patient portal case study

How does patient portal implementation improve quality of patient care?

May 24, 2021 · Patient Portal Case Study Patient Portal Case Study In the case study, “Meeting the Needs of a Diverse Patient Population through Patient Portals” conducted by Neil Calman MD of New York, New York,...

How can patients download clinical reports from the patient portal?

Methods: A qualitative comparative case study was conducted to determine the feasibility, acceptability, and initial perceptions of users and to identify ways to increase uptake. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 56 participants (27 patients, 21 providers, 4 nonmedical staff, and 4 clinic managers) from 5 clinics. Patients were ...

How do patients receive the clinical summary electronically?

Results: Patient portal users tended to be older (49.45 vs. 46.22 years in the entire sample, p = 0.008 in the random sample) and more likely female (62.59 vs. 54.91% in the entire sample, p = 0.035 in the random sample). Nonusers had more monthly emergency room (ER) visits on average (0.047 vs. 0.014, p < 0.001).

How do patients feel about the patient portal?

Case Study Simple, fast and uncomplicated Healthcare at your convenience. To comply with the NDA, I have omitted and obfuscated confidential information in this project. PROBLEM The existing patient portal was not able to deliver the user needs. The low engagement, high drop off rates combined with a confusing interface needed a complete facelift.

What is the benefit of patient portal?

The Benefits of a Patient Portal 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.Aug 13, 2020

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 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 improve nursing practice?

While the evidence is currently immature, patient portals have demonstrated benefit by enabling the discovery of medical errors, improving adherence to medications, and providing patient-provider communication, etc. High-quality studies are needed to fully understand, improve, and evaluate their impact.

What must be done when creating a patient portal?

4 Steps to Successful Patient Portal Adoption, IntegrationOutline clinic or hospital needs, goals.Select a patient portal vendor.Create provider buy-in.Market the patient portal to end-users.Jun 6, 2017

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

Nurses see the portal as an additional service for patients, because it offers them the possibility for asking questions at any time and place suitable for the patient. Some nurses experience an increase in work load, because patients ask more non-urgent questions that otherwise would not be asked.Jun 15, 2012

What are the disadvantages of a patient portal?

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.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.

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.

What is the goal of hie?

The purpose of HIE is to promote the appropriate and secure access and retrieval of a patient's health information to improve the cost, quality, safety and speed of patient care.

How do patient portals affect nursing?

Takeaways: Patient portals facilitate patient engagement in healthcare decisions, improve communication, and streamline care. Less than one-third of patients access patient portals to view their medical data. Nurses can improve patient portal use by explaining the benefits and providing education.Dec 20, 2021

How can patient compliance with portal registration be increased?

Provide print materials in the office. • Leave portal pamphlets in the exam room for patients to read while they wait to see the physician. ... Promote the portal online. • ... Prepare your office and staff. • ... Adapt existing office workflows. • ... Equip your staff with talking points. • ... Offer incentives to patients and staff. •

DISCOVERY

Observe and Listen customer support calls and identify the top issues.

Simplified Registration

We noticed a lot of users dropping off at the registration step. The current design had an overwhelming 14 input fields in one page to register for the service. Due to the medical nature and legal requirements we couldn’t remove any of those fields. We decided to tackle this problem in two phases.

Homepage Redesign

The existing home page which they referred to as ‘Dashboard’ was cluttered with too much information and the main call to actions were buried deep down. One of the most important task a user could accomplish was to schedule a visit with the right type of provider for the right patient. The drop off rate on the home screen was higher than average.

Wrong patient scheduling problem

Talking to the customer support reps we discovered a good number of customer complaints pointing to the problem of wrong patient getting scheduled for a consultation. Many of the users came in for a consultation for their sick children. They completely missed the dropdown which had the family members listed and an option to add a dependent.

Setting Expectations

Another problem we discovered was from unhappy users. Telehealth is still relatively new and lot of people don’t know what it can do and what it cannot. Users asked prescriptions for sleeping pills, Adderall, medical marijuana etc.

The patient comes first

North Scottsdale Pediatrics wants their patients to feel welcomed and well cared for. “Since our founding, our mission has been to provide the highest-level pediatric care based on evidence-based medicine,” says Dr. Jeffrey Siegel, partner and full-time provider in the practice.

A new way to balance service and care

After a smooth transition to athenaOne, the first hurdle the practice cleared was the large volume of daily calls. “Every day, we have up to 11 providers seeing about 30 patients each,” says Juba. “We get thousands of phone calls a day. We couldn’t handle that many and provide excellent service to each person.”

Improving appointment access and outreach

The practice was able to deepen its relationships with patients and families because of athenahealth’s convenient patient engagement tools. “Our patients are using the patient portal to request refills, referrals, and ask their provider questions,” says Siegel.

Efficiency supports provider satisfaction, too

In fact, with athenaOne, the practice can ensure a good care experience for both providers and patients. “athenahealth has helped us build and customize our entire clinical EMR experience, from building order sets to creating our own encounters.

On the cutting edge and moving forward

North Scottsdale Pediatrics knows they will be able to keep up with change, no matter what the future brings in healthcare. “We’ve formed a great relationship with athenahealth,” says Juba. “They understand our practice’s short-term goals but also our long-term vision. We’re on the cutting edge of technology, and always moving forward.

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.

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 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.

Why do medical assistants use patient portals?

Medical assistants promoted the patient portal as a way for patients to establish a direct line of communication with their provider. Patients registered with the portal can avoid using the BVCHC call center, which receives a large volume of calls.

What is BVCHC portal?

BVCHC found it helpful to designate point persons for portal enrollment, such as medical assistants, to engage patients one on one. Consequently, providers are not burdened with the enrollment process, but they can encourage patients to use the portal. Moreover, assigning a dedicated triage nurse to serve as the gatekeeper for messages coming through the portal has eased provider concerns about email volume and time required for patient communication.

What is BVCHC in Pawtucket?

BVCHC is a federally-qualified, Joint Commission-accredited health center located in Pawtucket and Central Falls, Rhode Island. Established in 1990, BVCHC provides a range of services, including pediatric, internal medicine, family medicine, midwifery and obstetrics/gynecology, dental, and behavioral health.

What is BVCHC in Rhode Island?

BVCHC serves as the home and support center for a network of health centers committed to advancing health IT in Rhode Island. Since the health center converted to electronic health records in 2007, BVCHC has supported several implementations by other practices and collaborates with the Rhode Island REC.

What is N#EHR?

Patient-Specific Education Resources.#N#EHR has an integrated patient education tool that allows clinical staff to search and select from more than 600 summaries on diagnoses and symptoms and more than 1,000 medications. Materials, which are available and English and Spanish, can be printed out and reviewed with patients at the time of the visit.

What is terminal kiosk?

Terminal kiosks. BVCHC is purchasing computer terminal kiosks for use in the waiting rooms to help patients complete the registration process while still on-site so that they continue to be engaged after the patient portal is explained to them and subsequently begin using the secured messaging feature. The kiosks also will be used for patient education during downtime before visits.

What are the benefits of portals?

At first trainings stressed the benefits of increased portal use: 1 Enhanced patient/medical team communication 2 Improved patient awareness and management of health conditions 3 Fewer patient phone calls and walk-ins

What is the MyWellness portal?

The clinic has an online platform, MyWellness patient portal, that allows patients to play an active role in their own health care. On the portal, patients can communicate with their doctors, make appointments, check lab results, order medication, and access their health information even when the clinic is closed. The online portal allows even those patients without cell phones or computers to communicate with their health team from a public library. The problem? Few of the clinic’s patients were using the service: as of January, 2018 only 4 percent were enrolled in and active on MyWellness patient portal.

Does Adult West have opt out?

At the Adult West clinic, staff will continue to enroll patients using the All Hands on Deck “opt out” strategy , and encourage patients to use the MyWellness enrollment stations. They will continue to play videos about portal enrollment in patient waiting rooms. They also plan to create informational materials targeted to specific patients and locations, and to involve patients in the design of these materials.