Planning for Patient Portals

How to Optimize Patient Portals 

Effective implementation of a patient portal will help you attest to several patient and family engagement requirements of Stage 2 Meaningful Use: Clinical summaries Patient-specific education resources Secure electronic messaging Timely access to health information Reminders for preventive and follow-up care 

The patient portal also has great potential for meeting emerging requirements in Stage 3 Meaningful Use that are expected to focus on self-management and shared management of health care. A patient portal can be used to assist in self-management tasks through tools for interactive monitoring and coaching. A portal also can enable patients to collect data about their health and treatment, and to share that data with their providers. 

Implement Portal Features that Support Engagement 

A patient portal that mostly provides administrative functions, such as scheduling appointments and getting lab results, will not be interesting or useful to patients. Patients will more likely use a portal that is designed and configured to address their personal interests and needs. A portal that includes interactive and personalized tools and information will be more relevant to patients’ needs. 

Patients are more likely to register and continue using a portal that has a problem-solving orientation, interactive decision tools, and the ability to communicate securely with their doctors. Key questions to answer during planning include: 

• What are the goals for the portal in terms of potential benefits for patients and the practice? Which features and services should be offered? 
• Should they be offered all at once, or phased in? Will the portal be open initially to all interested patients, or to a select group during early deployment? 
• How will you handle marketing, enrollment, training, and support for patients’ use of the portal?  

Aim to establish efficient workflows and policies, and avoid burdening providers with troubleshooting during initial rollout.