what problems arise when using patient portal systems

by Orlando Schiller 7 min read

Barriers and Facilitators Affecting Patient Portal ...

32 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


The most frequently reported downside to patient portals is the difficulty providers often face in generating patient buy-in. Although providers are generally aware of the health perks of using a patient portal, patients are seldom as excited about the portal as they are.

Patients don't care about meaningful use and the fact that their provider will lose money if they don't create an account and actually use the portal. Patient portals are notoriously obsolete and difficult to navigate, and patients often struggle to interpret medical information, such as test results.Feb 26, 2018

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What are the disadvantages of patient portal?

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.

What are the benefits of a patient portal?

Feb 17, 2016 · The most frequently reported downside to patient portals is the difficulty providers often face in generating patient buy-in. Although providers are generally aware of the health perks of using a patient portal, patients are seldom as excited about the portal as they are.

What is a patient care portal?

Mar 21, 2019 · Implementing and managing patient portals should be viewed as less about technology and more about meeting patient needs and ensuring easy, useful communication with the provider. — Poor training. Correction: poor marketing. Sure, most hospitals have a program for training inpatients on using their portals.

What is Athena patient portal?

Sep 01, 2017 · For instance, in our previous work we found that test result display and graphing were often confusing to patients, and they reported that portals were not user-friendly. 15 A recent systematic review of patient and provider attitudes toward patient portal use found that the most negatively-perceived feature was user-friendliness, making the portal difficult to …

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What are the disadvantages of 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 disadvantages and problems that can occur from using a patient portal?

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 is the most common barrier to the use of the patient portal?

Conclusions: The most common barriers to patient portal adoption are preference for in-person communication, not having a need for the patient portal, and feeling uncomfortable with computers, which are barriers that are modifiable and can be intervened upon.Sep 17, 2020

What are the challenges of using electronic health records and patient portals?

7 challenges outlinedData entry. A clinician's work process may make it hard or impossible to appropriately enter the desired EHR data. ... Alerting. ... Interoperability. ... Visual display. ... Availability of information. ... System automation and defaults. ... Workflow support.Sep 17, 2018

What are the disadvantages of patience?

You ignore the innovative wisdom that comes from going with your instincts and initial perspectives. You may too easily make allowances for team members' correctable challenges, compromising overall team performance.Aug 3, 2010

What are challenges for patients that do not have access to all of the PHRs?

Between underutilization of technology, lack of patient education, and inadequate health IT interoperability, patients and providers are struggling to ensure robust patient health data access.Underutilized patient portals.Ambiguous security protocols.Limited health data interoperability.Aug 11, 2016

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

How many patients actually 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

What are the challenges that arise when searching for information in the medical records?

The challenges of storing health information records are varied but ubiquitous.Unsolicited Data. EHR is advantageous in many ways. ... Logistical Problems. ... Physical Problems. ... Ethical Problems. ... Accessibility.Jun 10, 2016

What challenges would you anticipate in introducing e health records and or telehealth?

Here are a few potential challenges and barriers you may face in EHR use....Learning common barriers can help your practice manage around them and set realistic goals that can be accomplished.The technical ability. ... The cost of use. ... The people. ... The workflow break up. ... The training. ... The concerns with privacy.Feb 22, 2021

Which of the following is a risk of using electronic patient records?

EHRs may cause several unintended consequences, such as increased medical errors, negative emotions, changes in power structure, and overdependence on technology.May 11, 2011

What are the benefits of patient portals?

One of the clearest benefits to a patient portal is the added ability for communication between patients and providers, and these benefits are felt strongest with regard to chronically ill patients.

What is portal email?

The portal is just a secure e-mail system that we can use to communicate. You can send me a message and it goes right into your chart, so I have all of your information at hand when I read it and respond. If you use it and don’t like it, you don’t have to continue to use it. Just let us know.

Why are reminders important?

Reminders from providers, and the capability for patients to discuss issues with their physicians, help increase patient engagement and therefore play a role in boosting the patient’s overall health.

Is a patient portal good?

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.

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 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.

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).

Why do EHR projects fail?

Many EHR implementation projects fail because they underestimate the importance of one or more clinician to serve as opinion leaders for providers in the clinic.

Why do patients conceal information in EHR?

The patient may conceal information due to lack of confidence in the security of the system having their data.

Why is electronic health record important?

It is the need of the hour because it improves the quality of health care and is also cost-effective. Technologies can introduce some hazards hence safety of information in the system is a real challenge.

How does an EHR improve patient safety?

EHRs serve as a way to improve the patient's safety by reducing healthcare errors, reduce health disparities and improve the health of the public.[22] . However, concerns have been raised about the accuracy and reliability of data entered into the electronic record.

What is user access?

The user's access is based on preestablished role-based privileges. The administrator identifies the user, determines the level of information to be shared and assigns usernames and passwords. The user should be aware that they will be accountable for the use and misuse of the information they view.

What is an EHR?

An electronic health record (EHR) is a record of a patient's medical details (including history, physical examination, investigations and treatment) in digital format. Physicians and hospitals are implementing EHRs because they offer several advantages over paper records.

What is a petal appointment?

Instead of sending an appointment request to administrative staff, the Petal platform integrates with the existing system to enable the patient to make an appointment in real time. Administrative staff are no longer interrupted in their work, operations are simplified, and the patient care pathway is improved. Learn more about PetalBooking

What is Caspio platform?

Caspio is the world's leading LOW-CODE platform for building compliant patient portal applications without having to write code. Ranked a 'Leader' by Forrester Research, Caspio empowers you to collaborate efficiently, manage patients effectively, and deliver personalized care using a customizable all-in-one platform that's built to meet the specific needs of your organization; all without the IT overhead. See why Caspio is trusted by leading healthcare organizations. Try Caspio for FREE. Learn more about Caspio

What is simple practice?

Automate your billing, easily file insurance claims, and streamline your client communication with the Client Portal . Enable Online Booking to let your clients easily request appointments, and then approve or deny all requests. Plus, send paperless intakes to your clients, upload resources, send secure messages, and collect payments-all in one place. Learn more about SimplePractice

What is Ambra Health?

Ambra Health is a cloud-based medical data and image management company. Intuitive, scalable and highly interoperable, the Ambra cloud platform is designed to serve as the backbone of imaging innovation and progress for healthcare providers. Patient portal image enablement provides a simple alternative to image distribution via CD. Patients are given the ability to create an account to upload imaging, store their priors, and view imaging in a personal health record. Learn more about Ambra Health

What is cipher outreach?

With CipherOutreach, health systems scale targeted and purposeful outreach across the continuum of care encompassing preventive outreach, post-discharge and post-visit follow up, episodic outreach, and care recordings. Ranked as the KLAS Category Leader for Patient Outreach in 2018 and 2019, CipherOutreach's automated call and text programs ensure that all patients receive proactive outreach during critical care transitions. Learn more about CipherOutreach

What is intakeq?

IntakeQ provides beautiful and secure electronic intake forms for health professionals, enabling them to offer an amazing onboarding experience, while also optimizing and streamlining the intake process. As a bonus, IntakeQ also offers powerful practice management features, including scheduling, payment, appointment reminders, secure messaging, telehealth, invoicing and insurance billing. Affordable pricing, 14-day free trial, no credit card required, no software to install. Learn more about IntakeQ

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What Was The Research About?

  • 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. Patient portals may be especially helpful for t…
See more on pcori.org

What Were The Results?

  • 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 1. Wanting to get care in person or by phone (54 percent) 2. Not often using a computer with access to the internet (41 percent) 3. Being unsure of what w…
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Who Was in The Study?

  • The study included adults with chronic health problems. In the first part of the study, the research team surveyed 1,824 patients. Of these patients, 56 percent were white, 13 percent were Asian, 10 percent were black, and 10 percent were Hispanic. About 12 percent of patients were 18–44 years old, and the rest were older. In the second part of the study, the team reviewed patient portal an…
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What Did The Research Team do?

  • The research team worked with patients, doctors, and other health system staff to design a patient survey. The survey asked patients about the reasons they did or didn’t use the portal. The team mailed the survey to patients in the health system and analyzed the results. The research team also looked at the patient portal and health records of patients in the health system. Using …
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What Were The Limits of The Study?

  • The study took place in a single health system in California with an established, free patient portal. Results may be different in other health systems. Also, results may be different for patients who must pay to use a portal. Results may also differ for patients who don’t have chronic health problems. Finally, the research team can’t say for sure if patients’ use of the portal caused the di…
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How Can People Use The Results?

  • Patients can use the results to learn more about how using a patient portal might affect healthcare experiences. People who run healthcare systems could use the results to help decide whether to provide portals for patients with chronic health problems.
See more on pcori.org