sync as Phone Messages in the Athena patient record

The Spruce-Athena integration can only be managed through the Spruce web or desktop app. While the mobile apps display all synced contacts and conversations, they do not show whether a Spruce contact is linked to an Athena patient record and do not offer options to sync conversations to Athena.

There is an add-on monthly cost associated with this integration originating from Athena, which applies independently of the current pricing terms with Spruce or Athena. We don't mark up this fee or profit from it in any way. Please contact Spruce Support with any questions.

Setting up your Spruce-Athena Integration 

Before you can use the Spruce-Athena integration, make sure you have the following:

• An active Athenahealth account, including your practice ID and the email address registered with the account.
• A subscription to the Spruce Communicator Plan
• An administrator on your Spruce account who can enable the integration

To enable the integration:

1. In Spruce, navigate to Settings > Integrations & API 
2. Click "Request Integration" on the Athena row and follow the steps to verify access to the email address associated with your Athena account. 
3. Complete Athena’s Authorization & Consent form to grant Spruce access to the Athena account. Once completed, it usually takes a week before the request is processed by Athena.
4. Once Athena authorizes the request to integrate, the Spruce support team will notify you that the integration is ready to go live and share next steps for bulk importing your patient list and configuring your integration.

Initial sync of existing Athena Patients with Spruce

To sync your existing patients from Athena to Spruce, you’ll need to complete a one-time export of patient data using Athena’s Report Builder. It’s essential to include the exact fields listed below—otherwise, Spruce will not be able to import the data.

Here's a screenshot of what the Report Builder looks like in athenaOne:

1. Log in to your Athena account
2. Go to Reports > Report Builder
3. Select “Patient Demographics” as the report type
4. Use the search bar to find and add each of the following fields by selecting them and clicking the right arrow:
   • Registration Department (reg dprtmnt)
   • Patient Date of Birth (patientdob)
   • Patient Email (patient email)
   • Patient Enterprise ID (enterpriseid)
   • Patient First Name (patient firstname)
   • Patient Home Phone (patient homephone)
   • Patient Last Name (patient lastname)
   • Patient Middle Initial (patient middleinitial)
   • Patient Mobile Phone Number (patient mobile no)
   • Patient Sex (patientsex)
   • Patient Work Phone (patient workphone)
   • Primary Provider ID (prim prvdrid)
5. On the next screen, filter for active patients as follows:
   1. Search for and add “Patient Status”
   2. Choose “Active” as the status in the dropdown list
6. Save and run the report
   1. Click “Save Report” to use it again in the future without recreating it
   2. Name the report, something like “Spruce Export”
   3. After saving, go to “View Report Library”
   4. Under “My Reports”, find your saved report and click “run”
   5. Select CSV as the export format and press OK.
   6. The report will run and download a CSV file to your computer
7. Send the downloaded CSV file to Spruce Support via the in-app Spruce support conversation. Please do not send the CSV file via email, as email is not a secure method for sharing Protected Health Information (PHI).

Here's a demo video that walks through how to export patients using the Report Builder which follows the steps outlined above.

Dealing with existing Spruce contacts during initial sync

If you already have existing patients in Spruce, the initial sync will attempt to match Athena records to existing Spruce contacts based on demographic information (first name, last name and date of birth). During this process, Spruce will check for duplicates using phone numbers and email addresses.

• If you communicate with an unsaved phone number in Spruce that matches a phone number in an Athena patient record, Spruce will automatically convert it into a saved contact linked to that Athena record.
• If multiple Spruce contacts share the same email or phone number, the corresponding Athena record will not be linked.
• If there’s only one match, but the demographic details don’t align, the Athena record will not be linked to the Spruce contact.

You can manually link any Spruce contact to an Athena patient at any time, if needed.

Customizing your Spruce-Athena Integration 

Spruce Support will work with you to set up the Spruce-Athena integration and handle the configuration on your behalf after you communicate your preferences. You can request updates or changes to the integration at any time. Below are the available configuration options for your integration.

Syncing of patient records across platforms

Once your Spruce–Athena integration is activated, Spruce Support will import the patient list you exported from Athena and shared with our team in the Support Thread. These patient records will appear in Spruce as contacts, each with an indicator showing they are linked to Athena. Please note: Athena’s reporting tool exports patient names in all uppercase, so the corresponding Spruce contacts will display names in uppercase as well.

After the integration is activated, any new patient record added in Athena will automatically appear as a new contact in Spruce within minutes. The Spruce contact will indicate that there is a connection to an Athena record and also include the Athena Patient ID on the contact. If Spruce detects an existing contact with the same email address or phone number, it will compare key demographic details—first name, last name, and date of birth—to decide whether to link the contact to the Athena record or skip the sync.

Please note that the sync is one-way only: new contacts created in Spruce will not be added to Athena.

Here's a screenshot of what a Spruce Contact linked to an Athena patient record looks like:

Syncing Updates to Spruce or Athena Contacts

By default, updates to demographic information—such as name, email address, or phone number—will automatically sync between Spruce and Athena. However, you have the option to disable this ongoing demographic sync for all patients; that is, you cannot disable the demographic sync selectively for some patients. When disabled, changes to patient information (e.g., name, contact details, or provider) will not sync between the two systems. This setting can be helpful when names in Spruce differ from those in Athena, such as when using preferred names in Spruce and legal names in Athena for billing or insurance purposes.

Syncing Provider Mapping as Tags to Spruce

You have the option to automatically sync provider tags from Athena to Spruce. To enable this, contact the Spruce Support team and provide the specific tag you’d like applied in Spruce for each provider in your organization. 

A few things to note:

• Only provider tags can be synced from Athena to Spruce. Other tag types will not transfer, and tags from Spruce cannot be synced back to Athena.
• If a provider is updated on a patient record in Athena, a new corresponding provider tag will be added to the associated Spruce contact. The previous provider tag will remain in place to avoid disrupting any existing workflows within your organization’s Spruce account.
• If the provider tag mapping configuration is added later, existing linked Spruce contacts will not be retroactively updated. The provider tags will only appear on those contacts if an update to the Athena record triggers a resync with Spruce.

Syncing conversations to Athena

The Spruce–Athena integration allows you to sync various types of content from Spruce—such as text messages, voicemails, call logs, and more—directly to a patient’s chart in Athena. Synced messages appear as Phone Messages in Athena. Each case is created in an auto-closed state.

There are two options available for controlling how and when messages are synced and Phone Messages are created:

• Selective sync (recommended): Selective sync lets you manually choose which messages should be added to the patient’s chart in Athena. This method is useful to control what information goes into the patient chart. 
• Automatic sync: With automatic sync, all new activity in a Spruce conversation is automatically synced to the corresponding Athena chart. A new Phone Message is created every 24 hours with the latest messages and interactions. Please note that internal notes are not included in the automated sync.

Syncing videos, pictures, and attachments

When you sync a message that includes a picture, audio file (like a voicemail), PDF, video, or other attachment (such as a Spruce Visit), the content will appear in the Phone Message as a link to the file. Only authorized Spruce users can open these links and access the attachments. To upload the original file to the patient chart in Athena, you must first download it from Spruce and then upload it manually to Athena.

Syncing transcripts / summaries

When you sync a message that contains a voicemail / call transcription or summary, the full transcript and summary will be synced to the Athena record. 

Timezone for message content

By default, messages sync in Pacific Time. However, you can place a request with Spruce Support to have messages sync in any time zone you prefer.

How to Selectively Sync Messages from Spruce to Athena

Once your integration is activated and configured, you can selectively sync messages from Spruce to Athena by following these steps:

1. Open the relevant conversation in the web version of Spruce.
2. Hover over any message and click the three vertical dots that appear.
3. Select “Select Message” from the menu.
4. Checkboxes will appear next to each message. Select the messages you want to sync to Athena.
5. At the top of the conversation, just below the patient’s name or number, click the “Sync to Athena” button.
6. If the patient is already linked to an Athena chart, their information will auto-populate. If not, search for the patient using their Athena patient ID.
7. (Optional) Enter a Note Subject, which will appear as the title of the Phone Message in Athena.

Here's a screenshot of the Spruce web application with messages selected with intent to sync them to Athena as a Phone Message:

Linking Patients to Athena

If a Spruce contact is not linked to Athena, you can manually establish the connection using the “Link Contact to EHR” option on the Spruce contact profile. To do this, search for the corresponding patient using their Athena patient ID. Once the link is established, refresh the page to see the contact update with the linked information, including any demographic details pulled from Athena.

Looking for More from the Spruce-Athena Integration?

Right now, the integration supports syncing the information listed above. Features like appointment reminders, direct faxing, and syncing additional patient tags aren’t currently included.

We’re always happy to hear your thoughts! If you have questions or feedback, just message us in the Spruce Support conversation or email us at support@sprucehealth.com.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Spruce integrate with Athenahealth? 

Yes. The integration syncs patient demographic details between the two systems and posts Spruce conversations into the Athena patient chart as Phone Messages. It is available on the Communicator plan.

Does this integration support fax forwarding?

The integration currently does not support fax forwarding. If fax messages are selected to be synced to the patient's chart, it will create a link to the message within Spruce.

Do new patients added in Athena appear in Spruce?

Yes. New patients added in Athena automatically create Spruce contacts. The reverse is not true: creating a contact in Spruce does not create a patient record in Athena.

Do all Spruce messages sync to Athena?

That is configurable. You can sync messages automatically or select individual conversations to send to the Athena record.