What are Patient Portals?
Patient portals are secure online platforms that medical practices use to connect with their patients. It provides patients 24/7 access to their personal health records. Patients can use the portals with a username and password to:
- Fill out forms
- Pay bills online
- View lab results
- Review doctor’s notes
- Schedule appointments
- Receive billing statements
- Request prescription refills
- Check benefits and coverage
- Send secure messages to the clinic
Benefits of Patient Portals for Providers
- Save time and cost by streamlining your care services and clinical processes.
- Meet Meaningful Use requirements as you provide patient-specific educational resources, clinical summaries, and access to personal health information securely.
- Patients will be more involved in managing their health. For example, a patient can use the portal to send their questions and queries if they can’t arrange a clinic visit right away.
- Improved treatment and medicine compliance, bettering health outcomes, due to the convenient way of sending refill requests and scheduling appointments.
- Patients are more loyal to you and are more likely to recommend your clinic to others. They will feel more at ease with your processes due to the convenience and transparency.
How Do You Get More Patients to Use Portals?
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1. Make Patient Portal Enrollment part of your initial care procedures
You need to set patient portal enrollment as a standard in your practice from their first appointment. Encourage them that it will make future processes, like prescription refills and appointment scheduling more convenient.
2. Automate patient portal enrollment by syncing it to online scheduling services.
Your patients may prefer to schedule their appointments online for convenience. Program your online appointment booking system to automatically enroll them in your patient portal. Make sure to highlight the benefits like appointment reminders (via text or email) and online payment options.
3. Patient Portal Enrollment at Your Check-In Kiosk or App
Provide a contact on the sign-in sheet if you have automated sign-in for patients as they come for an appointment so they can easily register as they wait. Make it mandatory upon their arrival and explain to them how the portal can make it more convenient for them.
4. Promote your Patient Portal
One of the possible reasons patients do not register for a patient portal is that they might be unaware of its existence. Fix this by using a sign-up connection with any piece of communication you deliver, whether by brochures, mail, or email. Put a connection in everyone's signature for email communications, and get the URL printed on reminder cards and letterheads.
5. Be Mobile Friendly
Patient portal engagement is a challenge, especially among low-income people, but optimizing for mobile will help level the playing field. Patient portals that are designed for smartphones will further improve patient use of the portal since over 81 percent of people in the United States now own a smartphone.
6. Instruct your Staff to Encourage Your Patient to Use the Patient Portal
From your front desk to your doctors, everyone should be able to sign patients up for your portal and should have the tools necessary to do so. Make sure the employees are aware of the importance of checking in with patients for their participation. You can also offer tablets or laptops to each department for registration. When they are in the clinic, patients are more likely to sign up. Make the best of it!
7. Offer rewards
Offering rewards is a smart way to promote not only enrollment but also the benefits of the portal. Consider rewarding the first ten people who make appointments through the platform each month with a discount, a gift card, or entering newly-registered patients to a raffle. Your rewards don't have to be lavish. They will, however, give patients the extra boost they need to connect with the portal.
Partner with the Right Team
Let’s boost your patient volume and improve your check-in process with our Remote Patient Concierge Services. DrCatalyst can triple your patient volume by streamlining your administrative and clinical tasks by utilizing top digital marketing strategies, all while staying HIPAA compliant. Talk to our remote medical staffing specialists TODAY.
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FAQs
Send postcards to patients, introducing your portal and encouraging them to use it to request their next appointment or medication refill. Add a tag line to appointment cards, statements, newsletters, and other communication. An example: “Tired of playing phone tag? Sign up for the patient portal.”
What strategies can be used to encourage patients to use PHRS or portals? ›
Create flyers about portal access and use and post them in the waiting area and exam rooms. Use printed after-visit summaries and communication about test results to disseminate information and instructions. Send patients an enrollment invitation to access their lab results after a visit.
What are three proven ways you can encourage patients to use your EHR's patient portal so you are complying with these requirements? ›
ACTION POINTS
- PROMOTE PORTAL. Send e-blasts to patient base, and also advertise portal on your practice web site and other online pages, along with in-office signage to meet Meaningful Use requirements.
- DISCUSS PORTAL. ...
- RESPOND PROMPTLY.
How to successfully implement a patient portal for meaningful use and beyond? ›
Meet Meaningful Use Requirements
The portal must be engaging and user- friendly, and must support patient-centered outcomes. The portal also must be integrated into clinical encounters so the care team uses it to convey information, communicate with patients, and support self-care and decision-making as indicated.
What is the most common barrier to the use of the patient portal? ›
Barriers to Patient Portal Use
Tech literacy, socioeconomic status, and internet infrastructure in the patient's community could impact a patient's ability to access devices and/or a wireless connection.
What are the challenges of patient portals? ›
Information discrepancies: Patients may encounter discrepancies or incomplete information in their medical records when using patient portals. Inaccurate data or unclear explanations of medical terminologies can lead to patients not understanding their own medical information.
How do you implement a patient portal? ›
Let's find out how to make a patient portal step-by-step.
- Identify your target audience. ...
- Follow your patients' priorities. ...
- Keep patient portal requirements in mind. ...
- Evaluate the efficiency of the portal. ...
- Consider data security concerns. ...
- Find your software development partner.
How do you market a patient portal? ›
1. Make Patient Portal Enrollment part of your initial care procedures. You need to set patient portal enrollment as a standard in your practice from their first appointment. Encourage them that it will make future processes, like prescription refills and appointment scheduling more convenient.
What are two ways that online patient portals can improve health care quizlet? ›
patient-provider communication, allow for closer patient monitoring, and increase information access, all of which facilitate patient involvement with care providers.
What are 3 benefits of a patient portal? ›
Patient portals provide patients access to health records, lab results, medication refills, educational materials, secure messaging, appointment scheduling, and telehealth visits, allowing patients to take a more active role in their health care decisions and management.
In a meta-analysis, Neves et al18 found that patient portal use was associated with improved health outcomes for patients, as well as increased safety and quality of care.
How do patient portals help nurses? ›
Nurses can increase the use of a valuable healthcare tool.
Editor's note: This is an early release of a web exclusive article for the January 2022 issue of American Nurse Journal. Takeaways: Patient portals facilitate patient engagement in healthcare decisions, improve communication, and streamline care.
How do health care portals increase patient satisfaction? ›
Patients with access to a patient portal tend to be more satisfied with their overall care experience and the technology has been shown to reduce in-person visits. They also find it simpler to communicate with their provider and request medication refills.
How do I make my EHR more user friendly? ›
Your path to EHR usability
- Efficient: The EHR must do what you need it to do — quickly and easily. ...
- Directed: Your experience should feature intuitive interactions and relevant content that's easy to find. ...
- Supportive: The EHR should offer natural and seamless workflows that support the patient-provider experience.
Why is the patient portal a good tool for patient engagement? ›
Engaging patients in the delivery of health care has the potential to improve health outcomes and patient satisfaction. Patient portals may enhance patient engagement by enabling patients to access their electronic medical records (EMRs) and facilitating secure patient-provider communication.
Why do patients not use patient portals? ›
Lack of online medical records - Roughly 32% of patients reported not having an online medical record, which is a prerequisite for utilizing a patient portal. Limited internet access - Approximately 25% of patients cited a lack of internet access as a barrier to using patient portals.
How do you encourage patient participation? ›
10 Best Strategies to Improve Patient Engagement
- Automate Patient Engagement. ...
- Segment Patient Populations. ...
- Start Engagement Before a Patient Visit. ...
- Engage Throughout the Visit. ...
- Practice Shared Decision Making. ...
- Stay Engaged Throughout Aftercare. ...
- Provide Continous Care. ...
- Use Preferred Channels.