patient portal use in rural areas

by Caleb Considine 7 min read

Patient Portal Utilization Among Ethnically Diverse Low ...

30 hours ago Dec 15, 2021 · In addition, HRMC is competing with primary care practices, where many patients regular visit physicians, for portal usage since some physicians outsource lab testing to HRMC, but will use their own portal to make the results available to patients. HRMC is used as an example of the effort undertaken by rural hospitals in poor counties within North Carolina to … >> Go To The Portal


RESULTS: Patients with more chronic conditions, lab tests, or prescriptions generally showed greater patient portal usage. However, patients who were male, elderly, in minority groups, or living in rural areas persistently had lower portal usage.

One national study, a March 2017 by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), found that only about 15 to 30 percent of patients who were offered access to a portal used it, with lower use among people living in rural and high-poverty areas.Dec 12, 2018

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How can we improve patient care access in rural areas?

Dec 15, 2021 · In addition, HRMC is competing with primary care practices, where many patients regular visit physicians, for portal usage since some physicians outsource lab testing to HRMC, but will use their own portal to make the results available to patients. HRMC is used as an example of the effort undertaken by rural hospitals in poor counties within North Carolina to …

Why are rural areas more prone to public reimbursements?

Nov 14, 2017 · It reveals that receiving health care in rural communities is associated with limited patient portal utilization; rural communities have less Internet access . The results for patient portal usefulness and usability are somewhat tautological, that is, those who utilize their patient portal at all generally utilize several features.

Can patient portals improve patient communication with providers?

Methods: Patients from one urban and two rural clinics serving low income patients were recruited and completed interviewer-administered questionnaires on patient portal utilization. Results: A total of 200 ethnically diverse patients completed questionnaires, of which 41 (20.5%) patients reported utilizing portals. Education, social support, and frequent Internet utilization …

Are patients living in remote regions more likely to be healthy?

No significant differences in portal use were found according to gender, ethnicity, or practice size and location. Conclusion: Considering the extraordinary investment on implementation and meaningful use of portal technology, low overall use and the large number of registered non-users is especially troubling. Regardless, our results demonstrate potential opportunities to leverage …

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What percent of patients use patient portals?

FINDINGS. Nearly 40 percent of individuals nationwide accessed a patient portal in 2020 – this represents a 13 percentage point increase since 2014.Sep 21, 2021

What is the use 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.Sep 29, 2017

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

How many hospitals use patient portals?

Just around one-third of hospitals said that less than 10 percent of their patients have adopted the tool, while fewer than 10 percent of hospitals said most of their patients have adopted the portal. Healthcare organizations are working to add additional offerings, likely in an effort to bring patients to the portal.Apr 11, 2019

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

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

When did the medical field start using patient portals?

1990sIn the late 1990s and early 2000s, the earliest adopters of patient portals began offering electronic tools for patient-centered communication, often “tethered” to their integrated electronic health record system.Apr 7, 2016

What safeguards are included in patient portals?

Patient portals have privacy and security safeguards in place to protect your health information. To make sure that your private health information is safe from unauthorized access, patient portals are hosted on a secure connection and accessed via an encrypted, password-protected logon.

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.

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 like patient portals?

Eight studies reported that patients or their caregivers want more portal education, training, or support. Two studies found that their participants want human connection as they learn about the portal and how to use it, as well as when they encounter issues.Jan 25, 2021

How do you make 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 health risks of rural areas?

What’s more, patients living in rural areas are also usually higher risk with a propensity to have complex health issues. Rural health specialists at Stanford Medicine state that patients living in remote regions are more likely to manage one of many health conditions: 1 Obesity 2 Inactivity 3 Being kept from working/daily activities because of physical or mental health 4 Smoking and drug and alcohol use 5 Chronic illness

What percentage of rural populations are poor?

According to Stanford Medicine research, rural populations also report poorer healthcare quality, with 4.5 percent of individuals rating their health as poor compared to 3.6 percent of their urban counterparts. Improving rural patient healthcare access proves to be a multi-pronged effort.

How much has telehealth saved?

In sum, telehealth reduced travel distances by 5 million miles across the entire study population, and resulted in $3 million saved in travel costs over a nine-year period. Telehealth technology has also enabled rural hospitals to connect ...

What is the Telehealth Innovation and Improvement Act?

The Medicare Access to Rehabilitation Services Act of 2017. The Telehealth Innovation and Improvement Act. These legislative and industry-wide efforts will be key to supplementing individual provider strategies for improving patient healthcare access.

How can rural healthcare professionals support their patients?

Outside of clinical initiatives, healthcare professionals in rural areas can also support their patients by addressing social determinants of health. Geographic barriers and treatment accessibility are two key social determinants of health capable of being addressed through community outreach.

What is an EHR in healthcare?

After the national multibillion-dollar investment in health information technology (HIT) over the past decade, rural healthcare organizations are now exploring how electronic health record (EHR) data can deliver on its promise of improving patient care.

What is Harris Regional Hospital?

Moving from the rural ambulatory setting into the acute care world, Harris Regional Hospital (HRH), a rural hospital in western North Carolina, is also having success using EHR data analytics to improve patient care. In June 2018, HRH published Managing What Is Measured: A Rural Hospital’s Experience in Reducing Patient Harm in the Journal of Healthcare Quality. Using its EHR data for quality improvement projects, its study shares steps of a “Zero Harm” project that achieved an 82% change in number of harm events in the short interval of two years. Like Kentucky’s WHCs, HRH uses a commercial data analytics product to extract EHR data for multiple clinical and administrative uses.

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Rural Hospitals Address Limited Staffing Issues

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Rural areas are disproportionately affected by limited staffing issues. Stanford Medicine data reveals that these regions are home to about 20 percent of the nation’s patients but host only 10 percent of the nation’s clinicians. In a May 2017 report, AHA recommended rural healthcare organizations reassess their inpatient …
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Leveraging Telehealth to Overcome Geographic Barriers

  • Telehealth offers a technological bridge to connect patients and their clinicians, no matter the distance between the two parties. “Traveling to receive services places burden on patients including cost and time,” says the Rural Health Information Hub. “For people with low incomes, no paid time off of their jobs, physical limitations, or acute conditions, these burdens can significan…
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Supporting Alternative Care Sites to Fill Geography Gaps

  • In addition to technology options, rural healthcare professionals should look to alternative care sites to fill geographic disparities. As noted by AHA, rural communities see more outpatient needs than inpatient care needs. Ambulatory facilities tend to be less expensive to operate, have a smaller footprint, and are easier to maintain throughout rural areas. “In some instances, a vulner…
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Addressing Social Determinants of Health

  • Outside of clinical initiatives, healthcare professionals in rural areas can also support their patients by addressing social determinants of health. Geographic barriers and treatment accessibility are two key social determinants of healthcapable of being addressed through community outreach. “We determined that addressing these challenges through enhanced clinic…
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How Is The Industry at Large Dealing with This Issue?

  • The industry’s leading stakeholders also have an immense responsibility to create opportunities for rural communities to improve patient healthcare access. Industry leaders and policymakers must use nationwide programs and legislation to support individual interventions. The American Medical Association has lent its support to the efforts by helping clinicians make decisions abo…
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