what components are required to be present in a patient portal?

by Misty Johns Jr. 3 min read

Patient Portals: Definition & Components - Study.com

26 hours ago Patient Portals. More and more doctors, clinics, hospitals, and patients are using something known as patient portals. A patient portal is a secure … >> Go To The Portal


A robust patient portal should include the following features: Clinical summaries Secure (HIPAA-compliant) messaging Online bill pay New patient registration

Lesson Summary
  • Schedule an appointment.
  • Pay a bill.
  • View test results.
  • View a calendar of upcoming tests.
  • Send a message to their doctor.
  • View their medical history.

Full Answer

What is the purpose of patient portal?

Patient Portals. More and more doctors, clinics, hospitals, and patients are using something known as patient portals. A patient portal is a secure …

How many patient portals should a patient have?

A robust patient portal should include the following features: Clinical summaries Secure (HIPAA-compliant) messaging Online bill pay New patient registration Ability to update demographic information Prescription renewals and contact lens ordering Appointment requests Appointment reminders Medication lists Lab and test results Medical history

What features attract patients to a portal?

Sep 29, 2017 · 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; Medications; Immunizations; Allergies; Lab results

What features are included in the patient forms?

Jul 24, 2019 · In order to help you evaluate common portal capabilities, we asked patients which portal features they would need the most: Scheduling appointments online; Viewing health information (e.g., lab results or clinical notes) Viewing bills/making payments; Checking prescription refills/requests; Filling out pre-visit forms (e.g., intake form)

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What should be included in a patient portal?

A robust patient portal should include the following features:Clinical summaries.Secure (HIPAA-compliant) messaging.Online bill pay.New patient registration.Ability to update demographic information.Prescription renewals and contact lens ordering.Appointment requests.Appointment reminders.More items...

What are the five main features of the new healthcare portal?

5 Key Features Every Patient Portal Needs to OfferExcellent user experience. ... Branding flexibility. ... Flexible financing options. ... Loyalty rewards and incentives. ... Integration with existing systems.May 12, 2020

How do you make a patient portal?

4 Steps to Successful Patient Portal Adoption, IntegrationOutline clinic or hospital needs, goals.Select a patient portal vendor.Create provider buy-in.Market the patient portal to end-users.Jun 6, 2017

What types of patient portals are there?

There are two main types of patient portals: a standalone system and an integrated service. Integrated patient portal software functionality usually comes as a part of an EMR system, an EHR system or practice management software. But at their most basic, they're simply web-based tools.Feb 12, 2021

What is a patient portal and how does it help medical practices?

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.Sep 29, 2017

Why is a patient portal important?

A patient portal is a website for your personal health care. The online tool helps you to keep track of your health care provider visits, test results, billing, prescriptions, and so on. You can also e-mail your provider questions through the portal.Aug 13, 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.

How do you create a portal app?

This tutorial walks you through the following tasks to help you create a basic portal application:Step 1: Start the Server.Step 2: Create A New Portal Site.Step 3: Create a Portlet and Make it Visible to the Portal.Step 4: Update the Look and Feel of the Portal.

What is the best patient portal?

athenaCommunicatorHealthcare IT rating agency KLAS recently selected athenahealth's athenaCommunicator as the #1 patient portal, with a score of 91.8 on the most recent Best in KLAS awards . athenahealth's suite was also ranked #2 overall for practice sizes from 1-75 physicians.

What makes the patient portal different from a PHR?

The Portal is controlled by the source system (EMR/EHR/Hospital). On the other hand, the Personal Health Record (PHR) is more patient centric, is controlled by a patient or family member, and may or may not be connected to a doctor or hospital (i.e. it may be tethered or untethered).Sep 6, 2012

How do I make patient portal user friendly?

Another way to make using the portal easy is to include a link to the site every time you send a notification. Patients often get a notification that they have a message from their doctor, but the automatically generated message doesn't even say who is sending out the notification.

Know Your Options

Evaluate your options and create a long-term strategy. By assessing the full range of portal components, you can then determine which capabilities will best suit your practice.

Registering

Save the patient time in the office. When registration is completed prior to an appointment, patients spend less time in the waiting room and more time engaged in their care.

Secure Messaging

When your patient portal is integrated with your EHR system, secure messaging provides an efficient way to exchange information with both patients and other providers.

Providing Educational Materials

Diagnoses and treatment plans can be difficult for patients to understand and remember. In order to reinforce this information, practices have been giving patients supplemental printed materials for years. And now, with a portal, patients can access these materials online.

Ask for Patient Feedback

It is important to communicate with your patients and ask for feedback about your practice’s performance and services—including your patient portal. In order to get tips from them for making the portal more useful, Ms.

Why do we need portals?

Other reasons to implement a portal include: To foster better patient-physician relationships: Portals offer a round-the-clock platform on which both parties can conveniently exchange health information, ask questions, and review medical notes—providing more opportunities to connect.

What is a highlight in healthcare?

Highlight: Allows patients to send messages from the portal to the healthcare provider in a safe and secure manner. Provides patients with a convenient alternative to face-to-face appointments, telephone contact, letters, and e-mails to send messages.

Do patients have to provide email addresses?

Collect patients’ email addresses: Patients usually have to provide their email address to register for access to your portal. If you start collecting addresses early in the implementation process, you’ll be able to hit the ground running once the portal goes live.

How to access a patient portal?

With a patient portal: 1 You can access your secure personal health information and be in touch with your provider's office 24 hours a day. You do not need to wait for office hours or returned phone calls to have basic issues resolved. 2 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. This can lead to better care and better management of your medicines. 3 E-mail reminders and alerts help you to remember things like annual checkups and flu shots.

What are the benefits of a patient portal?

Expand Section. With a patient portal: You can access your secure personal health information and be in touch with your provider's office 24 hours a day . You do not need to wait for office hours or returned phone calls to have basic issues resolved. You can access all of your personal health information from all ...

How much does an e-visit cost?

For minor issues, such as a small wound or rash, you can get diagnosis and treatment options online. This saves you a trip to the provider's office. E-visits cost around $30.

How does patient engagement affect healthcare?

Patient engagement factors heavily in the future of healthcare services, from both the perspective of Meaningful Use regulations and in the context of using an EHR to provide more cost efficient services and improve the quality of care. Research reported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality shows that when patients are not engaged in their care, practices waste resources due to repetitive patient education efforts, increased diagnostic tests, and a greater need for referrals. Furthermore, the research shows increases in patient engagement have been linked improved patient outcomes across a number of metrics and have been shown to reduce the rate of preventable readmissions.

Why is back and forth communication important in EHR?

Back and forth communication between patients and providers is key to patient education and for handling problems related to confusion regarding care beyond the office. An EHR patient portal should offer an easy to use messaging system that can allow communication directly to and from parties involved in patient care.

Why are patient portals important?

In addition to being a legal requirement, patient portals aim to improve patient-provider communication and patient education. This makes patients more informed about their health, making office visits more productive and beneficial for patients and providers, as well as improving care.

What are the requirements for Stage 2 meaningful use?

Stage 2 meaningful use requirements include 17 required features and 6 additional features that must be included in certified electronic health records. These features are applicable to the entire electronic health record, not just features that are applicable to the patient portal.

What is syndromic surveillance?

Syndromic surveillance data refers to health data for the purpose of preventing or addressing public health crises, such as epidemics. Electronic notes about patient progress. These electronic notes go on patient records. Imaging results, including the image itself and relevant explanations or information.

Gathering your EHR requirements. Why? How?

To figure out what you want from a new EHR, you have to be systematic.

Core EHR features to help you meet practice requirements

A logical starting point for determining what EHR features a practice requires involves gaining an understanding of core EHR features and what they do.

What are the requirements for EHR incentives?

Obtaining EHR incentives is a key consideration for many practices, due to the fact incentive payments provide a much-needed way to offset the capital investment costs in EHR technology.

Advanced and specialty EHR features

A practice’s EHR performance requirements will also be guided by whether they require advanced features such as practice management software and whether the practice is a general or specialty practice.

Potential problems with EHR selection

Research conducted by the Stanford School of Medicine, in conjunction with the Harris Polling Firm, provides insight into some of the perceived shortfalls medical providers see in EHR features and functionality.

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