online patient portal as a strategic plan for healthcare

What is a patient portal?

Sep 19, 2017 · Patient portal benefits include patients’ ability to access their clinical summaries online. Providers can also send lab results to patients via secure messaging accompanied by a brief message explaining the results (for example, “Your results are normal”) and any needed follow‐up instructions (for example, “Come back in 3 months for a recheck”).

How does patient portal implementation improve quality of patient care?

May 13, 2016 · May 13, 2016 - Patient portals are an online website that is connected to the EHR, centrally focused on patient access to health data. These tools give patients a look into various data points, including lab results, physician notes, their health histories, discharge summaries, and immunizations. While it is standard fare for patient portals to ...

What is a portal and why do you need one?

Apr 01, 2022 · Patient portals - an online tool for your health. 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.

Why do providers Love Patient portals so much?

Jan 03, 2012 · In early 2000, Seattle-based Group Health Cooperative executives held a series of strategic planning meetings on the imminent rollout of their patient portal. The integrated health system's leaders told each other that if they were successful in extending the business model online, other healthcare organizations would surely catch up. Ernie Hood. Nine years later, the …

Why is patient portal important 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.Aug 13, 2020

How does patient portal improve patient care?

Better Patient-Physician Relationships 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 are some advantages to a healthcare facility using the patient portal function?

Portals can increase patient loyalty. The ongoing relationship and communication that occurs outside of appointments encourages patients to feel cared for and to remain loyal to your practice. Increase your value. Patients value the easy access to information and direct communication that comes with portal use.

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

How do patient portals contribute to patient centered care?

Further, portals help providers educate their patients and prepare them for future care encounters. When patients have access to their health data, they are better informed, and have the potential to generate deep and meaningful conversations regarding patient wellness during doctor's appointments.May 13, 2016

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...

What are the challenges of patient portals?

Other disadvantages of patient portals include alienation and health disparities. Alienation between patient and provider occurs for those who don't access these tools. Sometimes, this is due to health disparities if a person doesn't have a method for using them.Nov 11, 2021

Are patient portals effective?

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.

When did PHMG start patient portal?

PHMG launched the patient portal in early 2010. As a first step, the physician champion piloted the portal for about 6 months before it was implemented in one clinic at a time. According to the physician champion, implementation was “easier than expected because everyone was already comfortable with eClinicalWorks, ...

Why is it persuasive to use a portal?

They found that it is particularly persuasive when providers encourage patients to use the portal because patients trust providers and value their opinions. One provider says he reinforces a patient’s use of the portal by closing all messages with “Thanks for using the portal.”.

What is the PHMG strategy?

PHMG had a strategy of ensuring that patients hear about the portal from multiple sources during each clinical visit. To execute this strategy, PHMG used several methods of communication, including:

What are the challenges of the portal?

One major challenge with the portal is the multiple step registration process . Patients provide their e‐mail address at the front desk and are given a password to register from home. Some patients fail to complete the registration process after leaving the clinic. Remembering and managing passwords and managing family accounts are also challenging for patients. For example, a parent may log in for one child and then ask questions about a second child. For providers and staff, a challenge is that there is no way to know whether a Web‐enabled patient actually uses the portal and there are no read receipts to confirm that patients have read a message.

Where is PHMG based?

PHMG is currently working with Healthwise® — a nonprofit organization based in Boise, Idaho, that develops health content and patient education solutions—to beta test the integration of Healthwise patient education materials into the eClinicalWorks EHR system.

When did PHMG implement EHR?

In 2007 PHMG implemented an EHR system, eClinicalWorks, as part of a strategy to improve quality of care and facilitate coordination of care across its multiple clinic locations. In preparing for implementation, PHMG proceeded with:

Where do messages go in a family practice?

For family practice, messages generally go right to the provider. For specialists, who tend to be out of the office more often, messages go to the nurses or other staff for triage. To facilitate communication, PHMG developed a template for common messages, such as delivery of lab results.

Why do providers use patient portals?

This is mainly because providers are trying to build a relationship with their patients, not just bolster patient loyalty. For many providers, patient portal use is about building trust and enhancing care.

Why are patient portals important?

Research shows that when patients are able to see their own health data, they gain ownership of their own wellness and are better prepared to interact with their providers about their care.

Why do patients have access to doctors notes?

One study conducted at Geisinger Health showed that patients with access to doctors’ notes actually had higher rates of medication adherence because they were more engaged in and informed of their treatment plans.

What are the features of a portal?

Most portals include features such as direct secure messaging, online appointment scheduling, online bill payments, prescription refill requests, and sometimes even data update capabilities. Just as was discussed above, not all portals will enable all features. While most portals include secure messaging features, ...

Is patient portal adoption increasing?

While patient portal benefits may sound enticing, they aren’t entirely effective if patients do not adopt them. As noted above, patient portal adoption is increasing, but there is still room for it to grow. Several industry experts claim that the burden of bolstering patient portal buy-in lay mostly on the provider.

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 ...

What is the Cleveland Clinic MyChart?

The Cleveland Clinic Health System is in the midst of a 90-day pilot to extend its MyChart patient portal by adding data from in-home medical devices. The Clinic — which has nine owned and three affiliate hospitals and 13 clinics — has partnered with Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft HealthVault to gather more continuous data about patients with certain chronic conditions. Approximately 400 patients with diabetes, congestive heart failure and hypertension are taking regular readings at home with digital devices such as blood pressure monitors, glucometers, and weight scales linked to the HealthVault platform. The data is then fed into the patient's MyChart record at the Clinic.

Why is the adoption of portals so slow?

Yet perhaps because introducing a portal involves a commitment to organizational change, industry-wide adoption has been slow, even among organizations that have fully launched electronic health records and some level of integration between hospitals and physician practices.

What is a patient portal?

Patient Portals#N#Online portals allow patients to interact with their health information and communicate with providers outside the traditional office visit. Such systems offer powerful benefits, but integrating a portal into a clinical practice is not easy. CHCF worked with early adopters to capture key lessons learned, as well as tools and resources to help guide other safety-net clinics considering their own patient portals.

What is a personal health record?

Personal health record: Is owned by the patient (or proxy for the patient) May have information that is not contained in a medical record. Is often a standalone application. Allows for patient input of information. Is used for managing health information, promoting health maintenance, and assisting with chronic disease management.

What is a PHR?

The terms “personal health record, ” or PHR, and “patient portal” are often used synonymously, particularly in surveys where consumers are asked about electronic connections with their care providers. For our purposes here, PHRs and patient portals are distinguished as follows: