potential reasons not to create a patient portal

by Dr. Kennedy Satterfield 9 min read

What are the Top Pros and Cons of Adopting Patient …

9 hours ago Feb 17, 2016 · The most frequently reported downside to patient portals is the difficulty providers often face in generating patient buy-in. Although providers are generally aware of the health perks of using a patient portal, patients are seldom as excited about the portal as they are. >> Go To The Portal


What is a patient portal in healthcare?

Feb 17, 2016 · The most frequently reported downside to patient portals is the difficulty providers often face in generating patient buy-in. Although providers are generally aware of the health perks of using a patient portal, patients are seldom as excited about the portal as they are.

What are the downsides of a patient portal?

Mar 21, 2019 · Implementing and managing patient portals should be viewed as less about technology and more about meeting patient needs and ensuring easy, useful communication with the provider. — Poor training. Correction: poor marketing. Sure, most hospitals have a program for training inpatients on using their portals.

Can a patient portal be hacked?

The reason why most patients do not want to use their patient portal is because they see no value in it, they are just not interested. The portals do not properly incentivize the patient either intellectually (providing enough data to prove useful) or financially.

Do you need more than one portal for patient information?

Many patients are simply more comfortable calling to make appointments and leaving messages. Old habits are hard to change. Yet, if we can get patients …

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What are the disadvantages of using a patient portal?

Even though they should improve communication, there are also disadvantages to patient portals....Table of ContentsGetting Patients to Opt-In.Security Concerns.User Confusion.Alienation and Health Disparities.Extra Work for the Provider.Conclusion.Nov 11, 2021

Can you think of any potential disadvantages of patients using the patient portal system within the EHR justify your answer?

One con to keep in mind with patient portals is that some patients may not have much experience with computers, preventing them from getting the most out of it. Another drawback is the potential for data breaches, so you'll need to work with a vendor that provides robust, secure EHR software.May 23, 2017

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

How patient portals are failing healthcare and our patients?

Even if a test result isn't recognizably negative, a portal presentation of an uninterpreted report can be painful to patients and certainly unproductive. A recent study found that nearly two-thirds of 95 patients who obtained test results via a portal received no explanatory information about the findings.Mar 21, 2019

What are some of the potential negative effects of allowing a client to read their own record?

Perhaps it will inspire shame, hopelessness, or anger. A psychiatrist may be insecure about revealing poor record-keeping habits or, more subtly, may feel discomfort with the notion that reading the chart allows the patient to glimpse into the psychiatrist's mind.Mar 11, 2014

Are there any disadvantages to the electronic system?

Disadvantage: Security Filing records electronically may not be as secured as sending them via mail or post. Especially for those who employ an outside or third party service to do the electronic filing for them, you are providing identifiable information that the service may keep on file for a long period of time.

What are the downsides in restricting access to Ehrs?

Barriers Restricting Access to EHR Data in Support of Patient Safety and Privacy Laws Can Lead to Diagnostic Errors, Some Involving Clinical Laboratory Tests.Nov 7, 2016

What are the disadvantages of personal health records?

Are there drawbacks to PHRs? Building a complete health record takes some time. You have to collect and enter all your health information. Only a minority of doctors, hospitals, pharmacies and insurance companies can send information electronically to a PHR that isn't part of a patient portal.

Why patients should not have access to their medical records?

Several ethical implications need to be considered: increased information could improve patient trust and knowledge but might transfer an (unwelcome) sense of responsibility to patients; doctors and patients have conflicting views on how much information should be shared and when; sharing written information might ...Mar 2, 2020

What do patients want from a patient portal?

May 13, 2016 - Patient portals are an online website that is connected to the EHR, centrally focused on patient access to health data. These tools give patients a look into various data points, including lab results, physician notes, their health histories, discharge summaries, and immunizations.May 13, 2016

Do patient portals improve healthcare?

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 optimize patient portals for patient engagement and meet meaningful use requirements?

Meet Meaningful Use Requirements The portal must be engaging and user- friendly, and must support patient-centered outcomes. The portal also must be integrated into clinical encounters so the care team uses it to convey information, communicate with patients, and support self-care and decision-making as indicated.

Why are portals so complicated?

A big issue for many users is that portals are simply too complicated for at least two opposite kinds of users: those who have low computer literacy, and those who are so computer savvy that they expect the simplicity of an Uber or Instagram app to get a test result or appointment with a click or two.

Is the portal concept slow?

Acceptance of the portal concept continues to be slow, especially within physicians’ offices and small to middle size hospitals. Though these providers implemented portals via their Meaningful Use / MIPS incentives, portals are often not treated as a central communications tool. Patient engagement? Yes…a laudable objective for policymakers — but many physicians already lament the deep cuts in their daily patient schedule that have been created by complex EHR-related obligations. The added work of portal interaction has been the opposite of a pot-sweetener, despite touted financial benefits.

Why are portals important?

As yet, Irizarry said, there’s little concrete evidence that patient portal use leads to better outcomes. “Just because an organization has a portal does not guarantee patient engagement.

Why did portals get a kickoff?

According to Taya Irizarry, a strategy consultant at Highmark Health who has conducted research on portals, “the only reason that patient portals got a kickoff in the beginning was because they were part of HITECH’s meaningful use criteria.”. Portals were seen as a way to support patient engagement, which theoretically might lead ...

How many patient records have been breached in 2019?

Through the first half of June of 2019, 25 million patient records have already been breached. Many of these breaches have been caused by hackers, who sell patient records on the black market and dark web. In light of these startling figures, MFA is an eminently reasonable and appropriate cybersecurity measure.

What is multifactor authentication?

Multifactor authentication, known as MFA, requires users to provide multiple ways to authenticate that it is them, such entering as a password in combination with a fingerprint scan, or a password in combination with a code sent to their phone for one-time use.

What is an EPHI?

ePHI is defined as any protected health information (PHI) that is created, stored, transmitted, or received in any electronic format or media.

Why are patient portals important?

A major pro of patient portals is that they improve patient engagement. Engaged patients are more likely to stay loyal to a practice as compared to other organizations that don’t make much of an effort to connect.

What is an EHR in medical practice?

An EHR is a database of all the records for your patients. It’s much more efficient than an antiquated, paper-based method for organizing charts in your practice.

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The Patient Perspective

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It doesn’t seem like patients see the value. A new, large-scale study found that, even among patients who had health insurance and who had been to see a doctor in the past year, 63% had not used a portal during that time. Only about 60% of the study’s 2,300 participants were even offered the option, but a significant number …
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The Problem with Portals

  • People may not actually be that technologically illiterate. The problem may lie with portals themselves. “They’re big, they’re heavy, they’re full of a bunch of medical jargon, they’re hard to use,” Irizarry said, explaining that patients are often overwhelmed by the sheer amount of medical information available in a traditional portal. According to Irizarry, that has a lot to do with the wa…
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So What Can Healthcare Organizations—And Everyone Else—Do?

  • First of all, Anthony said, doctors have to address patient concerns head-on. Providers can assure their patients that portals have excellent security and privacy measures in place, and make clear that “this is not going to impede their relationship with their provider; it’s expected to enhance that.” Brochures and other educational materials need to tell not just how to use a portal—in ste…
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Increasing The Value

  • But portals themselves need some work. “The original idea was, ‘the more information, the better,’” Irizarry said. “There’s a long sidebar, with ten different links to things. So you click on laboratory results, and it’s every lab result you’ve ever had. There are test results, with numbers that you may or may not understand.” Patients still want that information, said Pamela Kallmerten, a clinical a…
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