promote patient portal use

Seven tips on how to promote your patient portal

• Provide informational handouts at the front desk and in the waiting area that patients can read while they wait for...
• Place a computer kiosk or tablet in the waiting area that allows patients to register for the portal and then use it to...
• Send postcards to patients, introducing your portal and encouraging them to use it...

Full Answer

How does patient portal implementation improve quality of patient care?

Patient Portal Implementation Improves Quality of Patient Care and Strengthens Preventive Care Spring 2011 Dover, Delaware About Dover Family Physicians Dover Family Physicians adopted an electronic health record (EHR) system in 2008 with a goal of improving the quality of patient care and especially strengthening preventive care services.

What is a patient portal?

Keywords: Patient portals, older adults, health information management Introduction and Background A patient portal is a type of personal health record (PHR) that is connected to an electronic health record (EHR) system. Patient portals provide a secure website through which patients can access their clinical data.

What can I do to increase patient awareness of my Portal?

Talk with all patients to increase awareness and explain portal features, including access to personal health information, lab results, immunization status, allergies, medications, and recent visits.

Why do older adults use patient portals?

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 phones18, 19.

How would you encourage patients to use patient portals?

Here are nine ways to improve patient portal engagement.Enroll at the first appointment. ... Auto-enroll to schedule online appointments. ... Include a link to the portal when patients sign in. ... Link your portal sign up on all correspondence. ... Optimize for desktop and mobile. ... Empower all staff to sign patients up. ... Offer incentives.More items...•

How do you optimize patient portals for patient engagement?

Make enrollment open to all patients. Have staff manage portal workflow and communication before engaging providers directly. Aim to establish efficient workflows and policies, and avoid burdening providers with troubleshooting during initial rollout. The whole staff should be involved in promoting the patient portal.

What is the point of a 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.

What are two advantages of having a patient portal system?

Patient portals satisfy meaningful use standards Improve quality, safety, efficiency, and reduce health disparities. Increase patient engagement. Improve care coordination. Expand population and public health.

How would you improve a patient online?

First and foremost, get yourself online!Create Online Patient Portal. ... Improve Collaboration and Communication. ... Make Your Facility Navigable. ... Keep Patients in the Loop. ... Help and Educate Patients. ... Collect Patient Feedback. ... Adopt Technology.

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.

Which of the following is a benefit of patient portals?

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.

Do patient portals improve healthcare?

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 advantages of patient portals to the patient and to the healthcare facility quizlet?

The patient portal supports two-way communication, which allows the patient to work with physicians between patient visits, request appointments, and receive reminders. These reminders can be for appointments, need for follow-up, and more.

What impact do health care portals have on patients and patient care?

Patients in our study noted that not only did portal use help them to better manage their disease, including improving their ability to track and monitor lab and test results, but also conferred psychological benefits such as increasing trust in their providers and improving their sense of collaboration with their care ...

How do patient health information portals contribute to patient rights?

Further, portals help providers educate their patients and prepare them for future care encounters. When patients have access to their health data, they are better informed, and have the potential to generate deep and meaningful conversations regarding patient wellness during doctor's appointments.

Why do people not use patient portals?

About one-quarter of individuals who did not view their patient portal within the past year reported concerns about privacy and security.. About 20 percent of individuals indicated the reason they did not access their patient portal was because they were uncomfortable with computers.

Seven tips on how to promote your patient portal

Provide informational handouts at the front desk and in the waiting area that patients can read while they wait for appointments.

Improving the patient experience

Escalating healthcare costs have made your patients more savvy consumers. They shop around and use personal referrals and online reviews to guide their decisions.

Patient messaging: an added benefit

While the patient portal gives your patients the power to schedule appointments and message you with questions and requests, Greenway Health’s Patient Messaging gives you an even more proactive tool to promote your practice.

Why do older patients use patient portals?

Just because your patients are older does not mean they are incapable of using the patient portal technology. The study published in the Annals of Family Medicine found that older patients and patients with chronic conditions were more likely to create a patient portal account, and many of these elderly patients often experience chronic conditions. The patient portal has become a fantastic tool for managing chronic conditions. Since these patients have more appointments to schedule and more lab results to view, the portal can ease these processes and keep them well-informed on their health. While they may take more time to learn the technology, elderly patients are often some of your most engaged patients, so continue to encourage portal use among these older patients as well as your younger demographic.

How to speed up a patient's visit to the office?

To speed up a patient’s visit to the office, let them know of any questionnaires or medical history forms they can fill out on the portal ahead of time. When a patient checks out, be sure to remind them that bills are payable through the portal as well.

What is incentive in healthcare?

An incentive can motivate patients to sign up for and engage with the portal. To encourage use, patients who sign up for the portal within a certain time frame could be entered in a drawing to win a prize or a small discount on a bill for the first one they pay through the portal. If more patients make use of the portal to schedule appointments, ...

Is it important to get patients to sign up for portal?

It is not as simple as getting your patients signed up with portal accounts. It is important that you also get them to engage in the content you are sharing with them before ...

Nurses can increase the use of a valuable healthcare tool

Editor’s note: This is an early release of a web exclusive article for the January 2022 issue of American Nurse Journal.

Challenges

Several factors—age, race, ethnicity, education, health status, and health literacy—influence portal benefits. A review by Irizarry and colleagues found that non-white patients and those with fewer years of formal education are less likely to register for patient portals than the less vulnerable populations would.

The future of portals

Portals and the devices to access them continue to evolve. Devices available remotely monitor vital signs, glucose levels, and heart rates, which contribute to the integration of human connection and technology.

Empower patients

Nurses occupy the frontline of patient communication. They play a critical role in encouraging patients to use portals by explaining the benefits, demonstrating their use, and providing reliable information about their security. Easy-to-use portals empower patients to access their personal health data and participate fully in their care.

Promote At Every Opportunity

Not all of your patients will be as responsive to your initial request for them to use the patient portal. For patients who are more cautious about using the portal or seem hesitant, you’ll have to promote the benefits of the portal at every opportunity.

Give Incentives

If you’re still having trouble getting patients to adopt your patient portal, another tactic you could try is using incentives. Offering incentives for patients to access your patient portal could help drive utilization and could also help you promote different benefits of the portal.

How to get the most value from an EHR?

To get the most value from an EHR, practices will need to invest time in training and preparation. Some customization of the system will likely be needed based on how the practice functions and the individual work styles of the various providers.

When did Dover Family Physicians adopt EHR?

Dover Family Physicians adopted an electronic health record (EHR) system in 2008 with a goal of improving the quality of patient care and especially strengthening preventive care services. The practice has focused on ways to use the EHR to engage patients and their family members in their health and healthcare through a patient portal implementation. The practice, located in Dover, Delaware, has four physicians and two physician assistants, and provides primary care to more than 800 patients weekly.

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.

How old are Portal users?

Portal users ranged in age from 61 to 93 years , and most lived independently in a private residence (60%) and had college education or higher (67%). Although portal nonusers were similar in age, fewer were college educated (53%) and more lived in retirement or assisted living facilities (74%).

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.

Nurses Can Increase The Use of A Valuable Healthcare Tool.

Challenges

Nurses’ Role

The Future of Portals

Empower Patients

• Nurses occupy the frontline of patient communication. They play a critical role in encouraging patientsto use portals by explaining the benefits, demonstrating their use, and providing reliable information about their security. Easy-to-use portals empower patients to access their personal health data and participate fully in their care. Cristina Ca...

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