the percentage of patients that do not use the patient portal

by Ottilie Zulauf DVM 4 min read

Most of your patients still aren’t using the portal. Here ...

30 hours ago May 14, 2019 · Here are the top five reasons why patients skip using the patient portal: Prefer to speak directly with physician—70%. No need to use the portal—57%. No online medical record—32%. No internet access—25%. Privacy concerns—22%. >> Go To The Portal


The findings, published in the journal Health Affairs, indicate a lack of physician, health system and insurer engagement in promoting portal use—nearly 40% of patients in the study reported not being offered it.May 14, 2019

How many patients actually use patient portals?

May 14, 2019 · Here are the top five reasons why patients skip using the patient portal: Prefer to speak directly with physician—70%. No need to use the portal—57%. No online medical record—32%. No internet access—25%. Privacy concerns—22%.

How many patients do not view their own medical records?

Dec 16, 2014 · 64 percent of Americans do not currently use online patient portals, according to the results of Xerox’s 5th annual EHR Survey. The survey revealed that 57 percent of Americans would be much more...

How many Americans don’t use health portal services?

Objective: This study aimed to explore the prevalence of patient portal use and the characteristics of patients who use or do not use a patient portal. The main constructs of UTAUT, together with demographics and disease- and care-related characteristics, have been measured to explore the predictive factors of portal use.

Is the patient portal the right tool for your practice?

Mar 21, 2019 · Of those who enrolled, only 20 percent used theirs regularly. ONC published a more dismal report in April 2018: only 52 percent of patients were offered online access to their records, and 28 percent actually viewed them — mostly just once. The good news: of those using their portals, top reasons were to get lab results (85 percent), refill a prescription or make an …

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What percentage of patients use patient portals?

FINDINGS. Nearly 40 percent of individuals nationwide accessed a patient portal in 2020 – this represents a 13 percentage point increase since 2014.Sep 21, 2021

Who isn't using patient portals and why?

Despite significant investments in telehealth to engage patients in their care, about two-thirds of insured US adult patients were not using an online patient portal in 2017. Nonusers were more likely to be male, have less than a college degree, be on Medicaid, and lack a regular provider.

Do patients like patient portals?

Eight studies reported that patients or their caregivers want more portal education, training, or support. Two studies found that their participants want human connection as they learn about the portal and how to use it, as well as when they encounter issues.Jan 25, 2021

Who are using patient portals?

Overwhelmingly, patients use the portal to view their lab results (85 percent). Sixty-two percent of patients are also using the tool for more clinical tasks, such as scheduling appointments, completing paperwork, and refilling prescriptions.Apr 16, 2018

What are the top pros and cons of adopting 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

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.

What are the cons of patient portals?

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

Why is patient portal important?

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.Dec 8, 2017

How do patient portals contribute to patient centered care?

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.May 13, 2016

Are patient portals easy to use?

Patient portals streamline the workflow of practice and help it share each patient's medical records with each of them. But, then it has some ethical issues that need to be considered before running one in your practice. Portals make it easy for practices to allow all their patients access to their medical records.Nov 11, 2021

Are patient portals secure?

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 is meaningful use?

'Meaningful Use' is the general term for the Center of Medicare and Medicaid's (CMS's) electronic health record (EHR) incentive programs that provide financial benefits to healthcare providers who use appropriate EHR technologies in meaningful ways; ways that benefit patients and providers alike.

How many benefits do portals provide?

Similarly, healthcare providers can achieve at least three big benefits from patients’ portal-usage: greater efficiencies, cost-savings and improved health outcomes — again, only if patients use their portals. But with only 20% of patients regularly relying on portals, many benefits have been unattainable.

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.

Can rapid access replace patient rights?

Rapid access cannot replace patients’ rights to understand. Even if a test result isn’t recognizably negative, a portal presentation of an uninterpreted report can be painful to patients and certainly unproductive.

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 did patients not perceive the record as useful?

Those patients likely did not perceive the record as useful because they could not understand it. Patient portal developers and the clinicians who use them should ensure that this information is accessible, understandable, and written in lay language where applicable.

How many patients use digital health tools?

Patients are also engaging with their own health using digital health tools. One-third of patients use an electronic device to monitor their health, including fitness wearables and blood pressure monitors. Forty percent of patients use a wellness app on their smartphones or tablets.

Is patient access to health data increasing?

April 16, 2018 - Patient access to health data is continuously increasing, but there is still more opportunity for medical professionals to encourage better patient engagement with their own health data, according to a new ONC data brief about patient technology use.

Why don't people use the patient portal?

The research team found that patients with chronic health problems who were younger or white were more likely than others to use the patient portal. Among patients who said they didn’t use the portal, the most common reasons were. Wanting to get care in person or by phone (54 percent)

How does a patient portal help?

Article Highlight: Access to a patient portal can increase engagement in outpatient visits by patients with diabetes and those with multiple complex chronic conditions, according to a PCORI-funded study spotlighted recently in PLOS One. The study showed that portal use was associated with significantly fewer emergency room visits and preventable hospital stays for patients with multiple complex conditions. By increasing patient office visits, a portal could potentially help clinicians address unmet clinical needs and reduce health events that lead to emergency and hospital care. The observational study compared visit rates for 165,000 patients with and without portal access in a large healthcare system that implemented a patient portal.

What is patient portal?

Patient portals are secure websites where patients can view their health records, view test results, send messages to their doctor, and ask for prescription refills. Patients with chronic, or long-term, health problems such as asthma, diabetes, or heart disease must often coordinate their care across different doctors in multiple locations.

What is the objective of a patient portal?

Objective 1: no follow-up for study outcomes. Objective 2: 2-year follow-up for study outcomes. Patient portals are secure websites where patients can access their health records. In this study, researchers, patients, clinicians, and other health system staff collaborated to design a survey to understand the drivers of and barriers ...

What is a peer review in PCORI?

Peer review of PCORI-funded research helps make sure the report presents complete, balanced, and useful information about the research . It also assesses how the project addressed PCORI’s Methodology Standards. During peer review, experts read a draft report of the research and provide comments about the report. These experts may include a scientist focused on the research topic, a specialist in research methods, a patient or caregiver, and a healthcare professional. These reviewers cannot have conflicts of interest with the study.

Why is patient portal important?

The patient portal does have a lot to offer patients, and because of certain regulatory requirements, may be the tool best positioned to fulfill certain benchmarks. But to gain a meaningful return on investment with the tool, organizations must aim higher than offering the tool.

What to look for in a patient portal?

Organizations and patients should be looking for the following in a patient portal, Ballou-Nelson said: 1 The ability for patient data access 2 Online appointment scheduling 3 Online billing 4 Prescription refill requests 5 Data update capabilities, or ability to contribute PGHD

What is PGHD in medical terms?

PGHD is health data that has been contributed by the patient, either from medical histories, patient observations, wearable sensors, or other biometric measuring devices.

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