how can the ehr interface with the patient portal?

by Maudie Schultz 8 min read

Five key features to look for in an EHR patient portal

28 hours ago  · A secure, user-friendly electronic health record (EHR) patient portal is the primary information hub for patients wondering how to access medical records and communicate with their care providers. The patient portal works in tandem with the electronic health record to facilitate the fast and easy transfer of information from lab results to appointment reminders … >> Go To The Portal


The EHR patient portal is a powerful patient engagement tool in large part due to the patient messaging features. Providers can send and receive HIPAA-compliant messages in the portal, and this is an excellent way to communicate requirements or answer questions as they arise.

Full Answer

How many patients use patient portals to access electronic health records?

Using PubMed, the authors identified 53 studies published from September 2013 to June 2019 that informed best practice … Ninety percent of health care systems now offer patient portals to access electronic health records (EHRs) in the United States, but only 15% to 30% of patients use these platforms.

Can I see my patients'charts if I don't connect through EHR?

If you don't connect through an EHR, you can still see your patients' charts. Patients use Share Everywhere, a feature in MyChart, to provide outside caregivers with their health records using a web browser. All you need is Internet access. If your patients have MyChart, they can click the Share Everywhere button to send you their records.

What are the benefits of an EHR partnership?

This partnership gives you the benefits of an EHR, including a patient portal and access to our national exchange network, without you having to host your own Epic system. Ask a local Epic health system about their Connect program or contact us at info@epic.com . If you don't connect through an EHR, you can still see your patients' charts.

How do I exchange patient records with the epic community?

If your organization uses a different electronic health record system or doesn't have an EHR, you can access and exchange patient records with the Epic community in the following ways. If you use an interoperable EHR, join Carequality, a network connecting EHRs around the U.S.

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Are patient portals part of the EHR?

When a Patient Portal is added to an EMR, it is often then called an EHR. Patient Portals are populated by EMR data, and not updatable by the patient directly. Kaiser's KP Online is an example of such an offering.Jul 28, 2009

How do you implement a patient portal?

7 Steps to Implement a New Patient Portal SolutionResearch different solutions. ... Look for the right features. ... Get buy-in from key stakeholders. ... Evaluate and enhance existing workflows. ... Develop an onboarding plan. ... Successful go-live. ... Seek out painless portal migration.Jul 2, 2020

How is patient portal used in healthcare?

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 role of EHR interfaces?

The EHR supports and uses standardized protocols for exchanging data with other systems. Established and up-to-date versions of operating systems, virus and malware protection software, application software, and interface protocols are used.Jul 21, 2016

How do patient portals improve nursing practice?

While the evidence is currently immature, patient portals have demonstrated benefit by enabling the discovery of medical errors, improving adherence to medications, and providing patient-provider communication, etc. High-quality studies are needed to fully understand, improve, and evaluate their impact.

What is a patient portal How will the patient portal enhance the quality of care?

Not only is the patient portal a convenient place for patients and providers to communicate, but it is also the place patients go to understand their personal health. Here, patients can review their care plan so that they can adhere to it more easily and gain instant access to test results in real-time.Jul 21, 2020

How do patient portals improve patient outcomes?

Most of the portal interventions used tailored alerts or educational resources tailored to the patient's condition. Patient portal interventions lead to improvements in a wide range of psychobehavioral outcomes, such as health knowledge, self-efficacy, decision making, medication adherence, and preventive service use.Dec 19, 2019

What are the benefits and challenges of using 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

What is an interface in healthcare?

Abstract. Previous investigators have defined clinical interface terminology as a systematic collection of health care–related phrases (terms) that supports clinicians' entry of patient-related information into computer programs, such as clinical “note capture” and decision support tools.

How do I make EHR more user friendly?

8 top challenges and solutions for making EHRs usableEnhance physicians' ability to provide high-quality patient care. ... Support team-based care. ... Promote care coordination. ... Offer product modularity and configurability. ... Reduce cognitive work load. ... Promote interoperability and data exchange. ... Facilitate digital patient engagement.More items...•Sep 16, 2014

Is EHR beneficial to the medical practice?

Many health care providers have found that electronic health records (EHRs) help improve medical practice management by increasing practice efficiencies and cost savings. EHRs benefits medical practices in a variety of ways, including: Reduced transcription costs. Reduced chart pull, storage, and re-filing costs.Aug 13, 2018

What Makes for a Good EHR?

Streamlined, smooth, and easy to understand - for you, and the patient .

Why is it important to have access to your own medical records?

By allowing them to access their own medical records in a simple and streamlined way, you're setting your patients up for greater personal agency in their own health.

What happens if you choose an EHR with an integrated portal solution?

If you choose an EHR with an integrated portal solution, costs and productivity loss due to training go down as well. The vendor takes care of training for both products during the implementation process, so you’ll be up and running in no time.

How long does it take for EHR to sync with patient portal?

It can take from three to six months for two companies to sync software together depending on the issues they encounter.

Is patient portal more expensive?

Patient portal costs usually vary depending on the functionality you need from the software – the more capabilities, the more expensive. On the other hand, if your EHR comes equipped with a patient portal, you won’t have to make any additional payments for an independent solution.

Can you integrate EHR and portal?

The main problem with integrating an EHR and a portal from two different sources is that while they may work well together at first, they don’t always continue to do so in the long run. Say your EHR vendor makes a change to their software, the portal vendor will then have to update their solution accordingly. In this case, you will have to wait for the two to sync up again.

Do you pay monthly for an EHR?

Depending on whether you purchase a client-server EHR or a cloud-based solution, you’ll either pay a lump sum upfront or a regular monthly payment. Purchasing a separate patient portal to integrate with your EHR solution will add another monthly payment on top of what you’re already paying.

Is portal adoption mandatory?

It seems like portal adoption is almost mandatory at this point. While some health IT vendors offer EHRs that have a native portal built into the software, many do not. Physicians who adopt an electronic health record without an integrated portal are then tasked with finding an independent portal offering that syncs with their EHR.

Can you combine EHR and portal?

Going with an EHR already combined with a portal is a much faster solution. The only thing you have to worry about is training in time for your practice to catch the start date of Stage 2. Although combining separate EHR and patient portal offerings may technically work, it doesn’t mean it’s the best solution.

What is interface development in healthcare?

Healthcare interface development is inherently complicated, requiring experience and extensive developer resources. Today's healthcare organizations and their vendors are struggling to keep up with the interface development demand, and the problem is growing. At Medical Web Experts, we offer custom health interface development services for connecting EHR/EMR, practice management, revenue cycle management, patient portal, and HIE systems. With completed interfaces into many of the top EHR systems and experience with the latest health interface technologies and standards, you can count on Medical Web Experts for your next healthcare interface development project.

What is medical web expert?

Medical Web Experts offers expert consulting services for a wide range of projects. We’ve worked with many of the leading Electronic Medical Record (EMR), Health Information Exchange (HIE), Revenue Cycle Management (RCM), Patient Portal and Practice Management Systems. Our project experience includes:

What is HL7 interface?

HL7 is an organization that develops standards with the aim of providing a comprehensive framework by which electronic health records can be shared, retrieved and exchanged. As part of any EMR interface development project, Medical Web experts readily works with data from HL7’s Messaging and Consolidated Clinical Document Architecture (C-CDA) primary standards to make them available to patients and providers.

Is interface development complicated?

Healthcare interface development is inherently complicated, requiring experience and extensive developer resources. Today's healthcare organizations and their vendors are struggling to keep up with the interface development demand, and the problem is growing.

Common Challenges with EHR Patient Engagement

Before you figure out the best EHR patient engagement strategy, it’s important to understand the challenges you need to solve first. Although every eye care practice is unique, technology barriers will hinder progress with patient portals for any practice—especially when it comes down to user adoption.

7 Ways to Use EHR Patient Portals to Engage

The benefits of patient portals are pretty extensive for eye care professionals. Patient portals that integrate easily with EHR software, such as MaximEyes EHR, provide the most options for increasing connectivity. Here are some ways you can use EHR patient portals to see a positive spike in patient engagement.

What is EpicCare link?

The EpicCare Link web view gives you access to your patient's record at an organization using Epic. With Internet access, you can review the patient's chart, schedule appointments, place orders, communicate with the patient's care team, and more.

How to contact Epic Health System?

Ask a local Epic health system about their Connect program or contact us at info@epic.com .

How many records does Epic share?

Connecting is key for providers who use Epic to share 100 million records per month - both with each other and with providers using other systems. If your organization uses a different electronic health record system or doesn't have an EHR, you can access and exchange patient records with the Epic community in the following ways.

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Easy to Follow User Interface

  • Although this is probably more aptly described as a set of features or characteristics of an EHR patient portal, patients should not have to struggle to access and navigate the portal. The best test for accessibility is to consider the least tech savvy person you know and consider whether t…
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Registration

  • Workflow at the front end of a practice can suffer when patients are confronted with a cumbersome registration process. Allowing patients to register online can reduce wait times and allow less workload on front desk staff.
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Scheduling

  • Missed appointments can be detrimental to revenue flows and the combined tasks of rescheduling and scheduling new intakes can disrupt workflow. A portal that allows patients to manage appointments and send appointment reminders can ensure that intake staff is not overburdened by processing appointment scheduling and registration simultaneously and can re…
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Enhanced Security

  • Your patient portal should exceed Meaningful Use requirements at a minimum. To ensure data privacy information communicated via a patient portal should be encrypted which exceed HIPAA requirementsand provides further protection against accidentally misdirected or hacked personal health information from being read by the wrong party. Further, a portal should have adequate p…
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