impact of a patient portal in healthcare article

Engaging patients in the delivery of health care has the potential to improve health outcomes and patient satisfaction. Patient portals may enhance patient engagement by enabling patients to access their electronic medical records (EMRs) and facilitating secure patient-provider communication. Objective

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Do patient portals influence patient care?

Feb 10, 2015 · very few studies associated use of the patient portal, or its features, to improved outcomes; 37% (10/27) of papers reported improvements in medication adherence, disease awareness, self-management of disease, a decrease of office visits, an increase in preventative medicine, and an increase in extended office visits, at the patient’s request for …

What is an electronic patient portal?

Nov 26, 2012 · Studies in which a patient portal was combined with further services, such as secure messaging, interactive decision-support or health-related reminders, showed more positive impact on patient outcomes, patient-provider communication, disease management, and patient satisfaction, as a recent review of diabetes portals showed . The interactive guiding and …

Do health information technology portals improve outcomes?

Conclusions: Evidence regarding health outcomes is generally favorable, and patient portals have the potential to enhance the doctor-patient relationship, improve health status awareness, and increase adherence to therapy. It is still unclear whether the use of patient portals improves health service utilization and efficiency.

How do patient portals affect medication adherence?

Oct 01, 2017 · Some patient portals and apps include adherence notifications, adverse effect mitigation strategies, and clinical management of disease and therapy. With secure e-mail messaging through patient portals, patients can quickly report adverse effects or dose adjustments, which may be beneficial when the physician’s office is closed.

Why is patient portal important in healthcare?

Patient portals provide the ability for patients to have 24-hour access to connect with their provider by reviewing patient health information (PHI), asking and answering questions, and reviewing notes, making the patient-physician relationship closer than ever.Dec 8, 2017

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 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

Do patient portals improve health outcomes?

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.

What are the disadvantages of patient portals?

Even though they should improve communication, there are also disadvantages to patient portals....Table of ContentsGetting Patients to Opt-In.Security Concerns.User Confusion.Alienation and Health Disparities.Extra Work for the Provider.Conclusion.Nov 11, 2021

How do patient portals affect nursing?

Conclusions: 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.Apr 11, 2019

What are the challenges of using electronic health records and patient portals?

4 Problems With Electronic Health RecordsSecurity Risks From Criminal Computer Hackers. ... Data Bottlenecks Because of a Poorly Designed Interface. ... Staff Needs Training to Switch from Paper to Electronic Health Records. ... Individuals With Poor Typing Skills May Be Slowed Down Using an EHR.More items...•Oct 16, 2019

What are the disadvantages of accessing your health care online?

Con: Online Health Research Can Lead to Unnecessary Anxiety Your increased anxiety might worsen your pain and other symptoms. It's easy to assume the worst when you check your symptoms online, but don't panic if your symptoms align with a serious condition. Instead, seek appropriate medical care.Dec 5, 2017

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.

How do you improve patient portal?

Here are some ways to encourage patient enrollment:Include information about the patient portal on your organization's website.Provide patients with an enrollment link before the initial visit to create a new account.Encourage team members to mention the patient portal when patients call to schedule appointments.More items...•Jun 25, 2020

What are some ways in which the patient portal can increase communication between providers?

Patients can use the patient portal to:E-mail questions.Schedule appointments.Request prescription refills.Feb 7, 2018

What is mobile health?

Mobile health (mHealth) is a means of providing health services or information via portals or applications (apps) on wireless devices, such as smartphones or tablets. Patient portals are secure websites that help patients access their health information at their convenience. Many patient portals are mobile enabled via a web-based platform ...

What is a patient portal?

Patient portals are secure websites that help patients access their health information at their convenience. Many patient portals are mobile enabled via a web-based platform and are therefore considered a form of mHealth. Patient-focused mHealth apps—software or programs stored directly on the mobile device—can provide an opportunity ...

What is mHealth communication?

Communication generally takes the form of secure messaging such as live chat or e-mail among patients and providers , including primary care and specialist physicians, pharmacists, and many others.

What is UF Health?

The study was conducted at UF Health, a medical network associated with the University of Florida (UF). The UF Health network includes two academic hospitals and several other hospitals and facilities in North Central Florida. In 2011, UF Health started offering “MyUFHealth,” also known as MyChart® by Epic®. MyUFHealth is an electronic patient portal that provides patients a secure and convenient way to access portions of their medical records (e.g., released test results, after visit summary), communication with the clinical service providers using secure messaging, request prescription refills, and management of outpatient appointments. MyUFHealth is available to patients who are seen in the UF Health network at Gainesville or Jacksonville hospitals and physician outpatient practices. MyUFHealth pediatric proxy for children under 18 years old is also available and can be established in the UF Health Physicians clinics. Proxy access allows a parent (or guardian) to log into their personal MyUFHealth account, and then connect to the MyUFHealth account of their child. Therefore, children under 18 years old can also be portal users in this study.

How does a patient portal help?

Among them, patient portals are recognized as a promising mechanism to support greater patient engagement by increasing communication between patients and providers , and enabling patients to make competent and well-informed decisions. Empowered by the rapid development of health information technology and facilitated by the US federal government (e.g., the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, which authorized incentive payments to physicians who demonstrated “meaningful use” of health information systems [ 2 ]), patient portals are now widely available and increasingly being adopted by patients and providers.

Is the data from the current study publicly available?

The datasets analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to the protocol. Data are however available from the authors upon reasonable request and with the permission of UF IRB.

Access To Electronic Medical Records (EMR) Saves Patients & Staff Time

A patient with access to their patient portal can access their medical records at any time via the Internet. No more having to wait in line at the doctor’s office just for some paperwork.

Educational Content Makes It Easy For Patients To Engage

Patient engagement is a huge buzzword in healthcare organizations, but it has real implications. Engaged patients have better health outcomes, are more satisfied with their care, and are more likely to return to the organization in the future.

Patient Portals Can Be Used To Schedule Appointments

A big part of staff time is spent on scheduling and verifying appointments. If a patient is able to do that themselves with automatic scheduling software, then that’s one less thing that your staff has to worry about.

Patient Portals Can Integrate With CRM Software

Your CRM, if set up correctly, can act as a single source of truth about your organization. It can include information about patient outreach campaigns and their conversion rates. Your CRM can also be a place where all patient information is securely stored and accessed.