A provider portal can transform a laboratory. Whether it is a clinical lab, pathology lab, or radiology department, you can develop a portal for physicians to experience offers benefits such as:
- Fast access to diagnostic test results
- Sharing lab results with referring consultants
- Providing secure access to lab test status from any location
- Offering clients low-cost transfer of results
However, best practices need to be applied to your portal development to harness these benefits.
This article will discuss some of the steps to successful physician web portal development.
1. Clearly Defined Goals
Effective portal development starts with clearly defined goals, and these goals should reflect the most urgent needs of referring physicians.
Some of the tools you can use to set goals include:
- Survey questions: Ask physicians to tell you the most important features they want in a portal.
- Customer service: Find out what clients ask about from the support team.
- Competitor’s portal: Check the physician portal of a competing laboratory that offers your type of service
Examples of goals you can set for your portal include to:
- Reduce time for transmitting test results by 50%
- Provide access to the status of test orders
- Increase physician outreach
- Attract more orders through portal outreach
2. Integration with Other Information Systems
Your doctor’s web portal needs to connect seamlessly with existing and future record-keeping systems. For instance, the web portal must integrate with your lab information management system (LIS) and electronic medical record system.
It needs to support popular healthcare and web data integration standards such as HL7, XML, JSON, and FHIR.
If your budget supports it, you may even create an interface that can send results directly to the EHR of the referring physician.
3. Compliance With Security Requirements
Pay special attention to the safety and security of the portal. Today, more hackers are interested in medical data.
If cybercriminals get a hold of a patient’s details, they could use them to commit fraud. Some may even decide to put the data up for sale on the Dark Web.
To secure the portal, you need to use a robust encryption protocol like AES-256, used by the military and financial institutions. You should also ensure that physicians have separate login screens and change their passwords regularly.
In addition, the portal needs to comply with the latest HIPAA regulations on data security.
4. Full Support from Your Development Partner
Choose a development partner that offers excellent customer support. Some of the features of high-quality support include:
- Multiple channels: Your developer should provide email, live chat, and phone,
- Knowledge base: A sound support system will have articles, guides, and documents written to help you solve common problems.
- Experienced representatives: The support staff must have adequate knowledge and training to provide detailed answers to your questions.
Partner With an Expert to Develop a Portal for Physicians
Connect with Lifepoint Informatics today at 877.522.8378 to discuss your portal development needs. Visit our contact page to book a free consultation and see our web portal solution demo.