patient portal use over time

A new study has concluded that patient portal use has shot up over the past few years, with a substantial majority of patients reporting that they use provider portals if possible.

Full Answer

What is the purpose of patient portal?

Feb 25, 2021 · There were 32 different combinations of study metrics, identified in Table 3, with the two most common metric combinations being patient use/adoption, frequency, and intensity (n=9) and patient use/adoption alone (n=9). The majority of studies (53/87, 61%) analyzed three or fewer metrics, with 3.11 as the average number of metrics reported.

Do patient portals improve access to personal health information among older adults?

Oct 25, 2017 · A new study has concluded that patient portal use has shot up over the past few years, with a substantial majority of patients reporting that they use provider portals if possible. The purpose of the study, results of which was published in Perspectives in Health Information Management, was to examine how healthcare consumers saw their interactions with provider …

Are patients and physicians ready for online portals in healthcare?

Nov 05, 2015 · Our finding that those older adults who use patient portals do so because the use of the portal facilitates efficient and easy access to health information, medical reports, and clinical appointments, is consistent with prior studies investigating older adult adoption of new technologies, such as automated teller cards and cell phones 18, 19.

What is the relationship between patient portal utilization and health outcomes?

In this issue, David Twiddy provides an excellent update on patient portals, “Removing Six Key Barriers to Online Portal Use,” that focuses on the challenges of portal implementation. Patient ...

What percentage of patients use patient portals?

When did healthcare start using patient portals?

What is the future of patient portals?

Why do people not use patient portals?

Why is the patient portal a good tool for patient engagement?

How can patient compliance with portal registration be increased?

What is a disadvantage of patient portal?

Do patients like patient portals?

How safe are patient portals?

How do patient portals empower consumers?

When used effectively, patient portals can empower consumers by enabling active management of their own care. However, we know little about how patient portal use fits into the broader personal health information management (PHIM) practices of various groups, such as older adults.

Why is it important to understand consumer health information?

Important to the success of the consumer health movement is accurate, accessible, and understandable health information to assist with treatment and health decisions . Older adults are the largest consumers of health care and expend the greatest proportion of US health care dollars.

Why don't people use the patient portal?

The research team found that patients with chronic health problems who were younger or white were more likely than others to use the patient portal. Among patients who said they didn’t use the portal, the most common reasons were. Wanting to get care in person or by phone (54 percent)

What is patient portal?

Patient portals are secure websites where patients can view their health records, view test results, send messages to their doctor, and ask for prescription refills. Patients with chronic, or long-term, health problems such as asthma, diabetes, or heart disease must often coordinate their care across different doctors in multiple locations.

What is the objective of a patient portal?

Objective 1: no follow-up for study outcomes. Objective 2: 2-year follow-up for study outcomes. Patient portals are secure websites where patients can access their health records. In this study, researchers, patients, clinicians, and other health system staff collaborated to design a survey to understand the drivers of and barriers ...

What is a peer review in PCORI?

Peer review of PCORI-funded research helps make sure the report presents complete, balanced, and useful information about the research . It also assesses how the project addressed PCORI’s Methodology Standards. During peer review, experts read a draft report of the research and provide comments about the report. These experts may include a scientist focused on the research topic, a specialist in research methods, a patient or caregiver, and a healthcare professional. These reviewers cannot have conflicts of interest with the study.

How many portals do patients need?

A patient should only need one portal – a comprehensive one maintained by his or her primary care physician (PCP), who shares data with all those specialists and hospitals, gets timely updates, and is great at keeping records.

Do portals talk to each other?

A big problem is that portals are not standardized and often don't talk to each other. Imagine an older patient – a computer literate 71-year-old male who sees a family physician, a dermatologist, an ophthalmologist, an orthopedist, and a urologist, and uses just one hospital.

Is it better to send test results electronically?

Sending test results electronic ally can be more timely . However, the current state of the art needs work. A big problem is that portals are not standardized and often don't talk to each other.

Do portals improve patient health?

And while ED visits and hospitalizations are one measure of wellness, it is not clear whether portals improve patient health; to the extent that the foster improved communication, they provide a benefit. Portals are not free of problems. Only about 30% of Medicare beneficiaries use them despite nearly 90% of their physicians providing them.

Do EHRs have patient portals?

And while getting the various EHRs to talk to one another seems not to have been considered meaningful, EHRs have implemented patient portals – a means for patients to e-communicate with their physicians and see their health records. A new paper describes some of the savings associated with the use of patient portals.

How many Medicare beneficiaries use portals?

Portals are not free of problems. Only about 30% of Medicare beneficiaries use them despite nearly 90% of their physicians providing them. As with many healthcare disparities, age, income, and in this instance broadband access, limit portal use.

What is meaningful use?

Meaningful use refers to not just having electronic health records (EHR), but using them in a useful way for patients. And while getting the various EHRs to talk to one another seems not to have been considered meaningful, EHRs have implemented patient portals – a means for patients to e-communicate with their physicians ...

How to access a patient portal?

With a patient portal: 1 You can access your secure personal health information and be in touch with your provider's office 24 hours a day. You do not need to wait for office hours or returned phone calls to have basic issues resolved. 2 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. This can lead to better care and better management of your medicines. 3 E-mail reminders and alerts help you to remember things like annual checkups and flu shots.

What are the benefits of a patient portal?

Expand Section. With a patient portal: You can access your secure personal health information and be in touch with your provider's office 24 hours a day . You do not need to wait for office hours or returned phone calls to have basic issues resolved. You can access all of your personal health information from all ...

Why do providers use patient portals?

This is mainly because providers are trying to build a relationship with their patients, not just bolster patient loyalty. For many providers, patient portal use is about building trust and enhancing care.

Why are patient portals important?

Research shows that when patients are able to see their own health data, they gain ownership of their own wellness and are better prepared to interact with their providers about their care.

What are the features of a portal?

Most portals include features such as direct secure messaging, online appointment scheduling, online bill payments, prescription refill requests, and sometimes even data update capabilities. Just as was discussed above, not all portals will enable all features. While most portals include secure messaging features, ...

Is patient portal adoption increasing?

While patient portal benefits may sound enticing, they aren’t entirely effective if patients do not adopt them. As noted above, patient portal adoption is increasing, but there is still room for it to grow. Several industry experts claim that the burden of bolstering patient portal buy-in lay mostly on the provider.

Why do patients have access to doctors notes?

One study conducted at Geisinger Health showed that patients with access to doctors’ notes actually had higher rates of medication adherence because they were more engaged in and informed of their treatment plans.

What percentage of patients accessed their health data in 2014?

According to ONC, nearly 80 percent of patients who accessed their health data in 2014 found that access beneficial. Source: ONC. Other studies show that patients’ ability to directly view doctors’ notes helps enhance care.

What Was The Research About?

What Were The Results?

• The research team found that patients with chronic health problems who were younger or white were more likely than others to use the patient portal. Among patients who said they didn’t use the portal, the most common reasons were 1. Wanting to get care in person or by phone (54 percent) 2. Not often using a computer with access to the internet (41 ...

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Who Was in The Study?

What Did The Research Team do?

What Were The Limits of The Study?

How Can People Use The Results?