teach patients how to use the patient portal

10 Secrets to Get Patients Using Patient Portals

1. Bulk enrollment.. Having trouble getting users to sign-up? Try a bulk enrollment method. Pull the email addresses for...
2. Get the whole office involved.. A recent study published in the Annals of Family Medicine found patient portal use...
3. Promote the patient portal at every patient interaction.. Look at every...

Full Answer

How can we encourage patients to enroll and use patient portals?

There are promising signs that clear action steps presented using images, and in an appealing layout, may encourage patients to access the online patient portal component of their health care system’s EHR. Read more about this low-cost and scalable solution to encourage patients to enroll and use portals.

What can you do with a health portal?

Some portals even enable clinicians to create task lists for patients that include activities related to taking medications, eating a healthy diet, and staying physically active.

How can receptionists use the portal to engage patients?

Receptionists can suggest patients use the portal to schedule appointments, refill prescriptions, and ask questions. Automated follow-up emails after an appointment — as well as bills and receipts — can include a link and remind people to sign up.

How can you increase portal adoption in your practice?

For instance, clinicians in small practices who have lifelong relationships with their patients can use the portal as a tool to deepen their communication. Large health systems might train patient greeters to become portal enrollment staff. One thing is certain: whether you’re a practice of 1 or 1,000, you can achieve high portal adoption. 10

How do you engage patients in patient portal?

How do you improve patient portal?

How do you optimize patient portals for patient engagement?

What must be done when creating a patient portal?

What are the benefits and challenges of using patient portals?

What is the goal of HIE?

What safeguards are in place for patient portals?

What is a patient portal quizlet?

What is meaningful use?

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

What is the difference between a personal health record and a patient portal?

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.

Key Benefits of Deploying a Patient Portal EMR Software Solution

The patient portal has the following advantages for both clinicians and patients.

Best Practices for Patient Portal EMR Software to enhance Patient Engagement

Patient portal solutions are getting popular since the inception of the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients can manage wellness remotely and also access vaccination records and receive COVID-19 test results.

A Growing Demand for Patient Portals

Since the use of smartphones and mobile apps is growing there is an increased demand for the patient portal platform. If used effectively practices and patients can make complete use of the powerful technology to reap the benefits of patient satisfaction and enhanced practice efficiencies.

Benefits of a Patient Portal

Staff will spend less time on data entry. When you consider that registration information must be provided by every patient, you quickly realize the enormous amount of time your office staff spends entering that data into your computer system.

Portals and EHR Meaningful Use

With 2014 just around the corner, practices that are moving on to Stage 2 of the federal meaningful use (MU) incentive program must prepare to meet the new re-quirements.

Get Prepared for a Portal

Start early. It takes considerable time to introduce your patients to the features available through your portal—and even longer to get them into the habit of using it regularly. “We knew that we had to embrace this new technology as part of the MU requirements and did not want to wait until the last minute to begin implementation,” said Ms.

Going Live

When your patient portal goes live, should you roll out multiple features all at once or implement one component at a time?

Usability Is Critical

Patient portals must be user friendly to sustain continued patient use. If your practice’s portal is not intuitive or if it is too cumbersome to move through the options, you’ll find your patients will avoid using it. “Our portal is provided by one of several third-party vendors that work directly with our EHR vendor,” said Ms. Woodke.

What can a patient use a portal for?

For example, encourage patients to use the portal to make follow-up appointments, stay on top of recommended screenings, or request refills. Some portals even enable clinicians to create task lists for patients that include activities related to taking medications, eating a healthy diet, and staying physically active.

How to add portal enrollment steps to paperwork?

You can also add portal enrollment steps to paperwork, such as after-visit summaries. Make the instructions actionable and easy for patients to understand — choose clear, direct language and use illustrations, bullets, and numbering where possible . Encourage them to take immediate action.

Why are patients not enrolling in EHR?

Patients report not enrolling because they: Don’t remember discussing it with their clinicians. Lack information or motivation — for example, they don’t have signup instructions or they feel too busy.

How to facilitate enrollment?

To facilitate enrollment, automatically enroll your patients in a portal account, instead of waiting for patients to sign up themselves. Keep enrollment numbers up by encouraging new patients to stay registered and offering tips for patients with limited computer access or skills.

Can a receptionist suggest a patient use the portal?

Receptionists can suggest patients use the portal to schedule appointments, refill prescriptions, and ask questions. Automated follow-up emails after an appointment — as well as bills and receipts — can include a link and remind people to sign up.

Dive Brief

Teaching patients how to access a patient portal and its role in their post-discharge care increases engagement during and after hospitalization. It also improves patient experience, a new JAMIA study finds.

Dive Insight

As MACRA and the Quality Payment Program place more emphasis on patient access to information, patient portals provide an effective means of engaging patients and improving outcomes.

Recommended Reading

Topics covered: M&A, health IT, care delivery, healthcare policy & regulation, health insurance, operations and more.