Patient portals continue to take center stage in healthcare’s consumer engagement efforts. We’ve gathered some of the best tips from clients who have recently shared their success stories with us:
Editor's Note: This article orginally appeared on November 21, 2017 on Allscripts Blog: It Takes a Community
1. First, enroll your own employees.
“We could spend all the money in the world on marketing, but what drives change in patients’ behavior is when their doctors explain the benefits and encourage them to enroll.”
Michael W. Bachman, II, Patient Access Manager, Sharp Rees-Stealy, San Diego, California, U.S.A.
2. Take your time in rolling out new features.
“The portal has a lot of features, but if providers and patients don’t understand the functionality, they won’t adopt it.”
Julie Leep, EHR Configuration and Support Leader, North Bend Medical Center, Coos Bay, Oregon, U.S.A.
3. Enroll patients in the waiting room.
“Once patients overheard and saw others signing up, the ball started rolling…what we got was patient-driven momentum.”
Serena Davis, Clinical Informatics & EHR Coordinator, Arkansas Physician Management, Inc., North Little Rock, Arkansas, U.S.A.
4. Share data with patients, even if you’re concerned they may misinterpret it.
“[Physicians] supported making it easier for patients to obtain radiology results, but they didn’t want the information to confuse or upset patients because of misinterpretation…But once we turned it on, we’ve had no negative feedback. All the fears providers had really haven’t come to light.”
Lindsey Tyner, Quality Improvement Coordinator, North Bend Medical Center, Coos Bay, Oregon, U.S.A.
5. Give patients the option to self-schedule appointments.
“We’ve given patients the ability to schedule their own appointments, and it’s led to a lot of improvements in patient satisfaction…Patients being able to book same-day visits and schedule more complex specialty services such as colonoscopies; it’s a market differentiator for us.”
Michael W. Bachman, II, Patient Access Manager, Sharp Rees-Stealy, San Diego, California, U.S.A.
6. Providers are very effective champions.
“We find that patients want to do what providers suggest, and some of our providers have really championed the portal…Providers have a lot of success in getting patients engaged.”
Lindsey Tyner, Quality Improvement Coordinator, North Bend Medical Center, Coos Bay, Oregon, U.S.A.
7. Let patients see visit notes.
“When a patient leaves the exam room, it’s hard for them to remember everything…Open Notes helps them take more control, and we hope it also helps them have better relationships with their physicians.”
Michael W. Bachman, II, Patient Access Manager, Sharp Rees-Stealy, San Diego, California, U.S.A.
8. Save your sanity and engage support services.
“There are also psychological savings, because [Level One Patient Support] eliminates the many pressures of patient service calls. Keeping up with emerging features, identifying and resolving new issues, researching answers to questions…not having to do that means we can get back to our ‘regular’ work and do it well.”
Serena Davis, Clinical Informatics & EHR Coordinator, Arkansas Physician Management, Inc., North Little Rock, Arkansas, U.S.A.