is a patient portal ethical

The security and privacy of personal health information pose the majority of ethical issues with patient portals. However, as technology continues to evolve and integrate into healthcare, other issues may arise. Patient portals are a mechanism to empower patients and improve quality of care.

Full Answer

What are the ethical issues with patient portals?

Discuss the pros and cons associated with establishing a patient portal system for a healthcare organization in terms of the seven ethical principles identified in your textbook. Identify the problems related to maintaining patient confidentiality and the processes a nurse informaticist should utilize to maximize the integrity of such a system.

Should online patient portals be accessible for all?

Legal, Practical, and Ethical Considerations for Making Online Patient Portals Accessible for All Largely driven by the financial incentives of the HITECH Act's Meaningful Use program as part of federal US health care reform, access to portal Web sites has rapidly expanded, allowing many patients to view their medical record information online.

Is patient access to test results online ethical?

Nov 11, 2021 · The patient portals need to keep patient data secure to prevent any misuse of it. For this, healthcare organizations are required to implement reasonable and appropriate cybersecurity measures to avoid data violations. Also, the law requires every practice to have 5 percent of its patients using the patient portal.

How do portals improve patient-physician interaction?

In the United States there is widespread use of online patient portal Web sites, which offer patients access to their electronic health record (EHR). Specifically, online patient portals afford access to a variety of features, including viewing recent lab test results and visit summaries, refilling medications and making appointments, and sending secure messages to one’s health …

What are the disadvantages of a patient portal?

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

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

Is patient portal safe?

Patient portals have privacy and security safeguards in place to protect your health information. To make sure that your private health information is safe from unauthorized access, patient portals are hosted on a secure connection and accessed via an encrypted, password-protected logon.

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

Can patient portals be hacked?

Health outcomes improve. Unfortunately, what makes your patient portal valuable for patients is exactly what makes it attractive to cybercriminals. It's a one-stop shop for entire health records, and identity thieves can make a fast buck from stealing this data and selling it on.

Are patient portals effective?

Patient Portal Outputs Results of patient engagement were mixed: portals in some studies did not cause statistically significant improvement, but patients in other studies reported that portals enabled better engagement in their care.

What is a reason for providers to be reluctant to use a 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 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

Why are patient portals beneficial?

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 should be in a patient portal?

A robust patient portal should include the following features:Clinical summaries.Secure (HIPAA-compliant) messaging.Online bill pay.New patient registration.Ability to update demographic information.Prescription renewals and contact lens ordering.Appointment requests.Appointment reminders.More items...

Do patient portals improve healthcare?

For example, portals allow patients to view test results, schedule appointments, request prescription refills, and exchange secure messages with providers. Patient portals can increase patient engagement, with the potential to generate positive health outcomes.Sep 6, 2018

How do you improve patient portals?

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

Overview

With the introduction of electronic health records (EHRs), electronic medical records (EMRs), and medical device app development, patient portals are used increasingly by healthcare organizations of various sizes and specialities.

When did Patient Portals Start?

Patient portals started after the introduction of Electronic Health Records. The first EHRs, which would eventually come packed up with patient portals, started developing in the 1960s.

What are Some Basic Patient Portal Features?

Patient portals are designed to help patients securely view their health data, consult a healthcare provider, schedule their appointments, and do more to be active participants in their health care process.

Why is Patient Portal Important?

By providing easily accessible health information, a patient portal gives considerable benefits to both patients and doctors. One of the remarkable benefits of a patient portal is patient engagement, which allows patients to actively engage in their healthcare.

What Types of Patient Portals are there?

There are two main types of patient portals: an integrated service and a stand-alone system. Both are web-based tools, so let’s learn about their specifics:

How is Patient Portal Implementation Done?

The implementation of patient portals involves different steps to be followed- from research to final implementation and execution of them as a system. Here are six steps to implement a patient portal:

What are Patient Portal Regulations?

Organizations must be aware of patient portals regulations before they introduce one within their system.

What is EHR portal?

Electronic health records (EHR) now include patient portals where patients can obtain clinical reports, including notes, radiology reports, and laboratory/anatomic pathology results. Although portals increase patient access to information, no guidelines have been developed for hospitals about appropriate delays in posting different types ...

Why is EHR important?

An important goal of EHR is to have a record that is easily accessed at any medical center for any patient. Access to laboratory values could allow patients to get second opinions more easily. Having results available to other physicians might minimize unnecessary test duplication [6].

What is EHR in healthcare?

The nationally mandated use of electronic health records (EHR) has resulted in both new opportunities and challenges regarding patients’ access to their clinical information. In this era of online patient portals, not only can patients look up their upcoming appointments or request medication refills, they can also see results of clinical laboratory and anatomic pathology testing. While patients have a right to know the contents of their health record, ethical and clinical concerns arise about the timing of results’ availability and potential harms stemming from early access to results without a clinician to help interpret and contextualize those results. Currently, access to results and the timeframe in which they become available vary among institutions [1]. Benefits of access must be weighed against the risks of patients’ possible misinterpretation of results and the emotional sequelae and stress that could occur when patients learn of abnormal results without adequate clinical guidance.

When are anatomic pathology and cytopathology reports generated?

Anatomic pathology and cytopathology reports are generated when patients undergo a tissue biopsy, resection, or fine needle aspiration. These are the types of reports that are used when cancer is diagnosed or staged (i.e., when the extent of a cancer’s location in the body is determined).

Is genetic testing sensitive?

Genetic testing. Genetic test results are considered particularly sensitive, especially from a privacy standpoint [7]. Genetic testing results can be upsetting or life changing, as in the case of Huntington’s disease, breast cancer, or a serious congenital condition. Results of genetic testing can also carry implications for people besides the patient, such as his or her children. Given these concerns about privacy, genetic testing is an area of medicine in which there has typically been a strong commitment to pre- and posttest counseling, which is often performed by a genetic counselor rather than a physician. Genetic testing is unique in that patients can receive information about conditions that might only develop later in life and conditions that might not develop at all. Interpretation of these results should be personalized, as they often depend on close scrutiny of family trees (pedigrees) in order to tailor the results to a given patient. Given this complexity, genetic results are particularly difficult for patients to understand without the availability of a genetic counselor, who could provide explanations.

Is genetic testing a pre- or post-test?

Given these concerns about privacy, genetic testing is an area of medicine in which there has typically been a strong commitment to pre- and posttest counseling, which is often performed by a genetic counselor rather than a physician.

Is electronic health records a future challenge?

The era of electronic health records and patients’ access to online, portal-mediated results is not a future challenge; it’s a current one. Access to electronically based health data provides patients with opportunities to be more actively engaged in their care. On the other hand, deciding the nature and timing of this access must take into consideration potential harms to patients that can arise from unexpected or potentially confusing results. Finally, in debating what is best for patients, it is incumbent on pathologists and all physicians to remember that patients are individuals with unique preferences that should be addressed as carefully and compassionately as possible.

How do patient portals work?

Patient portals are online websites that give patients convenient and secure access to their personal health information 1 and are available in an expanding number of medical practices. 2 Portals frequently include summaries of doctor visits, medication information, and lab results; some allow patients to access in-patient progress notes, send messages to physicians, schedule appointments, and make online payments. Some institutions, including the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, have begun sharing ethics consultation notes with patients. 3 Given these developments, increased discussion of the benefits and burdens of sharing ethics consultation notes is needed. In the remainder of this article, we describe the movement to increase patient access to health records through online portals and argue why consultation services should embrace it. In particular, we articulate 2 benefits of increased patient access. First, providing patients access to some of their ethics consultation notes through online portals would facilitate patients’ exercise of an existing, but currently underutilized, 4, 5 right to access their health records. Second, easily accessible and understandable ethics consultation notes might help patients appreciate the ethical concepts that are meant to guide clinical practice. Finally, we describe a few ways to meet practical implementation challenges.

What are ethics consultation notes?

Currently, most ethics consultation services document notes in internal service records and in patients’ electronic health records (EHRs). 6, 7 The amount of detail placed in the EHR varies; one prominent model 7 recommends documenting detailed notes in the service’s internal records and concise notes (summary analysis and recommendations) in the EHR. 7 Patients have a right to access information in the EHR but not in internal service records. However, few patients access information in the EHR because of practical challenges in requesting these records. 4, 5

Why are notes written by health care professionals read?

As a result, notes written by health care professionals are increasingly read by both clinicians and patients, and clinicians in specialties that routinely involve sensitive information (eg, mental health care) have had to construct notes in a manner that respectfully promotes therapeutic relationships with patients.

Do you have to notify a patient before documenting notes?

Before documenting notes, consultants should generally notify the patient of the consultation’s initiation (preferably in person) and involve them whenever possible. Although this procedure is part of existing professional recommendations, 27, 28 it is newly salient when sharing notes with patients.

What is portal in healthcare?

Portals frequently include summaries of doctor visits, medication information, and lab results; some allow patients to access in-patient progress notes, send messages to physicians, schedule appointments, and make online payments.

When documenting notes in patient portals, ethics consultation services will need to decide upon which kinds of and how much information

When documenting notes in patient portals, ethics consultation services will need to decide upon which kinds of and how much information should be shared. We suggest that the patient portal should, as a rule, match the EHR note in both type and volume of information, although we note 2 exceptions in which omitting notes from the portal or sharing summary versions of notes in the portal might be appropriate. And, on occasion, omitting notes from both the EHR and the portal might be advisable. See Supplementary Appendix Table for examples.

What are ethics consultation notes?

Currently, most ethics consultation services document notes in internal service records and in patients' electronic health records (EHRs). 6, 7 The amount of detail placed in the HR varies; one prominent model 7 recommends documenting detailed notes in the service's internal records and concise notes (summary analysis and recommendations) in the EHR. 7 Patients have a right to access information in the EHR but not in internal service records. However, few patients access information in the EHR because of practical challenges in requesting these records. 4, 5

Why are notes written by health care professionals read?

As a result, notes written by health care professionals are increasingly read by both clinicians and patients, and clinicians in specialties that routinely involve sensitive information (eg, mental health care) have had to construct notes in a manner that respectfully promotes therapeutic relationships with patients.

How to explain a new or unfamiliar viewpoint on a topic of ethical or professional conduct?

2. Evaluate the usefulness of this information for his or her practice, teaching, or conduct. 3. Decide whether and when to apply the new information to his or her practice, teaching, or conduct.

Do you have to notify a patient before documenting notes?

Before documenting notes, consultants should generally notify the patient of the consultation's initiation (preferably in person) and involve them whenever possible. Although this procedure is part of existing professional recommendations, 27, 28 it is newly salient when sharing notes with patients.

How to access a patient portal?

With a patient portal: 1 You can access your secure personal health information and be in touch with your provider's office 24 hours a day. You do not need to wait for office hours or returned phone calls to have basic issues resolved. 2 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. This can lead to better care and better management of your medicines. 3 E-mail reminders and alerts help you to remember things like annual checkups and flu shots.

What are the benefits of a patient portal?

Expand Section. With a patient portal: You can access your secure personal health information and be in touch with your provider's office 24 hours a day . You do not need to wait for office hours or returned phone calls to have basic issues resolved. You can access all of your personal health information from all ...