dangers of a patient portal

by Alden Gutmann 10 min read

Patient Portals: The Good, the Bad, and the Inevitable -- …

24 hours ago Each provider (including the hospital) uses a unique patient portal linked to a unique electronic health record (EHR). That's six different portals, six logins, and six different batches of ... >> Go To The Portal


Potential Risks of Using a Patient Portal

  1. Breach of confidentiality: PLHIV and HCPs expressed concerns regarding the security of their health data and their...
  2. Stress or uncertainty: PLHIV were concerned that using a patient portal may be overwhelming due to complicated...
  3. Contribution to the digital divide: Participants mentioned that a patient portal could...

Some of these risks include: reliance on the patient portal as a sole method of patient communication; patient transmission of urgent/emergent messages via the portal; the posting of critical diagnostic results prior to provider discussions with patients; and possible security breaches resulting in HIPAA violations.Mar 1, 2021

Full Answer

What are the downsides of a patient portal?

Each provider (including the hospital) uses a unique patient portal linked to a unique electronic health record (EHR). That's six different portals, six logins, and six different batches of ...

Is your patient portal secure?

Feb 26, 2018 · Patients don’t care about meaningful use and the fact that their provider will lose money if they don’t create an account and actually use …

What are the biggest problems with online portals?

Aug 09, 2011 · Difficulty in using the portal Of significant note, patients who reported good relationships with their doctors were afraid that the patient portal would potentially undermine that strength of that relationship. In other words, patients were afraid that e-visits would replace face to face visits.

Can a patient portal be hacked?

Feb 17, 2016 · Although this can be viewed as a good thing because patients do have the right to see their own health data, it also opens doors for security concerns. A patient portal may be just one more place for a potential hacker or healthcare data thief to access a patient’s data, leaving that patient liable to identity theft.

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What are the pros and cons of patient portals?

What are the Top Pros and Cons of Adopting Patient Portals?Pro: Better communication with chronically ill patients.Con: Healthcare data security concerns.Pro: More complete and accurate patient information.Con: Difficult patient buy-in.Pro: Increased patient ownership of their own care.Feb 17, 2016

How safe are medical portals?

A patient portal is a secure online website that allows patients to access their Electronic Health Record from any device with an Internet connection. ... Halfway through 2019, around 25 million patient records have been breached, eclipsing the number of patient records breached in all of 2018 by over 66%.Jul 31, 2019

Can patient portals be hacked?

more frequent than data breaches in the financial services sector, and medical identity theft accounts for 43 percent of all identity theft.” How can you protect your patient portal? ... Many patient portals have surprisingly minimal security, with three main areas of vulnerability: They rely on password-protection only.

Why do patients not use patient portals?

The researchers found no demographic differences among nonusers who said that a technology hurdle, lack of internet access or no online medical record was the reason why they did not make use of a patient portal.May 14, 2019

What percentage of patients use patient portals?

FINDINGS. Nearly 40 percent of individuals nationwide accessed a patient portal in 2020 – this represents a 13 percentage point increase since 2014.Sep 21, 2021

What is the purpose of patient portal?

A patient portal is a secure online website that gives patients convenient, 24-hour access to personal health information from anywhere with an Internet connection. Using a secure username and password, patients can view health information such as: Recent doctor visits.Sep 29, 2017

What should be in a patient portal?

A patient portal is a website for your personal health care. The online tool helps you to keep track of your health care provider visits, test results, billing, prescriptions, and so on. You can also e-mail your provider questions through the portal. Many providers now offer patient portals.Aug 13, 2020

What is the most common barrier to the use of the patient portal?

Among the nonadopters (n=2828), the most prevalent barriers were patient preference for in-person communication (1810/2828, 64.00%), no perceived need for the patient portal (1385/2828, 48.97%), and lack of comfort and experience with computers (735/2828, 25.99%).Sep 17, 2020

Do patients like patient portals?

Eight studies reported that patients or their caregivers want more portal education, training, or support. Two studies found that their participants want human connection as they learn about the portal and how to use it, as well as when they encounter issues.Jan 25, 2021

Are patient portals confidential?

(a) Patient Portal is intended as a secure online means for you to access your confidential medical record information. ... Patient Portal is protected using industry standard security measures.Oct 29, 2013

How do you keep patient portals secure?

Here are five ways organizations can bring their patient portal security up-to-date and keep their networks safe from unauthorized access:Portal sign-up process should be automated. ... Keep anti-virus and malware software up to date. ... Multifactor verification is a must. ... Protect patient identities with identity solutions.More items...•Mar 20, 2020

What are the pros and cons of patient portals?

What are the Top Pros and Cons of Adopting Patient Portals?Pro: Better communication with chronically ill patients.Con: Healthcare data security concerns.Pro: More complete and accurate patient information.Con: Difficult patient buy-in.Pro: Increased patient ownership of their own care.Feb 17, 2016

Why do some patients fail to participate in the use of the patient portal?

The reason why most patients do not want to use their patient portal is because they see no value in it, they are just not interested. The portals do not properly incentivize the patient either intellectually (providing enough data to prove useful) or financially.

What is the advantage of a patient portal for the patient?

The Benefits of a Patient Portal You can access all of your personal health information from all of your providers in one place. If you have a team of providers, or see specialists regularly, they can all post results and reminders in a portal. Providers can see what other treatments and advice you are getting.Aug 13, 2020

What are challenges for patients that do not have access to all of the PHRs?

Between underutilization of technology, lack of patient education, and inadequate health IT interoperability, patients and providers are struggling to ensure robust patient health data access.Underutilized patient portals.Ambiguous security protocols.Limited health data interoperability.Aug 11, 2016

What security features should be added to healthcare databases?

Features required for patient portal securityEncrypted database features. ... Provide Role-Based Access Control (RBAC). ... Extensive password protection and MFA (multi-factor authentication). ... Audit Trails. ... Consent. ... Meet federal and state laws with regard to privacy and security. ... Custom Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions.More items...•Jun 3, 2020

How to improve patient satisfaction and loyalty?

To achieve better outcomes and improve patient satisfaction and loyalty, providers must use technology that will facilitate continuous dialogue with patients utilizing personalized content and an empathetic tone. That two-way interaction will activate patients to be more participatory and empowered in their care, ...

Is finding scientific papers expensive?

For researchers who aren’t affiliated with an academic library, finding scientific papers can be time-consuming and expensive —and organizing and sharing them with co-workers can be even harder. A new tool by DeepDyve looks to help researchers address this gap.

Is Mapquest still available?

While it still exists — it was the No. 2 mapping service in the U.S. as of 2015 — it’s been largely outmoded by Google Maps, Apple Maps, and other smartphone-based GPS services that have rendered pre-printed driving directions obsolete. MapQuest certainly helped pave the way for today’s GPS mapping services.

Why are reminders important?

Reminders from providers, and the capability for patients to discuss issues with their physicians, help increase patient engagement and therefore play a role in boosting the patient’s overall health.

What are the benefits of patient portals?

One of the clearest benefits to a patient portal is the added ability for communication between patients and providers, and these benefits are felt strongest with regard to chronically ill patients.

Is a patient portal good?

Although this can be viewed as a good thing because patients do have the right to see their own health data, it also opens doors for security concerns. A patient portal may be just one more place for a potential hacker or healthcare data thief to access a patient’s data, leaving that patient liable to identity theft.

What is portal email?

The portal is just a secure e-mail system that we can use to communicate. You can send me a message and it goes right into your chart, so I have all of your information at hand when I read it and respond. If you use it and don’t like it, you don’t have to continue to use it. Just let us know.

What is Meaningful Use Stage 2?

Patient portals can be instrumental in ensuring accurate, quality patient care by allowing patients instant access to their medical records, but they are not without security risk. As with any system there are the possibility of security breaches, HIPAA violations and fraud. Working with a trusted IT team can help to mitigate that risk.

What is the right of amendment in HIPAA?

With increased patient access to data comes even more data to manage. HIPAA’s Right of Amendment gives patients the right to access and correct their medical information. This creates an exchange of data between the patient and healthcare facilities which adds to the workload of existing IT staff who must manage this information securely.

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