what is the barrier for physican to use patient portal

by Coy Kuhlman 4 min read

Barriers and Facilitators Affecting Patient Portal ...

24 hours ago May 11, 2018 · Only barriers were anticipated for patients (common to all stakeholder groups), especially related to patients’ characteristics and patient portal use. These barriers included lack of eHealth literacy. This can be due to the diversity of the patient population because it will include immigrants, older patients, and people with limited literacy skills. >> Go To The Portal


Major perceived barriers included security concerns, lack of technical skills/interest, and preference for in-person communication. Facilitators to portal use included convenience, health monitoring, and improvements in patient-provider communication.

Among the nonadopters (n=2828), the most prevalent barriers were patient preference for in-person communication (1810/2828, 64.00%), no perceived need for the patient portal (1385/2828, 48.97%), and lack of comfort and experience with computers (735/2828, 25.99%).Sep 17, 2020

Full Answer

What are the barriers to patient portal implementation?

May 11, 2018 · Only barriers were anticipated for patients (common to all stakeholder groups), especially related to patients’ characteristics and patient portal use. These barriers included lack of eHealth literacy. This can be due to the diversity of the patient population because it will include immigrants, older patients, and people with limited literacy skills.

Why don’t more patients use patient portals?

May 15, 2018 · If a patient has low health literacy, they are unlikely to find patient portal data useful. Some health IT developers have begun to leverage natural language processing (NLP) to make patient portal information more accessible for patients with lower health literacy. On average, most patients have poor health literacy. NLP helps to translate certain clinical terms in …

How can providers improve patient engagement with patient portals?

Our study shows that unawareness of the patient portal is the main barrier of enrollment. Users and nonusers perceive the usefulness of the portal differently and do not have the same recommendations for additional functionalities. To increase patients' participation in a Web portal, the unawareness …

What are some examples of barriers and facilitators in patient education?

Nov 01, 2020 · among insured individuals who had visited their clinicians in the past year, racial and ethnic groups and individuals on medicaid were less likely to be offered pps access. 23 indeed, studies identified significant barriers to pps access and use such as limited internet access, limited technical skills, potential security breaches and, for …

What is a reason for providers to be reluctant to use a patient portal?

The researchers found no demographic differences among nonusers who said that a technology hurdle, lack of internet access or no online medical record was the reason why they did not make use of a patient portal.May 14, 2019

What are the disadvantages of patient portals?

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 pros and cons of 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

What are the barriers to accessing health care?

Barriers to HealthcareHealth Professional Shortage.Transportation Access.Lack of Health Insurance.Financial Constraints.Language Barriers.

What are the advantages of using a patient portal?

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

What is the purpose of patient portal?

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

Can patient portals be hacked?

Health outcomes improve. Unfortunately, what makes your patient portal valuable for patients is exactly what makes it attractive to cybercriminals. It's a one-stop shop for entire health records, and identity thieves can make a fast buck from stealing this data and selling it on.

What safeguards are included in patient portals?

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.

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 main barriers to accessing primary care?

Some of these obstacles include lack of health insurance,7, 8, 9 language-related barriers,10 disabilities,11 inability to take time off work to attend appointments,12 geographic and transportation-related barriers,13 and a shortage of primary care providers.

What are the three major barriers to adequate care?

Global health organizations should be dedicated to reaching those patients who do not have access to healthcare. There are three major barriers– physical, financial, and educational– responsible for impeding access to medical care.

What are barriers in health and social care?

Barriers are factors (issues) which prevent you from using a service at all or using it properly. These barriers mean that people cannot take control over their own life and may need to rely on others to allow them to take control.

What are the benefits of patient portal?

Patient portal benefits are numerous – they provide patients access to their health data, allow patients to securely message their providers, and in many cases allow patients to complete administrative tasks such as scheduling appointments and paying bills. Providers have recognized those benefits and nearly universally offer access to ...

Why is patient health literacy important?

Patient health literacy is an integral key to improving patient portal adoption. Just as patients want to see the features they value in way that is navigable, they also want to understand that information. If a patient has low health literacy, they are unlikely to find patient portal data useful.

Why is NLP important?

NLP helps to translate certain clinical terms in the patient portal to make them more understandable for patients. Providers must also do their jobs to improve patient health literacy.

Abstract

Background: Patient access to their medical records through patient portals (PPs) facilitates information exchange and provision of quality health care. Understanding factors that characterize patients with limited access to and use of PPs is needed.

Introduction

Patient engagement is a top priority for US health care systems. 1 The adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) is a system-level strategy to involve patients in their health care and increase their ability to make informed decisions.

Methods

Data were from the 2017−2018 Health Information National Trends Survey 5, cycles 1 (H5C1) and 2 (H5C2). H5C1 and H5C2 were nationally representative, self-administered, mail surveys of US adults ≥ 18 years that evaluated public perceptions and use of PPs.

Measures

Access to PPs was assessed with, “Do any of your doctors/health care providers maintain your medical records in a computerized system?” and “Have you ever been offered online access to your medical records by your health care provider?” [1 = yes, 0 = no/do not know].

Analyses

Weighted missing percentage for demographic characteristics was highest for income (9.7%) and race/ethnicity (8%). Missingness on all other variables, including outcome variables, was < 4%. Little’s test showed that missingness on variables collected at both waves was not completely at random (χ 2 = 16505.72; df = 14235; P < .001).

Associations between Patient Characteristics and PPs Access and Use

Roughly 3 quarters of participants (76.9%) reported their provider maintained electronic medical records but only 47.2% reported being offered access to them, 39.2% reported their provider encouraged their use, 27.2% were confident electronic medical records were safe, and 29.3% and 9.3% reported accessing their own or their families’ medical records in the past year..

Associations between Patient Characteristics and Use of PP Functionalities

Knowledge of PP functions varied, with laboratory test results (91.5%) being the most known function and clinical notes (50.6%) being the least ( Figure 1 ). Use of PP functions varied, with viewing test results (84.3%) being the most used function and requesting corrections (7.1%) being the least.

Can cybercriminals access health records?

Given the frequent news stories of cyber-criminals breaking into the computer networks of retail chains, government databases, and even health care organizations, it's no wonder that some patients are less than willing to access their health records or discuss sensitive matters online.

Can a physician be reimbursed for using a portal?

There's no way around it: Other than receiving meaningful use incentive payments (and avoiding penalties), physicians typically won't get directly reimbursed for using a portal. In fact, some physicians fear that successfully answering patient questions through secure messaging might create additional appointment capacity that the practice would need to fill to avoid declining revenue.

1. Fear of Increased Workload

How can practices avoid this? Proactive planning, says Fochetta: “The biggest mistake that practices make as they’re trying to meet Meaningful Use or wanting to immediately engage their patients is that they turn features on without really considering a structured approach to maintenance and staffing.”

2. Fear of Loss of Control Over Sensitive Information

The best way to combat this fear is to configure the portal so certain result types (e.g., sensitive radiology reports) are not available on the patient portal before a physician is able to review the information and call the patient directly.

3. Fear of Increased Liability

Setting usage expectations with patients is critical. “Providers and organizations are doing a much better job explaining the patient portal when the patient is signing up,” says Fochetta. “They’re setting up expectations for what the portal is and isn’t for.”

4. Fear of Patient Demand for Technical Support

Providing front-end patient education is the most effective way to address this fear. “Anything you can get across in that first interaction with the patient when they’re actually there in front of you will reduce the number of live calls that your organization will receive,” says Fochetta.

5. Fear of Difficulty Proving Return on Investment (ROI)

When rolled out thoughtfully and with operational design in mind, portals do tend to be worth it both clinically and financially. From a financial perspective, portals help practices reduce administrative costs related to processing payments, scanning forms, printing after-visit summaries, calling patients for appointment reminders, and more.

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