Healthcare industry regulators require patient portals. That’s because they offer multiple benefits to your patients. A patient portal is a secure online site that allows patients instant access to their medical records through a web or mobile interface. Standard features available on these portals are:
- Direct messaging to a physician
- Medical records and test results
- Appointment scheduling forms
- Quick video consultations
- Selected health education materials
- Bill payment
- Prescription ordering
Statistics obtained online show that 40 percent of patients had access to a patient portal in 2020. If you are not sure whether to implement one, the benefits listed here should motivate you to do so.
Here are seven reasons you need a web patient portal in your practice.
1. Efficient Patient Communication
Patients can use the portal to perform many tasks that could take one or more phone calls. With a patient portal, your patients can:
- Book appointments
- Reorder for prescriptions
- Send vitals through connected devices
- Read recent lab and radiology test results
When patients can use a self-help portal, clinicians will be able to focus on helping patients who have very urgent needs.
2. More Time to Attend to Patient Care
A practice with a few hundred patients will need to locate and inform patients about their healthcare daily. Unfortunately, this can consume a significant amount of a physician’s day, making it difficult to focus on attending to new patients and those requiring urgent attention.
A patient portal enables providers to avoid distractions from mundane data retrieval tasks.
3. Improve Clinical Office Productivity
Patient portals reduce manual tasks needed by clinical staff and allow more tasks to be automated or performed electronically. For instance, instead of patients calling in every hour to schedule appointments, they can book them online. Similarly, receptionists won’t need to handle so many refill needs in a day and provide answers to questions on referrals to specialists. Instead, they can take up duties that will make the provider more productive.
4. Quick Prescription Refills
Patients with chronic illnesses need to refill their prescriptions as soon as they are due. Such patients will cherish the opportunity to fill their prescriptions with the tap of a button.
If there’s any need to contact the doctor for further information, the video appointment feature will come in handy. Some practices also provide home delivery services to patients who request them. So they don’t have to visit the clinic or pharmacy to pick up their medication.
5. Easy Payment of Bills
When a patient needs to pay for a premium service that Medicare does not cover, the portal can take care of it. There’s no need to call the billing department for confirmation.
All required details can be obtained from the patient portal. So patients can enjoy 24 hours access and support even on public holidays.
6. Ability to Reach Patients in Remote Areas
At the pandemic’s peak, many people had to restrict their movement. Limited mobility increased the demand for telehealth services. Practices with patient portals upgraded them to offer their patients video appointments and video messaging to continue receiving treatment.
Many patients were satisfied with the quality of care received through these patient portals. Some even decided they would continue using this channel after the pandemic.
Developing and implementing a web patient portal is a wise investment. However, it is a complex project, and you need to work with an electronic medical records interface development expert.
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Contact Lifepoint Informatics now at 877.522.8378 to discuss your patient portal development needs. Visit our contact page now to schedule a free consultation or to see a free demo of any of our health IT solutions.