patient portal and health literacy

There is limited evidence about the association between health literacy and use of patient web portals in patients with chronic illnesses. Qualitative studies and studies with a cross-sectional, cohort, or pre-/post-test study design have shown that persons with limited health literacy are less likely to use patient web portals, although not all studies have found an association.

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Does health literacy affect the use of patient web portals?

Health literacy and patient web portals The conflicting findings may be partially due to racial and ethnic differences in health literacy or level of comfort in sharing private health information using mobile technologies. Several opportunities exist to improve the usability and acceptability of web portals for patients with limited healt …

What is personal health literacy (PHL)?

Health literacy and patient portals Health literacy has been described as the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions. Improving health literacy may serve to promote concordance with therapy, engage patients in their own health care, and improve heal …

What is the importance of health literacy?

 · Patient portal adoption has rapidly increased, and portal usage has been associated with patients’ sociodemographics, health literacy, and education. Research on patient portals has primarily focused on the outpatient setting. We explored whether health literacy and education were associated with portal usage in an inpatient population.

How can health care systems address limited literacy?

 · Among admissions with inpatient use, health literacy was associated with use of the web portal to make appointments and for health education. The inpatients were diverse by race (81.1% white, 15.5% African American, 0.9% Asian and Pacific Islander, 0.3% American Indian and Alaska Native) and gender (51.0% male).

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. Many providers now offer patient portals.

What are the benefits of a patient portal?

The truth is, there are a lot of benefits to using a patient portal for providers.Better Patient Communication. ... Streamline Patient Registration and Administrative Tasks. ... Greater Focus on Patient Care. ... Better Patient-Physician Relationships. ... Improve Clinical Outcomes. ... Optimize Medical Office Workflow.

Are patient portals Hipaa compliant?

HIPAA Compliance and Healthcare Portals So, are healthcare portals HIPAA compliant? The short answer is yes, they are and must be. But, let's talk about what that means specifically for you as a provider. Under HIPAA regulations, your practice is required to make protecting patients' medical data a priority.

Do patient portals improve health outcomes?

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.

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.

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.

Are patient portals confidential?

Yes, many patient portals are secure as they have security and privacy safeguards to keep your information protected. To ensure your data remains protected from any unauthorized access, these healthcare portals are hosted on a secure connection and can be accessed via a password-protected login.

Is Facebook portal HIPAA compliant?

Conclusion: Facebook is not HIPAA compliant because it will not sign a BAA. However, covered entities can use it—as long as they do not share any PHI.

What are the disadvantages of patient portals?

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.

How do you educate patients on 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...•

What is the advantage of consumer engagement in their health information and health records?

No Engagement Without Health Information Better understand their own current care and treatment, as well as that of family members in their care. Coordinate care and reduce duplication of services among multiple care providers.

Why are there associations between health literacy and patient web portal use?

Associations observed between health literacy and patient web portal use may be partially due to racial and ethnic differences in education, health literacy, and level of comfort in sharing private health information using mobile technologies.

What is low health literacy?

Low health literacy has been associated with decreased use of preventive services, increased risk of having a chronic disease, poorer treatment adherence, and poorer health outcomes [ 18 ]. Health literacy also influences patient-provider communication. Individuals with low health literacy are less likely to engage in shared decision making ...

What is the importance of health information systems?

Health information systems that support patient web portals should ideally be linked to in-person and online training that can enhance patient skills and rates of portal use among diverse patient populations including those with low health literacy and other communication barriers.

Is there evidence for the use of patient portals?

There is limited evidence about the association between health literacy and use of patient web portals in patients with chronic illnesses. The objective of this review was to learn more about health literacy and use of patient web portals.

Do people with limited health literacy use patient portals?

Qualitative studies and studies with a cross-sectional, cohort, or pre-/post-test study design have shown that persons with limited health literacy are less likely to use patient web portals, although not all studies have found an association.

What is health literacy?

In Healthy People 2030, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) updated the definition of health literacy to include personal health literacy as well as organizational health literacy. HHS provides the following definitions: 1 Personal health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the ability to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others. 2 Organizational health literacy is the degree to which organizations equitably enable individuals to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others

What is organizational health literacy?

Organizational health literacy is the degree to which organizations equitably enable individuals to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others

What are the communication options for patients?

Ask patients about their preferred and available communication options, e.g., telephone, teleconference, email, apps, patient portal, or another preference.

What is eHealth in medical terms?

A category of eHealth is mobile health (mHealth) including phones, tablets, and computers to use applications (apps), wearable tracking devices, and texting services. The research referenced on this page may include mHealth when referring to eHealth.

What is electronic health?

WHO defines electronic health (eHealth) services as the cost-effective and secure use of information communication technologies to support health and health-related fields. Examples include electronic communication between patients and providers, electronic medical records, patient portals, and personal health records.

Do women with low eHealth literacy trust online sources?

Females with lower eHealth literacy reported higher trust in online sources compared to men with low eHealth literacy and compared to females with higher eHealth literacy. Researchers also learned that older adults with low eHealth literacy were more likely to trust online channels compared to younger adults.

Why is it important to understand eHealth?

Equally important is how health professionals and communication specialists can provide support.

What is personal health literacy?

Personal health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the ability to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others. Organizational health literacy is the degree to which organizations equitably enable individuals to find, understand, ...

What is the new definition of health literacy?

The new definitions: emphasize people’s ability to use health information rather than just understand it. focus on the ability to make “well-informed” decisions rather than “appropriate” ones . incorporate a public health perspective. acknowledge that organizations have a responsibility to address health literacy.

What is health literacy?

Health literacyrefers to the extent to which an individual has the skills “to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services” (Institute of Medicine [IoM, now National Academy of Medicine], 2004, p. 32). Low health literacy is associated with poorer health outcomes and poorer use of health care services. In 2004, the IoM’s landmark report Health Literacy: A Prescription to End Confusionhighlighted the need to address health literacy barriers in the U.S. health care system (IoM, 2004). Over the following decades, various national initiatives have similarly advocated for addressing health literacy with the ultimate goal of promoting health equity and social justice (IoM, 2015; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 2010; Wilson-Stronks, Lee, Cordero, Kopp, & Galvez, 2008). However, low health literacy continues to be a barrier to obtaining effective and high-quality care for many individuals from disadvantaged groups. Moreover, its importance remains largely ignored by the increasingly complex U.S. health care system. Lack of structural attention to health literacy affects the potential of individuals to engage in health prevention and promotion activities while also limiting opportunities for social workers to deliver optimal services to patients who need it most. Indeed, it is likely that low health literacy is a greater obstacle in providing services than perceived by practitioners. In this Viewpoint, we seek to increase the awareness of health literacy among social workers by discussing relevant literature on its role in health outcomes and the complex process of navigating the health care system. We conclude by suggesting strategies for social workers to address health literacy barriers in the health care system.

Where is the Institute for Minority Health Research located?

1Health Literacy and Institute for Minority Health Research, Department of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago

Is there evidence for the use of patient portals?

There is limited evidence about the association between health literacy and use of patient web portals in patients with chronic illnesses. The objective of this review was to learn more about health literacy and use of patient web portals.

Do people with limited health literacy use patient portals?

Qualitative studies and studies with a cross-sectional, cohort, or pre-/post-test design have shown that persons with limited health literacy are less likely to use patient web portals, although there is inconsistency in the association across studies.

What is a patient portal?

Patient portals enable people to access their health information electronically, but concerns about confidentiality and privacy breaches, particularly for young people, may be impeding portal adoption in New Zealand. This paper considers the legal and ethical framework relating to health information privacy and informed consent in New Zealand, and proposes an approach to implementing patient portals for young people. Shared portal access (where both a young person and their parent or guardian have access to the young person's portal) may be appropriate for young children whose parents or guardians are responsible for their health care. However, as children mature and their capacity to make health care decisions increases, general practitioners will need to consider shifting to independent portal access by competent young people. The circumstances of each young person, including their best interests and rights, cultural needs and their views on information disclosure should be taken into account.

How many people have difficulty understanding health information?

Nearly half of all American adults—90 million people—have difficulty understanding and acting upon health information. The examples below were selected from the many pieces of complex consumer health information used in America. • From a research consent form: “A comparison of the effectiveness of educational media in combination with a counseling method on smoking habits is being examined.” (Doak et al., 1996) • From a consumer privacy notice: “Examples of such mandatory disclosures include notifying state or local health authorities regarding particular communicable diseases.” • From a patient information sheet: “Therefore, patients should be monitored for extraocular CMV infections and retinitis in the opposite eye, if only one infected eye is being treated.” Forty million Americans cannot read complex texts like these at all, and 90 million have difficulty understanding complex texts. Yet a great deal of health information, from insurance forms to advertising, contains complex text. Even people with strong literacy skills may have trouble obtaining, understanding, and using health information: a surgeon may have trouble helping a family member with Medicare forms, a science teacher may not understand information sent by a doctor about a brain function test, and an accountant may not know when to get a mammogram. This report defines health literacy as “the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions” (Ratzan and Parker, 2000). However, health literacy goes beyond the individual obtaining information. Health literacy emerges when the expectations, preferences, and skills of individuals seeking health information and services meet the expectations, preferences, and skills of those providing information and services. Health literacy arises from a convergence of education, health services, and social and cultural factors. Although causal relationships between limited health literacy and health outcomes are not yet established, cumulative and consistent findings suggest such a causal connection. Approaches to health literacy bring together research and practice from diverse fields. This report examines the body of knowledge in this emerging field, and recommends actions to promote a health-literate society. Increasing knowledge, awareness, and responsiveness to health literacy among health services providers as well as in the community would reduce problems of limited health literacy. This report identifies key roles for the Department of Health and Human Services as well as other public and private sector organizations to foster research, guide policy development, and stimulate the development of health literacy knowledge, measures, and approaches. These organizations have a unique and critical opportunity to ensure that health literacy is recognized as an essential component of high-quality health services and health communication.