Nashville, Tenn.-based Vanderbilt University Medical Center has rolled out changes to its patient messaging as there has been an increase in messages sent through its patient portals to its providers.
In June, the health system rolled out eVisits. According to the health system, eVisits is a patient-initiated, asynchronous conversation between a patient and their healthcare provider via a secure online portal.
This move was made as its providers were receiving messages in patient portals that required more than five minutes of their time.
"An eVisit is a service recognized by Medicare, Medicaid and all commercial health insurances," Sara Horst, MD, associate vice chair for digital health operations for the Department of Medicine, said in an Aug. 10 release. "Patients may be responsible for the same or lower copayment or coinsurance than they would have for a traditional office visit."
Dr. Horst said eVisits have given its providers more control over their message basket.
"Early data has shown a 5 percent decrease in patient advice messages across VUMC and significant message decreases in other message basket types related to changes we've made in automated notifications," Dr. Horst said.