measurements of effectiveness patient portal

by Hassie Beier 8 min read

Measuring the Impact of Patient Portals: What the …

20 hours ago However, despite the many benefits patient portals have to offer, unsatisfactory experiences via the portal can do more harm than good. Poor portal adoption rates can lead to decreased patient satisfaction, non-adherence to health plans, negative reviews, and ultimately patient churn. This checklist will help you assess your current patient ... >> Go To The Portal


How does patient portal implementation improve quality of patient care?

However, despite the many benefits patient portals have to offer, unsatisfactory experiences via the portal can do more harm than good. Poor portal adoption rates can lead to decreased patient satisfaction, non-adherence to health plans, negative reviews, and ultimately patient churn. This checklist will help you assess your current patient ...

What does the future hold for patient portal research?

 · 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.

Do electronic health record systems facilitate patient portal interventions and outcomes?

 · the patient portal by community clinics and health centers is very low. However, there are anecdotal reports, stories, and case studies from which to draw lessons about measurement and the impact of patient portals on quality and efficiency. Federally funded projects are in progress to document measures used in these studies. Barriers and Incentives

How can we measure patient safety?

 · For the patient portal implementation to be most beneficial, the practice will offer patient education sessions to help patients register and to familiarize them with the portal’s features. In addition, a computer will be placed in the waiting area so staff can help patients register with the portal on the spot. The goal is to register 50% of ...

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How effective are patient portals?

Patient portal interventions were overall effective in improving a few psychological outcomes, medication adherence, and preventive service use. There was insufficient evidence to support the use of patient portals to improve clinical outcomes.

How can patient portals be improved?

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. Put up flyers in the waiting room and exam rooms with information about accessing and using the patient portal.

How do patient portals improve patient engagement?

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.

Which information can be accessed through a patient portal?

The features of patient portals may vary, but typically you can securely view and print portions of your medical record, including recent doctor visits, discharge summaries, medications, immunizations, allergies, and most lab results anytime and from anywhere you have Web access.

How can patient compliance with portal registration be increased?

Offer an incentive for patient registration, such as entering the patient's name in a drawing for a prize (such as a restaurant gift card) or offering an incentive (such as a movie ticket or waived co-pay). Host a contest for staff, awarding a prize for the employee who signs up the most new patients for the portal.

What are the benefits and challenges of implementing a patient portal?

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.

What are the seven elements that must be in place for a safe transition to occur?

Seven elements that must be in place for a safe transition to occur from one health setting to another include: leadership support; multidisciplinary collaboration; early identification of patients/clients at risk; transitional planning; medication management; patient and family action/engagement; and the transfer of ...

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.

What is the most popular patient portal?

Top 10 Patient Portal Software By EMRSystemsEpic EHR Software's MyChart.athenahealth EMR Software's athenaCommunicator.PrognoCIS EMR Software.Cerner Specialty Practice Management Software.eClinicalWorks EMR Software's Patient Portal and Healow App.Greenway PrimeSUITE EHR Software.NextGen Healthcare EHR Software.More items...•

What are the different types of patient portals?

There are two main types of patient portals: a standalone system and an integrated service. Integrated patient portal software functionality usually comes as a part of an EMR system, an EHR system or practice management software. But at their most basic, they're simply web-based tools.

How should a patient portal be accessible?

To align with consumer expectations and offer an exceptional patient experience, your portal should either be accessible via a native mobile application or optimized for mobile browsers.

What are the challenges of changing patient portals?

Perhaps the biggest hurdle practices face when changing patient portals are the challenges associated with the actual migration . The inability to create a seamless transition from one portal to the next can create headaches for providers and a poor experience for patients.

What is seamless application programming interface?

Seamless application programming interface (API) integration with your EHR and other existing solutions is essential for operating efficiently and taking full advantage of your tech stack. By seamlessly integrating with the rest of your technology, you can ensure your systems are talking to each other and working in tandem—not to mention create an experience that’s familiar for your patients and functional for your practice.

Why is it important to take precautions when protecting your data?

With the risk of data breaches and cybersecurity threats higher than ever before, healthcare practices need to take proper precautions to protect confidential data and prevent attacks on their servers—particularly when said data is stored on the cloud. That means putting robust security protocols in place to ensure your portal is safe, with added protection from threats.

Why are portals beneficial?

Like patients, specific portal features are particularly beneficial for healthcare organizations and providers. They can improve care quality, streamline operations, and even improve profitability and support the practice as it grows. Those include:

What is the UX of a patient portal?

An intuitive, well-designed user experience (UX) is what separates the most lacking patient portals from the best. Patient portals with a poor UX often have low adoption and can make it difficult to boost engagement, which can ultimately lead to increased patient churn, an influx of negative online reviews, and decreased profitability for your practice.

Can poor portal adoption rates lead to poor patient satisfaction?

Poor portal adoption rates can lead to decreased patient satisfaction, non-adherence to health plans, negative reviews, and ultimately patient churn.

How does HoloLens help patients?

Increase access to patient information: With HoloLens you can remotely talk to team members or doctors, at the patient’s bedside without them physically being in the same room. You can see and interact with any of that patient information virtually so you don’t need to touch anything. You can even interact and manipulate those images in a heads-up view next to the patient.

How much does HoloLens 2 reduce staff numbers?

The HoloLens 2 reduces staff numbers per ward round by around 66 percent to 83 percent (depending on the environment).

What are the benefits of patient portal?

Reaction to the patient portal implementation has been very positive. Patients appreciate the convenience, for example, of being able to contact the practice at any time of day or night . For many patients, the use of Web-based information and electronic communication is “second nature”; consequently, they are comfortable using the portal. As one clinician observed, “Lots of patients are accustomed to using electronic communication now. They don’t want to have to pick up the phone anymore.” Clinicians and staff members appreciate that the portal reduces call volume and “provides a fluid line of communication that works well.” They noted that communication via the portal helped to reduce miscommunication and delays that sometimes occur with phone communication.

Why are patients interested in portals?

Patients may be especially interested in the portal at particular moments, such as when they are frustrated with telephone wait times or playing “telephone tag.” Staff members take these opportunities to encourage patients to use the portal.

How to get the most value from an EHR?

To get the most value from an EHR, practices will need to invest time in training and preparation. Some customization of the system will likely be needed based on how the practice functions and the individual work styles of the various providers.

What are the limitations of EHR?

The limitations of the EHR and the patient portal have presented challenges, such as the inability to send clinical summaries to patients via the portal. The practice can only move ahead with certain aspects of patient and family engagement as quickly as the system is upgraded.

Do patients need to be educated about clinical summaries?

The providers noted that patients need to be educated about clinical summaries, otherwise “many clinical summaries are likely to end up in the trash.” Consequently, providers explain the contents, purpose, and benefits of the clinical summary to patients.

What is structural measure of patient safety?

A structural measure of patient safety might assess whether a hospital has key resources in place to improve safety, such as an electronic health record or a mechanism to rapidly start the work of root cause analysis teams after a serious adverse event has occurred.

What is the purpose of measurement?

Measurement is used for a variety of purposes: to evaluate the effectiveness of safety interventions, identify new or emerging safety threats, compare safety across hospitals and clinics, or to determine whether patient safety is improving over time. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to measurement—the choice of metric varies depending on the purpose of measurement. For example, studies of missed nursing care measure processes—the frequency with which required care elements are not completed. Studies of medication reconciliation may measure processes (such as the proportion of patients for whom a best possible medication history was documented at hospital admission) or outcomes (such as the preventable adverse drug events). The Leapfrog Hospital Survey evaluates hospitals based on structural metrics—the use of specific patient safety practices, such as computerized provider order entry.

How is retrospective chart review used?

Retrospective chart review using a two-stage process was originally developed for the pioneering Harvard Medical Practice Study to detect and measure adverse events in hospitalized patients. In the first stage, screening criteria (which may include trigger tools) are used to identify cases where harm may have occurred. These cases are reviewed in depth, ideally by two independent clinicians, to determine whether harm occurred, the severity of injury to the patient, and if the harm was preventable. In addition to the advantages listed above, chart review can be used to measure process or outcome metrics and can reliably measure the frequency of specific adverse events. It is also useful for comparing estimates of overall patient safety events between hospitals or over different time periods. This method has been used in several influential studies of the prevalence of safety problems over time. Another seminal study by AHRQ used the Medicare Patient Safety Monitoring System to assess temporal trends in patient safety. This process also uses retrospective medical review with defined algorithms for detecting 21 measures of safety that can be reliably abstracted from medical records.

Is there a one size fits all approach to measurement?

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to measurement—the choice of metric varies depending on the purpose of measurement. For example, studies of missed nursing care measure processes—the frequency with which required care elements are not completed.

Is there a validated method for measuring the overall safety of care provided in a given health care setting?

However, measurement of patient safety is complex, and, while several different methods may be used, there is no single validated method for measuring the overall safety of care provided in a given health care setting.

Is an error preventable?

Even when adverse events can be measured, an additional layer of controversy concerns determining whether the event was preventable. In the seminal studies that formed the basis of To Err Is Human, experienced clinicians often disagreed on whether an error was preventable. Differences in definitions of errors account for some of the wide variation in estimates of the proportion of hospitalized patients who experience preventable harm, which ranges from about 12% among Medicare patients in the 2010 Office of the Inspector General study to nearly 33% in a 2011 study.

What is a patient portal app?

You may have a patient or member portal app with secure access to medical records, communicating with physicians, managing health benefits, healthcare costs, and more. General information apps are also popular with useful information on location directions and parking, find a doctor tools, health library information and many others.

What is screen view per visit?

Screen Views per Visit – this metric informs you of how many mobile app screens are interacted with during a session. This is useful information to be mindful of as you are working on optimizing your app with any enhancements or new features to assist in user experience design.

What is retention rate?

Retention Rate – with this metric you know how many users return to your mobile app after their first visit. You will also find the remaining percentage is your churn rate; those who do not continue to use the app after the first visit.

Why is it important to understand user engagement?

Understanding user engagement, satisfaction, and app performance are critical to measuring the success of your mobile app. By monitoring mobile app analytics in addition to performing deeper dives into mobile app data this will assist you in identifying areas for improvement and optimization of the mobile app digital experience to create delightful experiences for those that use it.

What is touch heatmap?

Touch Heatmaps – know where users are tapping on mobile app screen views and identify any user experience issues. You’ll quickly identify any challenges if users are tapping in places which aren’t interactions within the app.

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Initial Use Case Focus For Measuring Effectiveness

Study Methodology

  • To measure patient and clinical effectiveness, the Imperial team collected data pertaining to the key outcomes of patient’s safety, time exposed to COVID-19 positive environments, and PPE use. They have also collected qualitative data from staff related to how easy the technology is to use, and the perceived impact on care quality, communication an...
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What Do The Staff think?

  • Dr Louis Koizia, consultant physician and geriatrician at Imperial, has been one of the doctors using the HoloLens 2 daily since March. At the beginning of March, he did not think the HoloLens 2 would become an everyday tool. However, within four weeks of using HoloLens 2 and Dynamics 365 Remote Assist, he saw the significant improvements it was making. One of his biggest conc…
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Improving Patient Care

  • It’s also important to take into account the input from patients and feedback has been quite positive. Dr Koizia said patients are very used to seeing healthcare staff with PPE, gloves, masks and visors. So wearing the HoloLens 2 has been quite a natural addition. Explaining to patients why they are using the HoloLens 2, what the physician sees, but also what the team of healthcar…
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What’s Next

  • Next, they will publish the peer reviewed research on the patient and clinical effectiveness of the HoloLens 2 and Dynamics 365 Remote Assist. We also know that there is a lot more to do in this area. In the next blog, we’ll talk about how the team is thinking about what’s next and how can other NHS Trusts get involved.
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About The Author

  • Leila has been working on the commercial mixed reality business for the last five years and is based in the UK. She’s been working with some of the most advanced customers and partners in the world, helping them identify, pilot and deploy technologies that have a profound ability to transform their business. Prior to joining the mixed reality team, she held several senior position…
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