Another Valentine’s Day just passed and I couldn’t help but recall all the movies, shows and interviews that were on television talking repeatedly about how the most important thing for a strong, long lasting, trusting relationship is good communication. Sure, this is no big secret, but it got me thinking about how true this is, not only for our love lives, but for another very important relationship…the one with our physician.
If communication is the key element to a successful relationship, any imbalance can lead to its failure, right? So, to constantly hear, “Thank you for calling Dr. X’s office. We are unable to take your call at this time, but please leave us a detailed message and we will return your call during our regular business hours,” can make your heart negatively flutter and eventually take a toll on this very important relationship. How can you be successful in your patient-physician relationship with such an imbalance in communication, which ultimately limits your access to one another?
Well folks, the healthcare IT cupid may have just answered our question…please welcome the patient portal. Patient portals allow patients and their physicians to communicate with each other regularly with great ease and convenience with just a few clicks of a mouse and offer a wide range of additional benefits:
Patient Benefits:
- Access to Care 24/71:
- o Constant Open Communication-No one likes playing phone tag, especially when trying to exchange important information. Through secure email exchanges, patients can ask their doctor routine questions and gain helpful information, day or night, without having to schedule an in-office appointment. Some patients may even feel more comfortable asking harder, more embarrassing questions online rather than in a face to face encounter, improving their overall health. For those patients that are not as shy, or prefer to “see” their physician, some providers are offering video consultations through patient portals.
- o Setting up Appointments– A recent survey found that 72% of consumers are interested in using an online scheduling tool to book their next healthcare appointment2. Similar to booking a flight or a hotel room online, patients are able to view a calendar and see which days and time slots are available and work best with their schedules. Paperwork can be filled out online and ahead of time, making the visit much quicker and more convenient.
- o Lab Results– Instead of scheduling yet another in-office appointment to simply review test results, patients can view them online and discuss them with their doctor, as needed, via the phone. Since the patient portal securely stores and keeps a timeline of these results, they can be reviewed at any time.
- o Prescription Requests and Refills-Many providers offer an easy tool to write, track and renew prescriptions. This service often provides helpful information on what each medication is for and can communicate directly with pharmacies on the patient’s behalf.
- o Reminder System-Healthcare providers can use a calendar system to send patients important reminders about upcoming tests, immunizations and appointments and they can be personalized for the patient’s age and medical history. Some patient portals have the ability to send a text message directly to the patient’s phone. This is especially useful for patients with certain conditions that require frequent tests and check-ups.
- Empowerment- Patient portals allow patients to become active participants in their own care. It has been repeatedly documented that patients pay more attention and become more engaged in their health and medical care when they have easy access to their health information online. By having a vehicle to ask questions to their providers, with ease and comfort, patients are more empowered to collaborate on treatment options and take ownership and advocate for their health.
- Education and Awareness-Access to a library of resources would provide reliable and up-to-date content and handouts that enhance the patient’s ability to better understand medical information on various healthcare topics, specific disease states, preventative guidelines, recent drug recalls and access to support groups3. This education can be personalized to the patient’s specific situation, including content from organization’s website or third-parties, videos, images, virtual tours and health management tools4.
- Cost and Time Savings-Patient portals are cost effective by decreasing unnecessary office visits, time and money spent on travel and in office wait times, especially for those patients who need to travel a great distance to receive care. It has been illustrated, time and time again, that roughly three-fourths of the overall burden of healthcare cost comes from chronic and preventable diseases, therefore the use of portals to encourage preventative medicine via increased access to care, education and reminders, can have a tremendous impact on the healthcare costs.
Provider Benefits
- Achieving Meaningful Use2: 4 of the 25 criteria for Meaningful Use Stage 1 can be achieved using a patient portal: 1.) Electronic copy of health information, 2.) Clinical summaries, 3.) Appointment recalls and 4.) Timely access to health information. Meeting the Meaningful Use requirements would allow healthcare professionals to be eligible to receive ~$63,000. Those that do not meet the requirements will eventually get penalized 1% reduction in Medicare payments.
- Collaboration: A patient portal can be fully integrated with the organization’s EHR, billing and practice management systems. The ability to track and accumulate the medical history of a patient in one robust record and the ability to access and share that information in a secure environment among a team of caregivers in different locations and fields of medicine will lead to fewer errors, better patient care and a more efficient healthcare system1. The streamline in workflow will also reduce costs across the board.
- Better Resource Utilization: On average, the provider’s staff spends three minutes on the phone scheduling an appointment, yet that same action would take a patient one minute to accomplish via a patient portal, without requiring assistance from any of the organization’s personnel. Multiplied across patients, the time savings is substantial5. These resources can have their time allocated to seeing patients or perform other value-added tasks without being tied up on the phone all day.
- Efficiency and Accuracy2: A portal can speed the timeliness, as well as improve the accuracy and completeness of forms and other information the organization requires from its patients. The portal\0x2010delivered registration forms allow front office staff to get a ‘head start’ on registering patients avoiding the need to key in paperwork, and the pre\0x2010visit completion of information gives staff time to verify insurance before the day of the appointment. Interfacing the patient portal with the practice management system speeds up the flow and improves the accuracy of this information because insurance, demographic and other data the patient provides can populate the proper fields without the need for staff to re\0x2010enter information, which always introduces the potential for error.
- Impact on Revenue: Patients can pay bills, update insurance information and ask billing questions, through the patient portal, all of which will increase the organization’s revenue through greater financial efficiencies. One survey reported the following cost savings at various healthcare organizations across the county6: 63 cents every time a lab result is not mailed; $17 every time a billing query is handled online rather than by phone, $7 for every appointment scheduled online; 25% reduction in the number of patients who have to come into the office for a follow-up visit and 12,000 phone calls avoided a month because patients can easily manage their records and get their questions answered online. Furthermore, 1 out of 4 consumers are willing to pay extra for integrated services and online access to their healthcare information, which could serve as an additional revenue stream for many providers5.
- Remote Monitoring: Patient portals can provide greater monitoring of continued care and better tracking of patient conditions, medication and treatment compliance, and follow-up scheduling. Providers can use the portal to obtain blood pressure and cholesterol readings and blood sugar levels and in some cases even hear heart and body sounds of the patients through the use of a patient portal.
- Patient Satisfaction: Many studies have found that patients that use portals to communicate with their providers feel a sense of satisfaction. Happy patients are loyal patients and these patients usually refer their friends, relatives and colleagues to places where they like the service. Some patient portals even allow and encourage patients to forward information about the organization and its services directly through the portal. This viral marketing strategy has helped healthcare organization’s tap into one of the most powerful and cost-effective marketing methods for attracting new patients5.
Relationships are hard work. Good communication is a fundamental part of any successful relationship. For the patient-physician relationship the use of health information technologies, such as a patient portal, has great potential to help facilitate this foundational component of the relationship. Patient portals not only increase the necessary communication, they also provide quality healthcare through improved access to care and collaboration, deliver effective and efficient care, and decrease costs. No one can say for certain how long any relationship will last, but with the right foundation and effective tools the hopeless romantic in all of us are confident that the ending will surely read, “Happily Ever After.”
Resources for this blog:
- http://www.healthline.com/hlc/benefits-of-patient-portal-and-epatient-services
- http://www.medfusion.net/docs/Patient%20Portals%20MU%20white%20paper.pdf
- http://www.curemd.com/curepatient.htm
- http://www.geonetric.com/software/portals/features/
- http://www.healthmgttech.com/index.php/features/thought-leaders/patient-portals.html
- http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/issues/18_3/will-patient-portals-open-the-door-to-better-care-39853-1.html?pg=1v
