operational efficiency of web based patient portal

Electronic patient portals (EPP) are websites allowing patients to view their laboratory results, schedule appointments, message their providers and refill prescriptions. 1–3 These tools have the potential to increase administrative efficiency, and productivity, 1 as well as patient engagement, 4 5 empowerment 4 and motivation. 6 This may lead to more productive office visits, 6 improved self-care 5 and greater satisfaction with care. 5 7 While EPPs have the potential to improve quality and access to care, few studies have examined the effects of providing patients access to their laboratory results on EPPs from the patient’s perspective.

Full Answer

Do patient portals improve clinical outcomes?

standing of the impact of operational efficiency on patient satisfaction. Quantitatively, the extant literature provides rel-atively simple and inconclusive accounts for the impact of waiting time on patient satisfaction, usually based on corre-lation measures. Our study uses rigorous econometric models to show that longer waiting time impacts ...

How do patients feel about the use of web-based information?

of use of patient portal features. This measure is important in improving the usability of portals through user feedback, and also it can be linked with clinical data to document longer-term changes in patient behavior, clinical outcomes, utilization, and operational efficiency. In the majority of studies reviewed, the most frequently used patient portal features were similar

What is the best way to implement a patient portal?

Increased Efficiency: Across interviews, patients described three logistical benefits of MyChart: increased efficiency, improved ability to track their health information, and better documentation of communications and information during and between office visits. First, with respect to efficiency, one patient described the efficiency of

Are patients and physicians ready for online portals in healthcare?

Riverside developed a patient portal in 2003 to improve communication with patients and provide guidance on preventive care. But after several years, only 20,000 of the health system's some ...

How effective are patient portals?

Improve Clinical Outcomes Patient portals make tasks such as requesting prescription refills and referrals easier and more convenient leads to greater patient compliance – and when patients follow doctors' orders, clinical outcomes improve.Dec 8, 2017

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 can patient portals be improved?

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.Jun 25, 2020

What are the advantages of providing Internet access to patients with a patient portal?

Patient portals have been demonstrated to do the following: improve medication adherence, disease awareness, and self-management of disease, decrease office visits, increase preventative medicine, and increase office visit duration at the patient's request for additional information.Aug 1, 2018

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

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 optimize patient portals for patient engagement?

Make enrollment open to all patients. Have staff manage portal workflow and communication before engaging providers directly. Aim to establish efficient workflows and policies, and avoid burdening providers with troubleshooting during initial rollout. The whole staff should be involved in promoting the patient portal.

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

What are the pros and cons of being an e patient?

4 Pros and Cons of Digital Patient Health Data AccessPro: Patients enjoy digital data access.Con: Complicated health info causes concern for patients, docs.Pro: Patients can review info for medical errors.Con: Clinician notes raise patient-provider relationship concerns.Aug 10, 2017

What are the benefits to the patient when they are able to have access to their own health record?

The studies revealed that patients' access to medical records can be beneficial for both patients and doctors, since it enhances communication between them whilst helping patients to better understand their health condition. The drawbacks (for instance causing confusion and anxiety to patients) seem to be minimal.

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 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.

When did Dover Family Physicians adopt EHR?

Dover Family Physicians adopted an electronic health record (EHR) system in 2008 with a goal of improving the quality of patient care and especially strengthening preventive care services. The practice has focused on ways to use the EHR to engage patients and their family members in their health and healthcare through a patient portal implementation. The practice, located in Dover, Delaware, has four physicians and two physician assistants, and provides primary care to more than 800 patients weekly.

How effective are patient portal interventions?

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.

Why is patient portal important?

Understanding the role of patient portals as an effective intervention strategy is an essential step to encourage patients to be actively engaged in their health care.

How many portals do patients need?

A patient should only need one portal – a comprehensive one maintained by his or her primary care physician (PCP), who shares data with all those specialists and hospitals, gets timely updates, and is great at keeping records.

Why are portals important?

Yet, if we can get patients to use them, portals have a lot of potential benefits. Allowing patients to access their records can make them more informed. Asynchronous communication can be more efficient.

Is it better to send test results electronically?

Sending test results electronic ally can be more timely . However, the current state of the art needs work. A big problem is that portals are not standardized and often don't talk to each other.

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.

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.

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.