patient challenges of a patient portal

The Surprising List of Disadvantages of Patient Portals

• Table of Contents.
• Getting Patients to Opt-In. It’s a disadvantage of both the provider and patient when clients decide not to use a...
• User Confusion and Anxiety. There’s always the risk of confusion when using a new online platform. Trying to learn all...
• Alienation and Health Disparities. Other disadvantages of...

Full Answer

What do patients think about the patient portal?

In this issue, David Twiddy provides an excellent update on patient portals, “Removing Six Key Barriers to Online Portal Use,” that focuses on the challenges of portal implementation. Patient ...

What are the downsides of a patient portal?

 · The Surprising List of Disadvantages of Patient Portals Table of Contents. Getting Patients to Opt-In. It’s a disadvantage of both the provider and patient when clients decide not to use a... User Confusion and Anxiety. There’s always the risk of confusion when using a new online platform. Trying ...

How many hospitals have had experience with patient portals?

 · Patient portal implementation is a complex process that is not just a technical process, but it also affects an organization and its staff. We found barriers and facilitators at various levels that differed depending on hospital types (eg, lack of accessibility) and stakeholder groups (eg, sufficient resources) in terms of several factors. Our findings underscore the …

What are the barriers to patient portal implementation?

 · Patients don’t care about meaningful use and the fact that their provider will lose money if they don’t create an account and actually use …

Are there any drawbacks to the patient or provider when using a patient portal?

Patient portals pose many security concerns for data, as they may be a potential place for healthcare information hackers or data thieves to access a patient's health data.

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.

What is the most common barrier to the use of the patient portal?

Conclusions: The most common barriers to patient portal adoption are preference for in-person communication, not having a need for the patient portal, and feeling uncomfortable with computers, which are barriers that are modifiable and can be intervened upon.

Why do patient portals fail?

Conversely, most portals greet patients with inadequate functionality, confusing formatting, and hard to understand health data. Patients often lose interest in these portals, unsure of how to take advantage of any of their promised offerings.

How does patient portal improve patient care?

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.

What are the disadvantages of personal health records?

Are there drawbacks to PHRs? Building a complete health record takes some time. You have to collect and enter all your health information. Only a minority of doctors, hospitals, pharmacies and insurance companies can send information electronically to a PHR that isn't part of a patient portal.

What is the reason for providers reluctant to use patient portal?

Providers do not promote patient portals Patients are probably going to follow your plan of care much more closely and much more reliably, and there's clear data on that.” Research suggests that patients are more likely to adopt the patient portal if they hear provider testimony of for the tool.

What is the nurse's role in implementation of patient portals in healthcare?

Nurses encourage patients to enroll in the portals, wear buttons to welcome questions from patients and their families, explain the portal's privacy and security features, and demonstrate how to look up test results, send and receive provider messages, and request prescription refills.

What percentage of patients use patient portals?

The ONC surveyed 3,865 Americans about their use of patient portals from January 2020 through April 2020. Below are five key findings: Fifty-nine percent of Americans were offered a patient portal in 2020, up from 42 percent in 2014.

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.

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.

How safe are patient portals?

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.

What are the advantages of patient portals to the patient and to the healthcare facility quizlet?

The patient portal supports two-way communication, which allows the patient to work with physicians between patient visits, request appointments, and receive reminders. These reminders can be for appointments, need for follow-up, and more.

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.

How important is patient portal?

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.

Is patient portal good?

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.

Getting Patients to Opt-In

It’s a disadvantage of both the provider and patient when clients decide not to use a patient portal. Patients are missing out on the potential benefits available to them. Providers also need to spend more time going over information with the patient that they could just access on the portal.

Security Concerns

The AMA also says that security concerns are the reason why 22% of people aren’t taking advantage of these services. These concerns were more common in patients over 40 years old.

User Confusion and Anxiety

There’s always the risk of confusion when using a new online platform. Trying to learn all the functionalities can take some time. This is why some accounts offer new user tours to guide the person through all of the features.

Alienation and Health Disparities

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.

Extra Work for the Provider

With each of the disadvantages of patient portals that I already mentioned comes unintended extra work for the provider. Doctors want their clients to use this service they offer but opt-in rates are still low among patients.

Conclusion

Patient portals are set up to be a benefit for clients. When people opt-in to using these services, they can use quick on-demand features to make their health experience better. For instance, it’s easier to obtain medical records, immunizations, prescription information, and other details.

How does a patient portal affect health care?

This can be affected by multiple factors at the micro (eg, “individuals”), meso (eg, “re sources”), and macro (eg, “sociopolitical context”) levels [21]. Several implementation models are available, such as “The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR),” which is used in many studies as a guiding framework [22-24]. CFIR consists of 5 levels at which barriers and facilitators can occur during implementation: (1) technology-related factors (eg, “adaptability,” “complexity,” and “cost”); (2) outer setting (eg, “policy and incentives”); (3) inner setting (eg, “resources”); (4) process (eg, “engagement of stakeholders”); and (5) individual health professionals (eg, “individual’s knowledge”). In this model, patients are part of the “outer setting,” suggesting that the CFIR framework is aimed primarily at institutions [24]. Another example is the “Fit between Individuals, Tasks, and Technology” (FITT) framework, which is aimed at the adoption of IT [25]. The comprehensive model of Grol and Wensing [26] summarizes the barriers to and facilitators of change in health care practice at 6 levels: (1) innovation; (2) individual professional; (3) patient; (4) social context; (5) organizational context; and (6) economic and political context. McGinn et al [21] argue that the consideration of various stakeholder opinions can contribute to successful implementations. However, previous research mainly focused on perceptions of single stakeholder groups regarding patient portal implementation, such as physicians [27] or nurses [28]. This highlights the importance of identifying the opinions of many stakeholders during patient portal implementation. Furthermore, it remains unclear which factors are important in accomplishing change in the various groups [26].

How long were the patient portal interviews?

All interviews were performed by telephone and lasted for, on average, 20 min. Participants were first asked for their consent to make audio recordings of the interviews. Then, the purpose of the interview was introduced, and subjects were asked if they received the introductory email. This email was then briefly discussed such that the subjects were aware of the topics to be discussed. After that, questions were asked about participants’ characteristics, such as their age and work experience. To make sure an unambiguous definition of a patient portal was used, participants were asked what their definition of a patient portal was, and if necessary, it was complemented with our definition. Then, we asked them about their perceived barriers to and facilitators of patient portal implementation at all 6 levels [26]. If necessary, for example, if the question was unclear, the interviewer provided examples (and these were also sent per email). At the end of the interview, the participants were asked to suggest additional topics or issues, if any, that had not yet been covered. The interviews were in Dutch, and the questions in Multimedia Appendix 1are translations.

Why is patient centeredness important?

Patient-centeredness is an important element of high-quality care: effective communication between patients and their health care professionals , and information access can both contribute considerably to this [1]. According to the Institute of Medicine, “patients should have unfettered access to their own medical information” [2] to support them in taking control of their health (eg, using medical information to make informed health-related decisions) [2]. Information technology (IT) can play an important role in improving access to this information [3], and it also improves the participation of patients in their own care [4]. In health care, an increasingly popular way to facilitate this is by using patient portals [5]. Patient portals can be defined as “applications which are designed to give the patient secure access to health information and allow secure methods for communication and information sharing” [6], as well as for administrative purposes [7], and are mostly provided by a single health care institution [6,8]. These portals are often connected to the electronic health record (EHR) of an institution—defined as tethered patient portals [9]—to provide access to patients’ medical information [3,10-12]. Some institutions allow patient portals to facilitate communication between patients and health care professionals [3,6,12], view their appointments and provide patient education [11,13], share information [12], request for repeat medication prescriptions [3], and provide tailored feedback [11,13]. Patient portals may have a range of functionalities that enable information exchange (such as having access to the EHR), which in turn may facilitate and improve the communication between the patient and the health care professional [11,14]. Previous research showed that patients are especially satisfied with access to information from the EHR and the list of their appointments [11]. Portal use can also have a positive effect on self-management of conditions [15-18], communication between patients and providers, quality of care [16,17] and participation in treatment [17]. Patient empowerment can also be improved; the accessibility of information can especially contribute to “patients’ knowledge” and their “perception of autonomy and being respected” [19]. On the other hand, effects on health outcomes are reported to be mixed [6]. In summary, patient portals can be important as they provide patients with access to their own medical information, enable interaction with their health care professionals [8], and aim to involve patients in their own care processes [1].

Is a patient portal a technical process?

Patient portal implementation is a complex process and is not only a technical process but also affects the organization and its staff. Barriers and facilitators occurred at various levels and differed among hospital types (eg, lack of accessibility) and stakeholder groups (eg, sufficient resources) in terms of several factors. Our findings underscore the importance of involving multiple stakeholders in portal implementations. We identified a set of barriers and facilitators that are likely to be useful in making strategic and efficient implementation plans.

Why do hospitals have patient portals?

Most healthcare organizations have implemented some form of a patient portal to meet meaningful use requirements mandated by the federal government. Providers hope that their EHR patient portal will help improve communication with patients, enabling them to intervene before a small medical problem turns into a hospital re-admission, ...

Why do patients have little interest in using portals?

That sounds wonderful, but here is the problem with most portals today: Patients have little interest in using them because they don’t offer enough value.

What is meaningful patient engagement?

Meaningful and effective patient engagement means having conversations about what is happening with the health of patients. It’s daily contact with patients outside the four walls of the hospital. Because health is a moving target, historical snapshots will always leave out important information.

Do portals improve hospital outcomes?

A new study out of the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, and published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association in December last year found that 30-day readmissions, inpatient mortality, and 30-day mortality were virtually the same when comparing hospitalized patients who used portals with those who did not. The researchers concluded that patient portals might not ultimately improve hospital outcomes.

Does technology impact outcomes?

I couldn’t agree more with the need to focus on the patient. Technology alone doesn’t impact outcomes. Providers must take a more holistic approach and integrate technology into care management process and structure if they hope to increase portal use. Those who continue to focus on the patient portal as a technology solution rather than a valuable tool for patients risk irrelevance.

What are the benefits of patient portals?

Similarly, healthcare providers can achieve at least three big benefits from patients’ portal-usage: greater efficiencies, cost-savings and improved health outcomes — again, only if patients use their portals. But with only 20% of patients regularly relying on portals, many benefits have been unattainable. Why are most portals realizing so little of their promise?

Why are portals so complicated?

A big issue for many users is that portals are simply too complicated for at least two opposite kinds of users: those who have low computer literacy, and those who are so computer savvy that they expect the simplicity of an Uber or Instagram app to get a test result or appointment with a click or two.

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What is needed to manage a portal?

Multi-disciplinary internal support and interaction across a variety of departments especially clinical functions is essential. Communication experts with content, usability and marketing experience, working with clinicians and office staff who understand healthcare and revenue workflows, are needed to deploy portals that work well both for patients and providers. Despite the industry’s continuing lack of systems interoperability, dramatic portal improvements and greater benefits are possible now.

Do hospitals have portals?

Sure, most hospitals have a program for training inpatients on using their portals. If the patient is well enough, he or she might remember that training, but without reinforcement, taking the next step of logging in at home is not likely. Outpatients? They may receive a brief instructional fact sheet when they check out, but that’s about it. Instructions are more likely to be trashed than put on top of anyone’s reading list. Both these inpatient and outpatient strategies hark back to the Field of Dreams “build it and they will come” philosophy, and actual portal usage statistics have shown they just don’t work. Compare hospitals’ messaging (or lack of) to the frequent texts from pharmacies to refill prescriptions! I would not recommend their texting frequency, but those texts work.

Can a portal report be negative?

Even if a test result isn’t recognizably negative, a portal presentation of an uninterpreted report can be painful to patients and certainly unproductive. A recent study found that nearly two-thirds of 95 patients who obtained test results via a portal received no explanatory information about the findings.

Can Rapid Access replace patients' rights to understand?

If the days of a physician’s call or a face-to-face meeting on test results are over, the portal replacing those interactions must not be less informative or sensitive to patients. Rapid access cannot replace patients’ rights to understand. Even if a test result isn’t recognizably negative, a portal presentation of an uninterpreted report can be painful to patients and certainly unproductive. A recent study found that nearly two-thirds of 95 patients who obtained test results via a portal received no explanatory information about the findings. Nearly half ended up conducting online searches or called their doctors.

What is patient portal?

Patient portals provide you access to your protected health information. While this is a tremendous convenience for you, it’s also convenient for hackers and healthcare data thieves.

Why are patient portals important?

In the medical world, patient portals are a favorite tool for simplifying contact between patients and their doctors. Healthcare providers are particularly enthusiastic about them since they can streamline office life.

Why are patients reluctant to use patient portals?

Many patients cite this potential lack of security as a reason for their reluctance to use patient portals. While it is a critical concern, there are ways to make patient portals more secure.

What are the benefits of a healthcare portal?

This streamlining takes many forms. One of the principal benefits of a healthcare portal is the freedom it gives you as a doctor.

What is the advantage of patient portals?

The greatest advantage to patient portals is the level of connectivity you have with your doctor. Most portals include a direct messaging function that enables you to message your doctor at any time of day with your questions.

Do patients know about portals?

However, while many doctors are enthusiastic about their patient portal, many patients still don’t know much about them. While most providers offer a healthcare portal, it’s a vast minority of patients that use them.

Is the portal a benefit for doctors?

Overall, these tools are a net benefit for both doctors and patients . If you want more control over your health, ask your provider about their portal today!

What is a patient portal?

The US government defines a patient portal as “a secure online website that gives patients convenient 24-hour access to personal health information from anywhere with an Internet connection” [5]. The data are managed by the health care organization, and even the most rudimentary portals enable patients to access information like recent doctor visits, discharge summaries, medications, immunizations, allergies, and lab results. More advanced portals enable patients to request prescription refills, schedule non-urgent appointments, and exchange secure messaging (SM) with their provider [5].

Why are patient portals important?

Patient portals seem to offer great potential for higher quality care, but it is unknown whether providers who offer the portals will be able to capitalize on the Meaningful Use, stage 2 incentive due to lack of awareness of the patient portal service [24,25,27]. Measure seven of 17 states requires eligible professionals (EP) to “provide patients the ability to view online, download and transmit their health information within four business days of the information being available to the EP” [2]. In this review, there was insufficient data to associate the use of the patient portal with Meaningful Use.

What were the barriers to using the patient portal?

Studies from 2013 also demonstrated several barriers to use of the patient portal; most common were lack of Internet access and lack of technical support [19,20,22,23]. Another significant finding in 2013 was the association of patient portal use with medication adherence, disease control, self-maintenance of health, and including the patient in the medical decision [16,19,22,23].

Is secure messaging good for patient portal?

Several studies from 2013 evaluated the use of the secure messaging feature of a patient portal [15,16,20,22,23]. These studies all demonstrated a high level of patient satisfaction with the feature, and the users did not feel the process to exchange SMs was too complicated. Common to these studies was the perception of high-quality care, better patient-to-provider communication, greater levels of patient education, and a high level of patient engagement/empowerment.

Why were the Ammenwerth et al review rejected?

Papers about PHRs or those that confused the line between portals and PHRs were rejected for aforementioned reasons. Studies presented at conferences but not published in peer-reviewed or other academic journals were rejected. The Ammenwerth et al review was not included because we were trying to update their review, and we did not want the results of their review to skew the results of our own.

How many papers were there in the Patient Portal study?

Ammenwerth, Schnell-Inderst, and Hoerbst conducted a systematic review on patient portals through a pilot study in 2011 [4]. The authors used medical subject headings (MeSH) terms to focus their research on studies that measured the impact of a patient portal on outcome criteria such as patient satisfaction with the provided care, patient empowerment, costs and resource consumption, mortality, or other relevant clinical parameters. The authors identified 603 papers, 13 of which were experimental or quasi-experimental. Of the 13 papers, five studies were deemed eligible and further analyzed, and four of which were randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Sample sizes ranged from 6-81 participants. A significant flaw in their research was to include the PHR in their search, which, as mentioned above, is significantly different from a patient portal in terms of ownership and management. The features of the patient portal, such as disease management, SM, and the ability to view current personal medical information, are not only key distinguishing details between the patient portal and the PHR, but they also identify features that align with Meaningful Use criteria in Stage 2. Results of this study showed an association between portal use and the following: decrease in office visits rates and telephone contacts, increase in number of messages sent, changes of medication regimen, and better adherence to treatment. The authors summarized their results as a very small effect of patient portals on patient empowerment.

What is the difference between a patient portal and a PHR?

The ownership of a patient portal distinguishes it from a personal health record (PHR); while the PHR is owned and managed by the patient, a patient portal is owned and managed by the health care organization. A main advantage of the patient portal is that the data are current, while the data in the PHR are current only when the patient updates it . Without a patient portal as an intermediary, the patient would not be able to access the data in the electronic health record (EHR).

What is a patient portal?

Patient portals, generally speaking, are a health IT interface on which patients can view their own protected health information (PHI). Although this can be viewed as a good thing because patients do have the right to see their own health data, it also opens doors for security concerns.

Why are patient portals viewed negatively?

Because it is quite clear that providers cannot control the actions of their patients, portals are sometimes viewed negatively because providers struggle with this meaningful use attestation requirement.

What is portal email?

The portal is just a secure e-mail system that we can use to communicate. You can send me a message and it goes right into your chart, so I have all of your information at hand when I read it and respond. If you use it and don’t like it, you don’t have to continue to use it. Just let us know.

Is there a cut and dried solution to patient portal?

Although there is no cut-and-dried solution to this problem , several providers have shared their secrets to success in encouraging patients to adopt the patient portal. For example, ONC reports that positive provider testimony goes a long way in convincing a patient to take up the technology because patients generally trust their doctor’s opinions.

Can patients edit their own patient data?

Although patients aren’t able to manually edit these problems on their own, this partial patient control of information makes it more likely for providers to work with more complete and accurate patient data, increasing the quality of care they provide.

Do you need to protect your password on a patient portal?

Although patient portals use safeguards, there are other safety tips you should follow when accessing the patient portal. Always remember to protect your username and password from others and make sure to only log on to the patient portal from a personal computer or secure computer.

What is ONC in healthcare?

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) also states that patient portals often have several technical safeguards to protect from healthcare data security issues.

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.

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.

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.

How long does it take for a nurse to respond to a patient?

The practice established standards for response times of within 4 hours for more urgent questions to 2 days for prescription refills

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 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 happens when patients cannot communicate in real time?

When patients cannot communicate in real time, providers can miss opportunities to identify nonadherence. Thus, there is heavy focus on designing portals and apps similar to MyMeds, which incorporates bidirectional communication between providers and patients.

How does mHealth affect pharmacy?

mHealth could affect specialty pharmacies in several ways. Specialty pharmacies manage patients with rare and chronic diseases that require high-cost and complex medications; thus, it is important to have adequate clinical support. 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.

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 apps do patients use to re-adhere to their medication?

For instance, a patient who wants to increase medication adherence can use apps such as PatientPartner, Medisafe, Dosecast, MedHelper, My Pillbox, or MyMeds. While the variation in mHealth apps caters to patient preferences, the lack of standardization leads to drawbacks for providers. For example, many of these apps either track data differently or, in many cases, do not relay information back to the provider. Patients may record their missed doses through these apps—while refilling their medications on time. This may portray to providers that their patients adhere to their medication even when they do not. When patients cannot communicate in real time, providers can miss opportunities to identify nonadherence. Thus, there is heavy focus on designing portals and apps similar to MyMeds, which incorporates bidirectional communication between providers and patients.