patient portal scholalry article

What do patients want from a portal?

Apr 11, 2019 · Patient Portal Outputs. The literature explored some, but not all, potential outputs of patient portal implementations. Most of the studies assessed implementation of patient portals using interim outcomes such as user perceptions, and few studies addressed important objective outcomes such as length of stay, morbidity, or mortality [2,4,20,54].

Does the patient portal meet the intents of meaningful use?

Feb 10, 2015 · Results. We identified 26 studies and 1 review, and we summarized their findings and applicability to our research question. Very few studies associated use of the patient portal, or its features, to improved outcomes; 37% (10/27) of papers reported improvements in medication adherence, disease awareness, self-management of disease, a decrease of office …

Are patient portal users able to interpret lab results accurately?

In the outputs category, some but not all studies found patient portals improved patient engagement; patients perceived some portal functions as inadequate but others as useful; patients and staff thought portals may improve patient care but could cause anxiety in some patients; and portals improved patient safety, adherence to medications, and ...

What is the portal for patient engagement?

Articles reviewed rarely analyzed a full patient portal but instead analyzed features of a portal such as secure messaging, as well as disease management and monitoring. The ability of patients to be able to view their health information electronically meets the intent of Meaningful Use, Stage 2 requirements, but the ability to transmit to a ...

What is the purpose of patient portal?

How effective are patient portals?

What is a patient portal and what are the benefits of such?

Do patients use patient portals?

What should be in a patient portal?

What are the disadvantages of patient portals?

Key Words

Patient portals are personal health record (PHR) systems tethered to a health organization’s electronic health record (EHR) system. They allow patients to track their medical history, access their medical records, and communicate with their health-care providers, and in some cases, they record patient-entered data.

Materials and Methods

Figure 1 illustrates the literature review strategy.

Use of a Patient Portal by Pulmonologists in a Group Practice

We looked at the use of a patient portal implemented in early 2009 in a multispecialty group practice in the northeastern United States. As of May 31, 2014, 51,770 active patients in this practice had activated their access to the patient portal.

Conclusions

PHRs have value to providers and patients in numerous health-care settings and scenarios; however, this review of the literature reveals that in the PHR and patient portal knowledge base accumulated to date, very few studies have addressed the use of PHRs for pulmonary conditions or by pulmonologists.

What is a patient portal?

Patient portals are intended to engage patients by giving them access to medical information ; however, if patients are unable to understand the information or the system is not usable, patients will not take advantage of them. Despite several aforementioned drawbacks, apps have used evolving innovative designs to engage consumers and offer unique features and functions that could be translated to patient portal design. For instance, Apple's ResearchKit's Diabetes app pings the user daily to update disease and symptom-related information. Check-in questions or user-friendly alerts in portals could similarly be explored for engaging more patients their health care. Alerts could ask if the patient understands an abnormal result, direct them to helpful resources, and encourage test result follow-up. Finally, test results in the portal need to be easily understood by laypeople or displayed using simplified medical terms. For example, a portal might display elevated cholesterol as "↑LDL cholesterol," or even just display the number without a flag, whereas a health app may label it as “bad cholesterol.”

How can information technology improve patient care?

There is growing interest in electronic access to health information and the use of digital data for both disease and health-related tracking. Widespread use of health information technology (IT) could potential ly increase patients’ access to their health information and facilitate future goals of advancing patient-centered care.1 For example, health IT can be used to facilitate information exchange with clinicians and instruct patients when to act upon clinical issues, such as out of range physiologic parameters, follow-up of test results, and complications of medication use. 2 Tools such as personal health records, patient portals, and various mobile health (mHealth) applications (apps) have been developed to help patients engage in their own care. Already, a significant number of patients use health IT; therefore, it is essential that patient-facing health IT be tailored to their needs. In this paper, we discuss two forms of patient-facing health IT tools—patient portals and apps—to highlight how, despite several limitations of each, combining high-yield features of mHealth apps with portals could increase patient engagement and self-management and be more effective than either of them alone. This could potentially improve both patient experience and outcomes related to patient-facing health IT.

What is the use of health information technology?

Widespread use of health information technology (IT) could potentially increase patients’ access to their health information and facilitate future goals of advancing patient-centered care. Despite having increased access to their health data, patients do not always understand this information or its implications, ...

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 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 is mHealth communication?

Communication generally takes the form of secure messaging such as live chat or e-mail among patients and providers , including primary care and specialist physicians, pharmacists, and many others.

Why is patient portal important?

Patient portal use has the potential to decrease testing redundancy and improve satisfaction. For example, if a patient's entire medical record with a healthcare provider is centrally located within a patient portal, it will be easily accessible for the patient to view, print out, or download.

What are the requirements for a health information technology (HITECH)?

1 The MU criteria require the adoption of a certified EHR by hospitals and providers to achieve specific objectives that are tied to financial incentives. 2 In order for hospitals, patient-centered medical homes, and practice providers to be eligible for Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) financial incentives, they must be certified and meet CMS eligibility criteria. Employers are including a specific section for HITECH funds and the EHR within healthcare provider contracts. 3