what are the benefits, disadvantages, and problems that can occur from using a patient portal?

by Ricardo Grimes 8 min read

What are the Top Pros and Cons of Adopting Patient …

33 hours ago Feb 17, 2016 · Although this can be viewed as a good thing because patients do have the right to see their own health data, it also opens doors for security concerns. A patient portal may be just one more place for a potential hacker or healthcare data thief to access a patient’s data, leaving that patient liable to identity theft. >> Go To The Portal


While portal functions vary, most allow patients to view laboratory test results, immunizations, medications, and allergies, as well as to send secure messages to their physician. 14 However, the portal can be difficult to navigate, and patients may struggle to understand their medical information.

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

Full Answer

What are the benefits of patient portals for healthcare?

Feb 17, 2016 · Although this can be viewed as a good thing because patients do have the right to see their own health data, it also opens doors for security concerns. A patient portal may be just one more place for a potential hacker or healthcare data thief to access a patient’s data, leaving that patient liable to identity theft.

Could a patient portal help solve the healthcare crisis?

Mar 23, 2021 · Con 1: Lack of Use. Unfortunately, while patient portals offer a great deal of direct ownership to patients, many people don’t use them. In a 2017 study by the University of Michigan, roughly 60% of patients did not use their providers’ patient portals. Researchers have identified a few reasons for this.

Why are portals viewed negatively by healthcare providers?

Feb 03, 2012 · Patients get secure, encrypted access via use of a patient ID and password; a similar process that allows clients access to other very sensitive information such as online banking. Unlike with online banking, medical information is often sensitive information and keeping unwanted eyes from seeing your portal could prove difficult.

How many patient portals should a patient have?

Jan 29, 2022 · What Are The Benefits Disadvantages And Problems That Can Occur From Using A Patient Portal? Improved communication is one of the great benefits of chronic health conditions. The security of healthcare data is a concern. This improves patient care by providing complete and accurate information. Patients are not willing to buy-in easily.

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

What are the benefits and challenges of using patient portals?

What are the benefits of patient portals?Patient portals are efficient. ... Patient portals improve communication. ... They store health information in one place. ... Patient portals satisfy meaningful use standards. ... They improve data accuracy. ... Patient portals make refilling prescriptions easy. ... They're available whenever you need them.More items...•Jul 15, 2019

What are the benefits 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.Aug 13, 2020

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 benefits of telehealth?

Advantages of telehealth Using technology to deliver health care has several advantages, including cost savings, convenience, and the ability to provide care to people with mobility limitations, or those in rural areas who don't have access to a local doctor or clinic.Oct 12, 2020

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.

Do patient portals improve outcomes?

Patient portal interventions lead to improvements in a wide range of psychobehavioral outcomes, such as health knowledge, self-efficacy, decision making, medication adherence, and preventive service use.

How do patient portals affect nursing?

Takeaways: Patient portals facilitate patient engagement in healthcare decisions, improve communication, and streamline care. Less than one-third of patients access patient portals to view their medical data. Nurses can improve patient portal use by explaining the benefits and providing education.Dec 20, 2021

Are patient portals effective?

A recent study out of Kaiser Permanente of Southern California (KPSC) shows that online patient engagement through patient portals can actually improve chronic disease management by almost 10 percent, depending upon the condition.Feb 17, 2016

What are the benefits to having one patient one record?

Clinicians who embrace and adopt these systems and information for health care delivery can prevent adverse drug interactions, allow for faster recovery and use data for epidemiological and research purposes.Nov 23, 2017

What are the disadvantages of health information system?

EHR DisadvantagesOutdated data. EHRs can get incorrect information if the EHR is not updated immediately when new information, such as when new test results come in. ... It takes time and costs money. Selecting and setting up an EHR system and digitizing all paper records can take years. ... Inconsistency and inefficiency.Nov 20, 2020

What are the advantages and disadvantages of e health?

Advantages and disadvantages with Ehealth system: reduces staff stress. makes an efficient and accessible patient record. Time saving and reducing indirect works, that leads to more direct care delivery. Causes keeping staff in their possession and attracting them.Jul 13, 2017

What is the advantage of patient portals?

The greatest advantage to patient portals is the level of connectivity you have with your doctor. Most portals include a direct messaging function that enables you to message your doctor at any time of day with your questions.

Why are patient portals important?

In the medical world, patient portals are a favorite tool for simplifying contact between patients and their doctors. Healthcare providers are particularly enthusiastic about them since they can streamline office life.

Why is telehealth important?

Using technology to deliver health care has several advantages, including cost savings, convenience, and the ability to provide care to people with mobility limitations, or those in rural areas who don't have access to a local doctor or clinic. For these reasons, the use of telehealth has grown significantly over the last decade.

What is telehealth in healthcare?

Telehealth is defined as the delivery of health care services at a distance through the use of technology.

How many hospitals use telehealth?

For these reasons, the use of telehealth has grown significantly over the last decade. Currently, 76 percent of hospitals in the U.S. connect doctors and patients remotely via telehealth, up from 35 percent a decade ago. Telehealth has become even more essential during the coronavirus ( COVID-19) pandemic. Fears of spreading and catching the virus ...

What is telehealth in medical terms?

Telehealth also includes the training and continuing education of medical professionals.

How to do telehealth?

All of the following activities and services are possible with the help of telehealth: 1 Recording measurements like your weight, food intake, blood pressure, heart rate, and blood sugar levels either manually, or through a wearable device, and sending them to your doctor. 2 Having a virtual visit with your doctor or a nurse over your computer or smartphone. 3 Using an online portal to check your test results, request prescription refills, send your doctor a message, or schedule an appointment. 4 Sharing information such as your test results, diagnoses, medications, and drug allergies with all of the providers you see. 5 Coordinating care between your primary care provider and any specialists you visit—including the sharing of exam notes and test results between medical offices in different locations. 6 Getting email or text reminders when you're due for mammograms, colonoscopies, and other screenings, or routine vaccinations. 7 Monitoring older adults at home to make sure they are eating, sleeping, and taking their medications on schedule.

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.

How to improve patient satisfaction and loyalty?

To achieve better outcomes and improve patient satisfaction and loyalty, providers must use technology that will facilitate continuous dialogue with patients utilizing personalized content and an empathetic tone. That two-way interaction will activate patients to be more participatory and empowered in their care, ...

Is Mapquest still available?

While it still exists — it was the No. 2 mapping service in the U.S. as of 2015 — it’s been largely outmoded by Google Maps, Apple Maps, and other smartphone-based GPS services that have rendered pre-printed driving directions obsolete. MapQuest certainly helped pave the way for today’s GPS mapping services.

Is finding scientific papers expensive?

For researchers who aren’t affiliated with an academic library, finding scientific papers can be time-consuming and expensive —and organizing and sharing them with co-workers can be even harder. A new tool by DeepDyve looks to help researchers address this gap.

What is a patient portal?

Patient portals are intended to engage patients by giving them access to medical information ; however, if patients are unable to understand the information or the system is not usable, patients will not take advantage of them. Despite several aforementioned drawbacks, apps have used evolving innovative designs to engage consumers and offer unique features and functions that could be translated to patient portal design. For instance, Apple's ResearchKit's Diabetes app pings the user daily to update disease and symptom-related information. Check-in questions or user-friendly alerts in portals could similarly be explored for engaging more patients their health care. Alerts could ask if the patient understands an abnormal result, direct them to helpful resources, and encourage test result follow-up. Finally, test results in the portal need to be easily understood by laypeople or displayed using simplified medical terms. For example, a portal might display elevated cholesterol as "↑LDL cholesterol," or even just display the number without a flag, whereas a health app may label it as “bad cholesterol.”

Who wrote Patient Portals and Health Apps: Pitfalls, Promises, and What One Might Learn from the

This statement accompanies the article Patient portals and health apps: Pitfalls, promises, and what one might learn from the other authored by Jessica L. Baldwin and co-authored by Hardeep Singh, Dean F. Sittig, Traber Davis Giardina and submitted to Healthcare as an Article Type. Authors collectively affirm that this manuscript represents original work that has not been published and is not being considered for publication elsewhere.We also affirm that all authors listed contributed significantly to the project and manuscript. Furthermore we confirm that none of our authors have disclosures and we declare noconflict of interest.

What is the use of health information technology?

Widespread use of health information technology (IT) could potentially increase patients’ access to their health information and facilitate future goals of advancing patient-centered care. Despite having increased access to their health data, patients do not always understand this information or its implications, ...

How can information technology improve patient care?

There is growing interest in electronic access to health information and the use of digital data for both disease and health-related tracking. Widespread use of health information technology (IT) could potential ly increase patients’ access to their health information and facilitate future goals of advancing patient-centered care.1 For example, health IT can be used to facilitate information exchange with clinicians and instruct patients when to act upon clinical issues, such as out of range physiologic parameters, follow-up of test results, and complications of medication use. 2 Tools such as personal health records, patient portals, and various mobile health (mHealth) applications (apps) have been developed to help patients engage in their own care. Already, a significant number of patients use health IT; therefore, it is essential that patient-facing health IT be tailored to their needs. In this paper, we discuss two forms of patient-facing health IT tools—patient portals and apps—to highlight how, despite several limitations of each, combining high-yield features of mHealth apps with portals could increase patient engagement and self-management and be more effective than either of them alone. This could potentially improve both patient experience and outcomes related to patient-facing health IT.

What is the HealthKit app?

In June 2014, Apple announced the HealthKit cloud application programming interface (API) and its partnership with Epic (Verona, WI), an electronic health record vendor who also makes MyChart (a popular patient portal), and the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN).

Advantages of Telehealth

  • Using technology to deliver health care has several advantages, including cost savings, convenience, and the ability to provide care to people with mobility limitations, or those in rural areas who don't have access to a local doctor or clinic. For these reasons, the use of telehealth has grown significantly over the last decade. Currently, 76 percent of hospitals in the U.S. conne…
See more on health.harvard.edu

What You Can Do with Telehealth

Downsides to Telehealth