Efficient communication between patients and their healthcare providers is a must for proper diagnosis, treatment, and post-treatment procedures. While most of the modern Electronic Medical Records (EMR) and Electronic Health Records (EHR) Software include a dedicated Patient Portal for all communication that takes place between the patient and the physician, recent studies show a different perception of the Patient Portals.
Survey Results
A recent survey conducted by DrFirst, an EMR Software Vendor, which targeted a large number of patients all over the US concluded that above 90% of the respondents preferred secure text messaging for all the Appointment Reminders or other forms of communication over the dedicated Patient Portal. The rest of the 10% were found to be more comfortable with a Patient Portal.
Respondents of the Survey
The online survey conducted as listed above collected responses from 199 patients who visit a physician practice at least twice a year. 58 percent of the patients who participated in the survey were female, and the rest 42 percent were male. Around 25 percent of the survey respondents included people above 45 years of age, and another 25 percent included people between 25 and 34 years of age. An additional 18 percent were between 18 and 24 years of age, while the remaining 16 percent happened to be between 45 and 54 years of age.
Study by the American Health Association (AHA)
Another study by the American Health Association (AHA) revealed that 93% of the medical practices across the country allowed patients access to their EMR/EHR or Practice Management Software through Patient Portals. The survey findings also showed that the majority of patients prefer messages about simple behaviors that could improve their health. And depending upon the type of the message, 83% of patients would welcome messages about prescriptions, follow-up appointments, health statistics, etc.
Conclusion
Patient Portals offer a number of benefits to medical practices, some of which include:
- Improved Patient Communication
- Streamlined Patient Registration
- Closer Patient-Provider Relationships
- Better Clinical Outcomes
- Smoother Administrative Tasks
Despite all these benefits, patients may not find themselves that comfortable using a Patient Portal as they do with text messages on their smartphones. This does not mean that Patient Portals are not useful at all. This just suggests that while practices take a lot of steps to make sure patients find themselves comfortable with every step in the clinic, they must also think from the patient’s perspective to get a better point of view.
