subject: Understanding Patient Portals [print this page] A patient portal can streamline access to your practice by offering patients self-serve access to many of the functions and information that they most value from health care providers. According to recent survey findings, a large majority of health care consumers, nearly 80 percent, were interested in gaining access, through their physicians, to an integrated medical record containing their test results, physician visits and other information. Three out of four surveyed wanted their physicians to provide online services to schedule appointments, get test results, access medical records and exchange email. Confirming the attitude of consumers to embrace portals, Intuit Health concluded that 72 percent of consumers would use a tool to help them pay their medical bills, easily communicate with physicians, make appointments, and obtain lab results online. Portals can meet all of these patients needs and more.
A patient portal creates a single, customizable point of access to applications and information, providing tremendous value to patients.
Strengthening physicianpatient relationship
A patient portal has great utility in enhancing the physicianpatient relationship. Patients have the ability to schedule appointments, look up test results and review personal medical records. Being able to access this information at their convenience helps bond the patient more closely to the practice. It may also solidify the practice as the patients medical home. Patients using their primary care physicians portal tend to have greater satisfaction with provider communications and overall care than those not using a portal. Moreover, sustained patient use of a portal appears to remain strong over time, with higher morbidity, middle aged patients making the greatest use. Highpatient utilization of the portal exemplifies how information technology may encourage patients to be more active in their care and may potentially improve outcomes.
Securely sharing information
Nearly nine of ten patients consider it important that physicians be able to access test results electronically and exchange information with other physicians electronically.
Connecting referring physicians
A patient portal can allow patients, as well as referring and consulting physicians, to share information, which promotes collaboration. A portal offers a separate section for referring physicians to check on the status of their patients. This option, which vastly speeds communication flow, has proven popular with referring physicians. Practice operations cost savings. In addition to satisfying patients, a portal provides the tangible benefits of cost savings to the medical practice. Unlike a telephone, the portal can accept patients input and provide them with selfselected information and services without requiring the interaction of or response by the practices staff. When patients who use the portal make requests that require staff action (usually in the form of information gathering and a reply), the portal relieves a measurable amount of telephone demand on staff as well as physicians.
Time is a critical practice resource, especially in the case of providers. Using a portal with the capabilities to handle most patient requests allows the practice to allocate more of this valuable resource into seeing patients, rather than attempting to make realtime responses to incoming telephone requests. A portal adds value to a medical practice by allowing it to shift time as one would with broadcast media via TIVO or a similar digital device. In other words, staff can delineate specific time periods throughout the workday to handle the portals output; namely, the nonurgent patient requests for information or services.
