patient portal implementation strategy

Implementation of a patient portal is comprised of several intertwined components: marketing, enrollment, training, support, and workflow redesign. Although these topics will be discussed separately, the implementation strategy, marketing tactics, and enrollment efforts are difficult to separate, as strategy drives rollout methodology and tactics.

Full Answer

How to implement a patient portal in your practice?

Oct 28, 2021 · Future research should focus on effectively describing and evaluating the implementation strategies that surround multi-institutional patient portals (eg, the use of champions, patient and provider training, addressing beliefs, etc) to identify effective strategies for promoting uptake.

How can EHRs engage patients and their family members?

Feb 07, 2018 · For the patient portal implementation to be most beneficial, the practice will offer patient education sessions to help patients register and to familiarize them with the portal’s features. In addition, a computer will be placed in the waiting area so staff can help patients register with the portal on the spot.

How do patients feel about web-based information and electronic communication?

With this shift, patient portals have become more prevalent. In Alberta, the Alberta Health Services piloted a portal (MyChart). There was a need to identify factors that promoted the use of this portal. Furthermore, it was imperative to understand why there was variability in uptake within the various clinics that participated in the pilot.

What are the limitations of EHR and patient portal?

Adopting a new patient portal technology may seem daunting, but with the right plan in place and an ideal vendor to partner with, you can make implementation as painless as possible. Schedule a demo to learn about the Healthy Outcomes solutions suite, which offers touchpoints throughout the entire patient journey.

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.

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 are the benefits and challenges of implementing a patient portal?

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

What elements should be incorporated into 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...

How do I access patient portal?

1:438:41How to use a patient portal - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipYou access the portal through your medical center's website the portal website or you can save it asMoreYou access the portal through your medical center's website the portal website or you can save it as a favorite to your device. From my medical center's.

What types of patient portals are there?

There are two main types of patient portals: a standalone system and an integrated service. Integrated patient portal software functionality usually comes as a part of an EMR system, an EHR system or practice management software. But at their most basic, they're simply web-based tools.Feb 12, 2021

What is the advantage of a patient portal for the patient?

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

What is the purpose of patient portal?

A patient portal is a secure online website that gives patients convenient, 24-hour access to personal health information from anywhere with an Internet connection. Using a secure username and password, patients can view health information such as: Recent doctor visits.Sep 29, 2017

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

What are the duties of a portal in hospital?

The Portal Enrollment Specialist uses resources to anticipate, address, and overcome barriers to care and to guide patients through the health care system. Portal Enrollment Specialist may assist patients by updating demographic and pharmacy information.

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.

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.

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

MIPS and Patient Portals

Use your portal to help achieve some of the MIPS advancing care information (ACI) mea­sures and improvement activities.

Strategy 2: Monitor Your Portal

Plan ahead. One of the greatest errors a practice can make is setting up a portal without first determining how it will be used to interact with patients and who on your staff should be involved with its day-to-day use, cautioned Mr. Daigrepont.

Strategy 3: Market Your Portal

No matter how functional and well honed your portal is, implementation will not be effective without a mar­keting campaign that involves patient education and portal promotion.

Strategy 4: Learn From Your Portal

All correspondence that comes in to or goes out of your practice via the portal is documented within the system, so relevant reports can easily be generated.

What is the implementation of a patient portal?

Implementation of a patient portal is comprised of several intertwined components: marketing, enrollment, training, support, and workflow redesign. Although these topics will be discussed separately, the implementation strategy, marketing tactics, and enrollment efforts are difficult to separate, as strategy drives rollout methodology and tactics.

What is a patient portal?

Patient portals are add-on modules to EHR systems and are rarely included among a health center’s “mission critical” requirements for an EHR. The features and functions of a portal are seldom explored in detail during the sales cycle, and portal limitations or deficiencies are often not discovered until implementation. Also, since providers are paying for or selecting the system, portals are often designed from their point of view rather than from the patient’s. This can impact the ease of use, features offered, and even technical requirements for patient access.

What is California Health Care Foundation?

The California HealthCare Foundation works as a catalyst to fulfill the promise of better health care for all Californians. We support ideas and innovations that improve quality, increase efficiency, and lower the costs of care. For more information, visit us online at www.chcf.org.

What are the rights of minors in California?

Both California law and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations contain provisions dealing with minors’ rights to access their health information , and accompanying rights to privacy and confidentiality of that information (HIPAA largely defers to state law). In general, the person who has the right or obligation to consent for treatment purposes also holds the privacy rights with respect to the data. In other words, if minors have the right to seek and obtain treatment on their own, without parental consent, they hold the privacy rights with respect to data about that treatment.2 To further complicate the matter, the age at which minors may consent for treatment on their own is based on the type of health service sought:

Benefits of a Patient Portal

Staff will spend less time on data entry. When you consider that registration information must be provided by every patient, you quickly realize the enormous amount of time your office staff spends entering that data into your computer system.

Portals and EHR Meaningful Use

With 2014 just around the corner, practices that are moving on to Stage 2 of the federal meaningful use (MU) incentive program must prepare to meet the new re-quirements.

Get Prepared for a Portal

Start early. It takes considerable time to introduce your patients to the features available through your portal—and even longer to get them into the habit of using it regularly. “We knew that we had to embrace this new technology as part of the MU requirements and did not want to wait until the last minute to begin implementation,” said Ms.

Going Live

When your patient portal goes live, should you roll out multiple features all at once or implement one component at a time?

Usability Is Critical

Patient portals must be user friendly to sustain continued patient use. If your practice’s portal is not intuitive or if it is too cumbersome to move through the options, you’ll find your patients will avoid using it. “Our portal is provided by one of several third-party vendors that work directly with our EHR vendor,” said Ms. Woodke.