perks of a medical phi patient portal

• Better Patient Communication. Patients are able to utilize the portal to accomplish tasks that would normally require a phone call, or even multiple phone calls.
• Streamline Patient Registration and Administrative Tasks. Patient portals allow registration forms to be completed electronically prior to appointment check-in, keeping front-office work efficient.
• Greater Focus on Patient Care. The ability to easily access and share patient information electronically eases one of the main distractions on physicians’ time today.
• Better Patient-Physician Relationships. Patient portals provide the ability for patients to have 24-hour access to connect with their provider by reviewing patient health information (PHI), asking and answering questions, and ...
Improve Clinical Outcomes. Patient portals make tasks such as requesting prescription refills and referrals easier and more convenient leads to greater patient compliance – and when patients follow doctors’ orders, ...
Optimize Medical Office Workflow. With a patient portal, tasks that patients would otherwise have to accomplish with staff assistance can be accomplished electronically.

What are the benefits of using a patient portal?

Patient portal benefits include patients’ ability to access their clinical summaries online. Providers can also send lab results to patients via secure messaging accompanied by a brief message explaining the results (for example, “Your results are normal”) and any needed follow‐up instructions (for example, “Come back in 3 months for a recheck”).

What are the benefits of cloud based patient portals for providers?

As you can see, there are a host of benefits medical providers can take advantage of by using cloud based patient portals Better communication, elimination of paperwork, unrestricted electronic access, better relationships, improved outcomes, and an optimized workflow – all of these benefits can be achieved with one piece of technology.

How many patients have patient portal access?

52 percent of patients have patient portal access, although fewer patients are using the tools. (ONC) If you’re a physician, odds are you’ve been encouraged to utilize a patient portal. It’s mandated in regulatory programs. The benefits of greater access to medical information for patients is undeniable.

What is integrated patient portal software?

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. You can use patient portals to retrieve lab results, ask a question or update patient profiles and insurance providers.

What are the benefits of the patient portal?

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 are the pros and cons of 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 are the benefits to the patient when they are able to have access to their own health record?

The studies revealed that patients' access to medical records can be beneficial for both patients and doctors, since it enhances communication between them whilst helping patients to better understand their health condition. The drawbacks (for instance causing confusion and anxiety to patients) seem to be minimal.

Why are patient portals important and how do they benefit patients?

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.

What are the risks of a patient portal?

Some of these risks include: reliance on the patient portal as a sole method of patient communication; patient transmission of urgent/emergent messages via the portal; the posting of critical diagnostic results prior to provider discussions with patients; and possible security breaches resulting in HIPAA violations.Mar 1, 2021

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.

What are two important benefits to showing your patients that you care quizlet?

There are two important benefits to showing your patients that you care. First is improvement in their medical condition. A secondary benefit is the decreased likelihood that your patients will feel the need to sue if treatment has unsatisfactory results, or if adverse events occur.

What are the four purposes of medical records?

Healthcare organizations maintain medical records for several key purposes:Patient Care. Patient records provide the documented basis for planning patient care and treatment.Communication. ... Legal documentation. ... Billing and reimbursement. ... Research and quality management.

What is a PHR and how can it benefit patients?

Personal health records ( PHR s) can help your patients better manage their care. Having important health information – such as immunization records, lab results, and screening due dates – in electronic form makes it easy for patients to update and share their records.Mar 3, 2016

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.

What is the goal of hie?

Electronic health information exchange (HIE) allows doctors, nurses, pharmacists, other health care providers and patients to appropriately access and securely share a patient's vital medical information electronically—improving the speed, quality, safety and cost of patient care.Jul 24, 2020

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

What is a patient portal?

Patient portals provide the ability for patients to have 24-hour access to connect with their provider by reviewing patient health information (PHI), asking and answering questions, and reviewing notes, making the patient-physician relationship closer than ever.

Why do patients use portals?

This ability for patients to request appointments, referrals, and prescription refills directly from the portal increases the efficiency of your clinical staff, allowing them to keep their focus on assisting you with the patients who have the most urgent care needs and questions.

What are the benefits of cloud based patient portals?

As you can see, there are a host of benefits medical providers can take advantage of by using cloud based patient portals Better communication, elimination of paperwork, unrestricted electronic access, better relationships, improved outcomes, and an optimized workflow – all of these benefits can be achieved with one piece of technology.

What are the pros and cons of a patient portal?

The pros and cons of patient portal adoption depend equally on how useful the portal is for physicians, patients, outside medical associates and office staff. Creating a portal won’t provide the greatest possible access and efficiency unless the portal can communicate seamlessly with patient records and the medical practice’s software applications and resources. That means connecting with accounting and billing information, CRM software, affiliated labs and service-provider partners. Integrating systems into a robust API layer adds a layer of security beyond the firewalls to comply with HIPAA. Patients, staff and third parties can communicate securely while many tasks of the medical practice are streamlined, prioritized and accelerated.

Why do doctors use portals?

Physicians can use the doctor portal to collaborate with specialists, share information confidentially, peruse lab reports and improve collaboration between healthcare providers. Patients who use modern health trackers can get their results integrated into their charts so that their doctors can monitor conditions such as heart problems, diabetes, high blood pressure and other disorders. Other top benefits of portals, EHRs and integrated software include:

Overview

Patient portals improve the way in which patients and health care providers interact. A product of meaningful use requirements, they were mandated as a way to provide patients with timely access to their health care. Specifically, patient portals give patients access to their health information to take a more active role.

Primary Benefits

No matter the type of platform you choose, your patient portal can provide your patients with secure online access to their medical details and increase their engagement with your practice. And not to mention that it does so while providing several benefits for health care providers as well. Some of these benefits include:

Notable Challenges

While many people have used a patient portal by now, they have mixed reviews at best. As you can see in the section above, there are plenty of benefits that patient portals provide. But unfortunately, their potential has yet to be fully harnessed.

Emerging Trends

If patient portals are a mixed bag, why should the patient portal receive greater consideration in the EHR, EMR and practice management selection processes? Because when you look at current industry trends, patient portals are well on their way to improving. Some of these trends include:

How to Use a Patient Portal

With patient portals, the first and foremost thing you will need is a computer and a working internet connection. Create a customized user’s account in the software to avail medical services on your own. Once you enter the patient portal, click on links and products sold by the provider and tap into a new experience.

Solution Evaluation

Now that you know what a patient portal is and given the potential and growing importance, how should you evaluate the best portal for your practice or facility? You can select a standalone patient portal that a third-party vendor commonly hosts through the cloud as a health care provider.

Final Thoughts

It’s clear that using a patient portal software can provide several benefits for your medical practice. After accounting for these nine considerations, you should be ready to start using a patient portal. The only decision left to make is which platform you’ll use.

What is portal in medical office?

Portals give patients electronic access to tasks that would have previously required assistance from the medical office team. When patients have online access, staff can spend less time scheduling appointments, writing down refill needs, and answering questions about referrals. Ultimately that means a more efficient medical office workflow.

Why are portals important?

In addition to strengthening patient-provider relationships, portals can make tasks like requesting prescription refills and referrals more convenient. This ease of access leads to greater patient compliance and improved clinical outcomes.

Why is educational content important for patients?

Educational content hosted on patient portals can make it easier for patients to take a more active role in their care. They can have access to relevant information about their conditions, medications, all in one place on the Internet. Patients no longer have to sift through a stack of pamphlets just to get the information they need.

Why is patient engagement important?

Engaged patients have better health outcomes, are more satisfied with their care, and are more likely to return to the organization in the future. Educational content hosted on patient portals can make it easier for patients to take a more active role ...

Can administrative staff copy medical records?

What’s even nicer is that administrative staff, who used to spend a great deal of time copying medical records and updating the audit trail, can now simply direct the patient to their portal so that they can get the information electronically.

Can a patient have access to their own medical records?

Now, patients can take a much more active role in their care by having nearly instant access to their own medical records. In the past, a patient had to get medical records by showing up to the doctor’s office and asking them for a copy. Now, most of the information is digitized. But that’s not all patient portals can do.

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, ...

Why is it persuasive to use a portal?

They found that it is particularly persuasive when providers encourage patients to use the portal because patients trust providers and value their opinions. One provider says he reinforces a patient’s use of the portal by closing all messages with “Thanks for using the portal.”.

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:

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.

Where is PHMG based?

PHMG is currently working with Healthwise® — a nonprofit organization based in Boise, Idaho, that develops health content and patient education solutions—to beta test the integration of Healthwise patient education materials into the eClinicalWorks EHR system.

Why is Qualis important?

Qualis has also been an important resource for information about the meaningful use rules. "We felt strongly that from a quality standpoint we could not succeed without going to electronic health records. I felt very strongly we had to invest in it because it would positively affect every patient that we encounter.".

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 to increase patient access to information?

Not only are you allowing more access to information and giving patients more control of that information, but increasing patient access to information also means that the patient can make information public.

Why is improving patient access important?

It is likely that by having more knowledge and control of their healthcare, your patients will feel more satisfied with the care that you provide to them.

What does patient access mean?

In this article, patient access means how patients can access information or data about their healthcare. Therefore, an increase in patient access will help patients feel more in control of their healthcare experience and its outcome. Today patients are engaging with their healthcare more so than ever before.

Why is it important for patients to become active participants in healthcare?

When patients become active participants in their healthcare, everyone benefits. The patients feel better, and physicians have an easier time getting their patients to a point where they experience true, whole-body wellness.

How many books will each person fill in their lifetime?

A study conducted by tech company IBM found that each person will generate enough health data in their lifetime to fill 300 million books thanks to modern technology. During the past two years, people have collected more data about their health than they have in all of human history.

Can negative reviews hurt patient relationships?

Now, not only do you have to fix your relationship with the patient in question, but the negative review can harm future patient relationships. This is a risk that you take when you increase patient access.

Can consumers pick a doctor?

Consumers of healthcare – patients – are limited to picking a physician within their insurance network. Or be limited to only doctors they can afford. When they do go, they blindly accept the treatment plan outlined to them by a physician, without knowing what it might cost in the end.

Better Patient Communication

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Streamline Patient Registration and Administrative Tasks

Greater Focus on Patient Care

Overview

Primary Benefits

• No matter the type of platform you choose, your patient portal can provide your patients with secure online access to their medical details and increase their engagement with your practice. And not to mention that it does so while providing several benefits for health care providers as well. Some of these benefits include:

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Notable Challenges

Emerging Trends

How to Use A Patient Portal

Solution Evaluation

Final Thoughts