proven ways to get patients to use patient portal for meaningful use

Make sure providers acknowledge when patients use the portal, or continue to use it. Consider creating a canned phrase your providers can use to encourage continued use when they see a patient has used the portal. Something as simple as “Thank you for using our portal; we can really see your health matters to you.”

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How do you benefit from your patient portal?

You need patients to use your patient portal, right? So, how can you get them on board to meet meaningful use requirements without creating a lot of work for you and your staff? Your patients are a captive audience who listen to your doctors, right? In a …

How to get your patients to use your patient portal?

Apr 04, 2019 · Three ways to get patients to use your portal. ... (or having your nurse do it) and asking the clerk to get the patient signed up right then. Some practices also encourage portal use …

What are the benefits of a patient portal?

Apr 21, 2018 · Make sure your team understands the ins and outs of your portal so they can get the most out of it and help your organization achieve Meaningful Use stage 3. Initiate communication. Don’t sit back and wait for your patients to message you. Reach out to them with test results, appointment reminders, and short check-ins to prompt a response.

What is the value of a patient portal?

Feb 04, 2016 · Three Ways to Get Your Patients to Engage With Your Patient Portal dr_EHR / February 4, 2016 Meaningful Use has been around for the past four years but healthcare entities are still struggling to attest to meaningful use.

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 improve patient portal?

5 steps to maximize your patient portal and boost practice...Meet patient priorities. ... Integrate the portal into practice workflow. ... Identify patients who will most benefit from portal use. ... Promote the portal. ... Evaluate portal use and modify practice operations.

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.

How can patient compliance with portal registration be increased?

Offer an incentive for patient registration, such as entering the patient's name in a drawing for a prize (such as a restaurant gift card) or offering an incentive (such as a movie ticket or waived co-pay). Host a contest for staff, awarding a prize for the employee who signs up the most new patients for the portal.

Why do patients not use patient portals?

Disadvantages of patient portals result in these lower rates of use. For some people, they avoid using the portals altogether for reasons like security issues, low health literacy, or lack of internet. Even for those who do access their accounts, there are still other disadvantages of patient portals.

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.

How the patient portal is empowering?

July 18, 2017 - Patients enjoy having patient portal health data access because it allows them to take ownership of their own care, makes them feel empowered as partners in their treatments, and helps them detect and identify errors their providers may have made in their medical records, according to a recent study.

How can we improve patient registration process?

Here are some steps you can take to assess and improve your workflow.Assess your practice's waiting room. ... Review your existing digital capabilities. ... Reflect on your patient registration workflow. ... Identify hang-ups in the patient registration process. ... Train staff on patient registration best practices.More items...•

What are the seven elements that must be in place for a safe transition to occur?

Seven elements that must be in place for a safe transition to occur from one health setting to another include: leadership support; multidisciplinary collaboration; early identification of patients/clients at risk; transitional planning; medication management; patient and family action/engagement; and the transfer of ...

Why is patient portal important?

Patient portals can be great tools for engaging your patients, and can even help save you time when patients use secure messaging. Still, getting your practice’s patient portal set-up and actually getting patients to use it are two entirely different challenges.

Can you schedule an appointment online?

If a patient calls in to schedule an appointment, have the receptionist explain that next time they can schedule an appointment online, and even receive appointment reminders by email. When patients are checking out, make sure staff say they’ll be able to pay their bills online.

Is patient portal a project?

Adopting a patient portal is a huge project, and it’s likely to need some tweaking and updating after your first launch. If you add a new feature (like, say appointment scheduling) or update the layout to make it more user-friendly, make sure you advertise these changes to your patients. A patient who initially logged on and was frustrated by bugs or a difficult layout might be encouraged by news of an updated design.

Can you sign up for a portal?

It’s not enough to simply sign a patient up for your portal. You can increase adoption rates by explaining how the portal can benefit them–and take the time to show them how to use it. You might be surprised how many questions even younger, tech-savvy patients will have about your portal. Taking a few extra minutes to talk things over can encourage your patients to use the system and reduce time spent troubleshooting problems with them later on.

Can I use an iPad during a doctor's visit?

It’s hard to find extra time during a doctor’s visit. However, using an iPad or tablet to register patients on the portal during a visit could cut down on time spent on the phone later. Allow patients to practice logging in, viewing their health record or lab results, and using the messaging system while they are in the office. Then you can answer questions directly and explain the benefits of using the portal.

Actively promote portal usage by both staff and patients

One of the biggest reasons why patients do not engage with EHR patient portals is because they are simply ignorant of the fact they either exist or that they can be of use to them. Many feel like the portals are just there to make their life more complex and so will shy away from using them.

Implement a user-friendly and interactive patient portal

This is a design issue that you will have to be observant about. Many people shy away from portals (or websites in general) that seem intimidating and hard to understand.

Provide simplified educational and training materials

This can be as simple as a pamphlet that patients are handled when they come in. Such pamphlets can act as both a promotional and educational avenue as the pamphlet can offer information on why using the portal is essential as well as a step-by step guide on how to use the portal.

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 ...

Why are portals important?

Portals acted as buffers between a patient’s desire for 24-hour access and physicians’ desires for a work-life balance. 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. ...

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.