Patient Portals: What are they and how can they be important?

A Patient Portal is a software functional feature that enables patients to view or to send their own health data without the need of medical provider or staff. Screens are available where patients can see their medication list, allergy list, labs and schedule appointments. It can be described as a "window looking into their electronic patient chart" Some portals allow patients to also see their visit bill, fill out of their initial intake form, email their providers and send data from medical devices (ie. glucose, BP values, etc).

Patient portals can be part of an EMR or be used standalone or be linked to an EMR, PM system, etc. This a tool that has been important in getting patients engaged in their own care. Also, it helps organizations cut costs. For example, lab results don't need to be mailed, staff time is not wasted to help patients schedule appointments or answer simple questions about their bill.

Patient benefits include cutting down time filling paperwork on a new patient visit, more freedom in accessing certain health data (ie. labs, med list) on demand and an ability to contact their medical provider directly without having to depend on the practice staff.

One study revealed that 75% of patients wanted to email their physicians, 2/3 rds wanted to lab results online and at least were very to upload data from their home monitoring device into the EHR. These days it is easy for a practice to get a patient portal. In fact, Meaningful Use certified EMRs come with patient portals. Some have basic features only (results viewing), while others allow you to schedule appointments, refill meds and send messages.

Screenshot of a patient portal

(reference: omedix blog)

However, there are a few important points to what features to make available.

1. Consider the implication that the patient portal feature will have on practice workflow. For example, you may want to include lab results as a feature as most are normal and don't take away time from the provider to explain (as an abnormal result would do).

2. Getting reimbursed for the work it creates. For example, in some organizations providers don't get paid for responding to emails from patients or the pay may not be worth the time it takes. Therefore, you may not want to offer a secured messaging feature to your patients.

3. IT issues may take time or expense. Being software, patient portals are amenable to technical problems. You must decided if your practice or organization has the resources to deal with that. Once you introduce a new service to your patients, it's too late to back out. Especially, if people like using it and patient portals are becoming more and more popular.

If you want Jitesh Chawla's advice, set up a trial period with your patients in which you ask them all to utilize the patient portal for certain funcationalities such as booking appointments, requesting med refills.

I hope this has given you some basic information about patient portals and how they can be used.
Patient portals have a tremendous potential from improving practice efficiency to exchanging data with health information exchanges.Will patient portals stay or suffer the fate of some of the PHRs (like Google Health)? I am not sure and only time will tell. But, one thing is for sure - healthcare consumers want more charge of their health and health information. Patient portals serve as one of these tools.