patient portal meaning

by Delia Turcotte DVM 4 min read

What is a patient portal? | HealthIT.gov

33 hours ago Sep 29, 2017 · 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; Discharge summaries; Medications; Immunizations; Allergies; Lab results >> Go To The 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

Full Answer

What does patient portal mean?

Sep 29, 2017 · 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; Discharge summaries; Medications; Immunizations; Allergies; Lab results

What is a patient portal?

Define patient portal. patient portal synonyms, patient portal pronunciation, patient portal translation, English dictionary definition of patient portal. n. 1. A doorway, entrance, or gate, especially one that is large and imposing. 2. An entrance or …

What is a health portal?

Aug 08, 2017 · A patient portal is an application that allows patients to have access to parts of their medical records from their primary care doctor, specialists, or other Healthcare organizations. Patients log into patient portals from either a PC, a tablet, or a smartphone.

What is a doctor portal?

Jan 05, 2022 · Ask the Doc: What is the Patient Portal and What Does it Mean to Me? Army Maj. Cynthia Anderson, chief nursing information officer for General Leonard Wood Army Community Hospital, oversees the in-processing of trainees into MHS GENESIS, April 24, 2021 (Chad Ashe, General Leonard Wood Army Community Hospital).

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What's the meaning 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. Discharge summaries. Medications.Sep 29, 2017

Who uses patient portals?

Overwhelmingly, patients use the portal to view their lab results (85 percent). Sixty-two percent of patients are also using the tool for more clinical tasks, such as scheduling appointments, completing paperwork, and refilling prescriptions.Apr 16, 2018

Why is patient portal important?

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 another name for patient portal?

“Tethered PHRs, also known as patient portals, allow patients to access relevant medical information from their provider,” the team wrote in its abstract.Feb 17, 2017

Why do patients not use patient portals?

The researchers found no demographic differences among nonusers who said that a technology hurdle, lack of internet access or no online medical record was the reason why they did not make use of a patient portal.May 14, 2019

Do patients use patient portals?

Despite the widespread availability of online patient portals, only 15 to 30 percent of patients use them, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. For a study published in Health Affairs, researchers sought to learn more about who is and isn't using portals.Apr 22, 2020

How do patient portals improve patient care?

Background. Engaging patients in the delivery of health care has the potential to improve health outcomes and patient satisfaction. Patient portals may enhance patient engagement by enabling patients to access their electronic medical records (EMRs) and facilitating secure patient-provider communication.

How do you improve 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...•Jun 25, 2020

Do patient portals improve 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.Dec 19, 2019

Is patient portal an app?

The patient portal is also available through a mobile app called PortalConnect. This increases convenience for patients as they can have secure access to all this important information from wherever they are.

How is a patient portal different from a personal health record?

Traditionally, a Patient Portal is an extension of an EHR, EMR, or Hospital system. ... On the other hand, the Personal Health Record (PHR) is more patient centric, is controlled by a patient or family member, and may or may not be connected to a doctor or hospital (i.e. it may be tethered or untethered).Sep 6, 2012

Is a PHR the same as a patient portal?

A PHR that is tied to an EHR is called a patient portal. In some but not all cases you can add information, such as home blood pressure readings, to your record via a patient portal.

What is progress note?

The progress note is written in medical terminology, and is not directed toward the patient. A patient can specifically request to view progress notes through formal records requests, but this is not a routine practice for most patients.

What is portal in EHR?

In the EHR model, the portal is an extension of a vendor’s core electronic health record system. A Healthcare organization will usually launch the portal at the same time or shortly after the activation of the core EHR. Most of the data that patients see when they log into the portal is only from that organization’s system.

How long does an authorization code last?

The authorization code automatically expires if they don’t finish the process, usually from between 14 and 30 days. Healthcare organizations who are trying to increase their portal sign-up ratio prefer the first option because it gets the sign-up process out of the way.

What is meaningful use?

Meaningful use is the Federal legislation that mandates the use of Healthcare Technology for most providers in the US. It has three stages phased in over several years. Each stage has requirements that increase from previous stages.

What is a patient portal?

Patient portals are healthcare -related online applications that allow patients to interact and communicate with their healthcare providers, such as physicians and hospitals . Typically, portal services are available on the Internet at all hours of the day and night. Some patient portal applications exist as stand-alone web sites ...

How do patient portals benefit patients?

Patient portals benefit both patients and providers by increasing efficiency and productivity. Patient portals are also regarded as a key tool to help physicians meet "meaningful use" requirements in order to receive federal incentive checks, especially for providing health information to patients.

Is a patient portal HIPAA compliant?

While there may be systems that are not HIPAA compliant, certainly most patient and practice portals are secure and compliant with HIPAA regulations. The use of SSL and access control patterns are commonplace in the industry. Patient access is typically validated with a user name and password.

What are the shortcomings of a patient portal?

The major shortcoming of most patient portals is their linkage to a single health organization. If a patient uses more than one organization for healthcare, the patient normally needs to log on to each organization's portal to access information. This results in a fragmented view of individual patient data.

What is HIPAA regulation?

Health care providers in the US are bound to comply with HIPAA regulations. These regulations specify what patient information must be held in confidence. Something as seemingly trivial as a name is viewed by HIPAA as protected health information.

What is e-visit?

E-visits (remote use of medical services) may soon become one of the most commonly used options of patient portals. The most likely demographic for uptake of e-visits are patients who live in remote rural areas, far from clinical services.

How much money is the HITECH Act?

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), in particular the HITECH Act within ARRA, sets aside approximately $19 billion for health information technology. This funding will potentially offset the costs of electronic medical record systems for practicing physicians.

What is the PHMG strategy?

PHMG had a strategy of ensuring that patients hear about the portal from multiple sources during each clinical visit. To execute this strategy, PHMG used several methods of communication, including:

When did PHMG start patient portal?

PHMG launched the patient portal in early 2010. As a first step, the physician champion piloted the portal for about 6 months before it was implemented in one clinic at a time. According to the physician champion, implementation was “easier than expected because everyone was already comfortable with eClinicalWorks, ...

Is the portal easy to use?

It’s really very easy to use. If you use the Internet, you’ll most likely find the portal helpful and easy to navigate. They found that it is particularly persuasive when providers encourage patients to use the portal because patients trust providers and value their opinions.

What are the challenges of the portal?

One major challenge with the portal is the multiple step registration process . Patients provide their e‐mail address at the front desk and are given a password to register from home. Some patients fail to complete the registration process after leaving the clinic. Remembering and managing passwords and managing family accounts are also challenging for patients. For example, a parent may log in for one child and then ask questions about a second child. For providers and staff, a challenge is that there is no way to know whether a Web‐enabled patient actually uses the portal and there are no read receipts to confirm that patients have read a message.

When did PHMG implement EHR?

In 2007 PHMG implemented an EHR system, eClinicalWorks, as part of a strategy to improve quality of care and facilitate coordination of care across its multiple clinic locations. In preparing for implementation, PHMG proceeded with:

What Does It Mean For You?

Patient engagement is a key component in attesting for Meaningful Use Stage 2.

The Good News?

You’ve chosen a patient portal system designed for patient engagement and a service team that is prepared. We don’t just expect you to meet the 5% messaging requirement – we want you to exceed it.

Attestation

The Bridge Patient Portal has a built-in Meaningful Use reporting module where you can export a report based on Core Objective, Provider and Reporting Period. A Bridge team member can help you run these reports when it comes time to attest.

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Overview

Patient portals are healthcare-related online applications that allow patients to interact and communicate with their healthcare providers, such as physicians and hospitals. Typically, portal services are available on the Internet at all hours of the day and night. Some patient portal applications exist as stand-alone web sitesand sell their services to healthcare providers. Other portal applications are integrated into the existing web site of a healthcare provider. Still others …

Features and benefits

The central feature that makes any system a patient portal is the ability to expose individual patient health information in a secure manner through the Internet. In addition, virtually all patient portals allow patients to interact in some way with health care providers. Patient portals benefit both patients and providers by increasing efficiency and productivity. Patient portals are also regarded as a key tool to help physicians meet "meaningful use" requirements in order to receiv…

Disadvantages

The major shortcoming of most patient portals is their linkage to a single health organization. If a patient uses more than one organization for healthcare, the patient normally needs to log on to each organization's portal to access information. This results in a fragmented view of individual patient data.

Practice portals

Portal applications for individual practices typically exist in tandem with patient portals, allowing access to patient information and records, as well as schedules, payments, and messages from patients. Most patient portals require the practice to have some type of electronic medical record or patient management system, as the patient data needs to be stored in a data repository then retrieved by the patient portal. While lauding its ease-of-use, some physicians note that it is har…

Security

Health care providers in the US are bound to comply with HIPAA regulations. These regulations specify what patient information must be held in confidence. Something as seemingly trivial as a name is viewed by HIPAA as protected health information. For this reason, security has always been a top concern for the industry when dealing with the adoption of patient portals. While there may be systems that are not HIPAA compliant, certainly most patient and practice portals are se…

History

Internet portal technology has been in common use since the 1990s. The financial industry has been particularly adept at using the Internet to grant individual users access to personal information. Possibly because of the strictness of HIPAA regulations, or the lack of financial incentives for the health care providers, the adoption of patient portals has lagged behind other market segments.

Future

E-visits (remote use of medical services) may soon become one of the most commonly used options of patient portals. The most likely demographic for uptake of e-visits are patients who live in remote rural areas, far from clinical services. An Internet session would be much cheaper and more convenient than traveling a long distance, especially for simple questions or minor medical complaints.

Vendors

Some vendors, such as athenahealth, Epic Systems and Cerner offer patient portals as one module of a complete Electronic Health Record (EHR) system. Other vendors, such as Allscripts and Medfusion, offer patient portals that can be integrated with any EHR.
Recent market surveys have highlighted best of breed, or applications that excel at one or two functions, are losing ground to portals provided by large vendors. While best of breed portals ar…