Introduction
Patient portal software is one of the leading options when it comes to managing and handling patient data and business processes, and implementing them within your healthcare practice can significantly elevate the quality of your clinic. We recognize that it can be difficult to wrap your head around all the factors that go into successful patient portals, so we have compiled everything you need to know in one ultimate guide. From the essentials to enhancement practices, you can ensure that you’re prepared and equipped with sufficient knowledge concerning patient portals.
What is a patient portal?
Patient portal software is a one-stop shop for all your clinical healthcare needs, and offers benefits for both patients and healthcare professionals across a variety of disciplines. Depending on the needs of your practice, patient portals can accommodate a multitude of business processes, including appointment scheduling and reminders, medical billing and coding guidelines, invoice reminders, online payments, clinical document and note storage, as well as consulting services. All of this and more can be accessed from just one place, which allows for easy transmission, accessibility, organization, and management. Patient portals work towards increasing patient engagement and satisfaction by imparting a larger managerial role onto patients, which can also free up time for you to work towards assessing and treating patients.
Patient portal features
As mentioned, healthcare businesses will have different specializations, and therefore different patient portal software features are required depending on the specific demands and needs of each individual practice. The most effective and commonly used software platforms typically incorporate a combination, or all, of the following factors listed.
Appointment booking: With a patient portal, patients can simply log on and choose a time slot to book their appointment, all in their own time. From the available time slots, patients can have great flexibility in their schedule by booking appointments that best suit their existing commitments. These booking systems are typically available 24/7, meaning patients don’t need to wait to call and book within opening hours, and healthcare practitioners don’t need to spend time dealing with administrative tasks.
Appointment scheduling reminders: To support and complement appointment booking systems, many patient portals come with the option to remind patients of their upcoming appointments. This is highly effective in ensuring that patients turn up to their commitments, which can save you the inconvenience of having to fill empty slots and finding last-minute replacements within the waiting list. Especially considering that no-shows can rack up immense costs for healthcare practices, appointment reminders are an excellent preventative measure that can also adjust to your needs. You can customize the content of the reminders, as well as specify the time interval between them, so you can have complete control over the entire notification process!
Online payments: Another great feature of patient portals is the ability to log on and make payments within a few seconds. This is highly convenient, as patients don’t need to call or physically go to their clinic. The online payment services mean that patients can simply use their mobile or laptop device, and pay for healthcare services in seconds. This is great for promoting prompt payments, and in addition to easy paying, patients can also view invoices easily.
Video conferencing: From the patient portal, clients can access telehealth features such as video consulting, messaging, and calling features, which is a fantastic way to connect with patients from any location. Patients can be connected with healthcare professionals and receive healthcare treatment when needed, which is an excellent way to deliver healthcare solutions from the comfort of their own homes. Especially within the current Covid climate, telehealth features are incredibly valuable to have within a wide range of healthcare practices.
HIPAA compliance: All healthcare business practices should have HIPAA compliance features embedded in their software to ensure that they are held accountable for all business actions. They need to do so to fulfill legal obligations, and to keep patient information secure and safe from potential data compromises. If information is hacked or leaked, HIPAA guidelines serve to safeguard businesses from costly security violations, and ensure that medical data is kept confidential.
Registration: Patient portals can serve as a great way to administer and manage patient registration forms when they first book an appointment. All patients have to do is enter the required information online in the designated fields, which allows you to stay on schedule, and process data more efficiently. For many clinics, you can also use patient portals to pre-register and save time in the waiting process, so you have all the essential information that you need prior to the patient interacting with you.
Clinical notes and documents: Through a patient portal, you can also access clinical notes and documents concerning patient progress, symptoms, and treatments. If authorized, and within limits, patients can oversee this information and request amendments if the information is outdated or incorrect. As well as there being a multitude of progress templates to incorporate into your notes, having clinical notes and documents available in one place is highly convenient and allows for transparent treatment.
What do you need for a patient portal?
A valid concern that many healthcare practitioners have is related to the requirements behind running a patient portal. When weighing up all the features that patient portals can accommodate, it may sound complicated, and only a multitude of resources could handle all the business features. However, this isn’t true! Patient portals only need to be as complicated as you make them, and you really don’t need anything overly sophisticated to be able to implement its services within your healthcare practice. In fact, all you really need are the following:
Stable connection - You must have a high broadband connection to be able to support video and audio conferences with patients, as well as to conduct other business processes. Your wi-fi shouldn't drop out, and should be able to comfortably carry out all business tasks.
Compatible devices - Perhaps the most obvious, you do need to ensure that you own the right hardware to be able to run the patient portal software features. These devices aren’t anything out of the ordinary, and can be anything your provider outlines, such as laptops and mobile devices. Ideally, if you own multiple devices with various employees, it’s best to purchase and use the same models to ensure consistency across your practice.
Registered account - You also need to make sure you’re properly registered with the right patient portal software company to ensure that you can access all features and conduct business processes.
Different patient portal message uses
Patient portals can be used for a variety of purposes, and can accommodate several request functions within healthcare. To help you streamline your business processes and increase efficiency within your practice, we have collated some of the basic field types that you may use with patient portal messages.
Medication allergies and refills: You can use patient portals to have clients verify and confirm their allergies, to ensure that all health information is up-to-date. Patients can have the option to enter their own comments within an entry field, as well as select from a checklist of their active medications. They can also evaluate what medications they want to be refilled. These requests aren’t guaranteed, but through patient portals, patients have easier access to requests for refills that can allow for faster processing by healthcare practitioners.
Appointment request: Patients can easily request appointments, in the case that a preferred slot isn’t available, or your business doesn’t operate appointment scheduling online. Patient portals allow patients to specify a time that suits their busy schedules, and providers have the option of either confirming or denying these requests.
Appointment details: Patient portal messages serve as great identifiers and locators for appointment information, including the date, time and location. Patients can easily log on to check this essential information, and be reminded of their upcoming commitments. This is particularly useful for those who use telehealth services, as appointment details within patient portals can contain links to online consulting sessions.
Provider list: Patient portals can contain drop-down lists of all specialists, clinicians, and healthcare staff within your practice. This allows for easy communication between practitioners and patients, and ensures that individuals are sending the right messages to the right authorized staff. Clarification within communication is always an excellent way to increase patient engagement and satisfaction, making this a solid option.
Who can use patient portals?
The great thing about patient portal software is that it’s not limited to any particular healthcare profession or area of expertise. Anyone can make use of its services on the staff end, including some of the following:
- Mental health
- Therapy
- Counseling
- Psychology
- Psychiatry
- Physical therapy
- Physiotherapy
- Dietitians
- Acupuncture
- Dentistry
- Children and family specialists
And as for clients, anyone who is receiving healthcare treatment or is enrolled within a health clinic can also access the features of patient portals. After all, they are designed with patient needs in mind!
What are some alternatives to patient portals?
For a frame of reference, you may be wondering what some alternatives to patient portals are, and how they compare. While patient portals are certainly unique, and there isn’t anything on the market quite like it, some practitioners still prefer to use in-person visits, or the telephone to handle healthcare issues.
While phone calls can be brief, allowing practitioners and administrative staff to focus on other business matters, effective communication skills are needed as information needs to be conveyed skillfully and concisely to answer patient queries. While some are short in nature, many conversations can consume a large amount of time and can be particularly heavy to deal with. Many patients call unnecessarily for information that is readily available elsewhere, which can also be immensely frustrating, and take away from time that can be focused on treating patients.
In-person visits are a great way to build trust amongst patients, and are the most personal mode of communication. Many patients feel a stronger connection with practitioners if they are able to meet in person, and body language and verbal cues can be used to minimize communication errors. Practitioners can also develop interpersonal and leadership skills, as well as provide physical care at times, which is highly beneficial. However, many patients pose significant barriers to traveling, especially those in rural areas and isolated communities. In-person visits can often have long wait times, which is tiresome for patients to deal with, especially when it comes to their health. The healthcare industry can present certain elements of unpredictability, specifically when no-shows are taken into account, which can dampen the patient experience and decrease satisfaction.
As a result, while there are alternatives to patient portals, they each present their own challenges that make portals one of the most viable and leading options for prioritizing patient needs in the healthcare system.
For more information on the alternate routes of communication, please refer to Creating a comms plan for a new health business guide.
What is HIPAA?
HIPAA refers to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, a collection of guidelines that outline how security should be monitored and regulated within healthcare practices. All health businesses must adhere to these guidelines in order to fulfill legal obligations, with HIPAA stating the safety protocol that must be implemented when it comes to transferring, sharing, and receiving medical information. Because medical information deals with highly sensitive private details, you must prioritize proper security measures to avoid information being jeopardized. Once medical data has been compromised, it is immensely more difficult to retrieve it before the situation escalates. It’s best to consider the necessary precautions beforehand, so patient information remains confidential, and at minimal risk of hacking and data leakages from external parties.
HIPAA guidelines also set the consequences for firms who conduct security breaches, and discuss the financial tiers that could cost healthcare practices anywhere from $100 to $1.5 million. This means businesses are held accountable for their business activity, and ensures that there is an objective standard, with organizations being able to provide high-quality coordination and quality of care, that also works towards improved clinical consistency. Implementing HIPAA standards protects your clinic and staff from liability and fraud concerns, as well as guarantees the longevity of your practice. Following the 5 main guidelines of privacy, security, transaction, identifiers, and enforcement, you can ensure you’re keeping client information safe, and that this data is in good hands.
For more information concerning HIPAA guidelines, feel free to check out our Ultimate Guide to Healthcare Compliance guide.
Essential HIPAA security features you need
When it comes to HIPAA violations and doing it right, there are various security features that you should consider implementing within your practice, especially when it comes to your patient portal. You must assure patients that all their private information is in safe hands, and the best way to do that is to implement the following.
Encryption - Encrypted data means your information is only readable by authorized users, minimizing the risk of it being jeopardized. Using encryption software processes, all medical information is scrambled, with hackers unable to decrypt its content without the keys that only you have access to. Because of this reason, encrypted data is one of the highest forms of security when it comes to the transmission and sharing of stored information, and is quickly being incorporated in most businesses across the globe. Implementing its use will do your business and your patients a great favor.
Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) - Not everyone has the same role in your practice, meaning that not everyone needs access to the same type of medical information. To minimize the risk of information getting into the wrong hands, and being spread unnecessarily and illegally, you should grant access to specific users. Only authorized patients and staff should have access to particular types of information that are directly relevant to their role. For instance, doctors need to access different information to nurses, and so this should be reflected in your practice with RBAC care.
Password and authentication processes - You should have the proper password protection measures in place, including making sure that your passwords follow common safekeeping guidelines. For example, you should make sure that you include upper and lower case characters, as well as numbers and special characters, so hackers have a difficult time guessing your passwords. If passwords have been incorrectly entered multiple times, there should be an automatic locking function on your account to prevent suspicious activity, and there should be multi-factor authentication processes. For instance, you could implement SMS and email verification when individuals attempt to log in.
Auditing - To increase patient portal security, there should be a system that automatically reviews and assess information, either by multiple staff members or external parties. All business activity should also be recorded for compliance purposes, and that way, any suspicious activity can be more closely monitored.
Consent - You must obtain consent from patients to confirm that they are aware of where their information is going, and that they understand the uses of a patient portal. Any professional interaction with clients needs to be recorded so businesses are held accountable, and you must acknowledge the responsibility you have when it comes to ensuring patients are aware of inherent risks with portal use. Doing so can prevent any potential HIPAA violations.
Consider local and international laws - Within every step of your business processes and transactions, you must be considering and meeting federal and international laws. You should be following all standards, regulations, policies, and rules set by external and internal organizations. If you cannot meet the minimum healthcare business requirements, as commonly set out by HIPAA conditions, then you could face costly penalties and fines.
Custom conditions - You should also consider establishing privacy policies, as well as any other terms and conditions, that are relevant to the operations of your healthcare practice. Especially considering that patient portals are different for each clinic, you may find that tailoring some additional conditions, that touch on aspects designed within your practice, may prove beneficial in safeguarding and protecting your business. This administrative control should also be highly transparent, and work towards enhancing laws and maintaining compliance.
PCI compliance - You need to ensure that patient credit cards also aren’t stored within your clinic unless you prioritize PCI standards that keep payment information secure. Especially considering that patient portals deal with online payment data, it is of high importance that your systems are financially secure with bank-level encryption so patients can be assured their private data is stored safely.
If you would like to know more information concerning HIPAA and security guidelines when it comes to patient portals, check out Security and compliance features any patient portal must have guide.
What are the advantages of using patient portals?
Besides the obvious and distinct features of patient portals that we explored earlier, including appointment scheduling and reminder services, online payments, video consulting, clinical note and document storage, in addition to a multitude of others; there are also clear benefits to the overall operations of your business. Implementing patient portals into your practice will provide immense benefits that can help towards optimizing and prioritizing patient care, and elevating the overall quality of your clinic. These benefits highlight the importance of incorporating patient portals, and include some of the following:
Improved patient care: Patient portals can free up time by cutting out administrative tasks within clinics, largely due to the managerial role that patients take on. This means that clinicians can spend more time attending to patients, exploring clinical symptoms and treatments, which results in improved care towards patients. Practitioners can concentrate their time on delivering high-quality services, and ensure that patients are receiving the highest level of care possible.
Greater clinical outcomes: Because healthcare professionals can allocate more time towards evaluating and analyzing medical material, they can also make more accurate diagnoses and treatment judgments. This means that with a greater focus on the medical assessment process, patients can potentially have greater and more improved clinical outcomes. This is super effective in contributing towards improved patient care and increasing satisfaction, with diseases having a higher likelihood of being caught early and prevented from escalating in criticality.
Elevated communication: Probably the best advantage of patient portals is the capacity for clients to discuss medical information straightforwardly with their medical care providers. Patients can bring up any issues or concerns through the portal without expecting to book a different arrangement or telephone the clinic, which makes it much more effective in answering questions and queries directly. Certain administrations, including needing medication refills, renewed prescriptions, or referrals to alternative specialists, can all be accomplished in a much more efficient and faster process through the services of a patient portal. Increased communication can also work towards improving the overall patient experience, and that clients are receiving the help they need, which also attributes to increased patient satisfaction.
Streamlined tasks: Patient portals are highly effective at working towards automating many administrative tasks that are often quite tedious for healthcare staff. This includes conducting pre-registration before a patient attends their appointment, through online completion of forms, which allow for effective appointment scheduling. From just one place, all of these operations can be handled swiftly, which increases the overall workflow and productivity of healthcare practices. The day-to-day operations can have increased coordination within practices, with patient portals combining a whole bunch of tasks in a way that is easily accessible and highly efficient. Patient information can be kept up-to-date with the right healthcare standards in place to conduct a variety of business systems and processes.
Integration: Patient portals are great to synthesize a managerial role for patients, whilst providing a way for practitioners to easily store and produce clinical notes and documents without having to worry about data transfers. Patient portals are designed with easy transmissibility in mind, meaning that clinical practices can link their EHR databases into the system, so medical information is always up to date and specific to patients. It also saves a generous amount of time and effort, as practitioners don’t need to spend ages filing through documents for the right information, as it should automatically load if synchronized correctly. Highly integrated systems work towards seamless business processes that can increase productivity, and strengthen systems to smoothen and optimize your workplace.
High flexibility: Patients can keep in contact with specialists and medical health professionals at any time of the day, regardless of their location, which makes patient portals a highly flexible option. No longer do patients have to wait for opening hours, and practitioners can answer any queries and questions within their own free time in their busy schedules. The portal itself is also highly customizable to the needs of your business, which is essential for ensuring that you can effectively deliver high-quality treatment to your patients. You can tailor your features to be more personal to the type of patients you see, and you can configure the interface of various tasks to what works for you.
Transparency: Understandably, when it comes to healthcare, many patients are left with questions concerning their health and what results mean. After all, health is a very broad discipline, and is highly technical, meaning that patients feel that information needs to be explained more explicitly to them in order for it to be properly comprehensible. When the technology of online portals is injected into the mix, this doesn’t make this process any easier. However, patient portals provide an abundance of resources for clients to assess and review, as well as consolidate and improve their learning concerning healthcare. Many healthcare companies also outline various practices within these portals, including when it comes to online security, allowing for overall high transparency within the medical workplace. Patients are able to be regularly informed about their healthcare status, and records and documents can be readily available upon request.
Privacy: Patient portals are highly private and secure, meaning that patients can rest easy knowing all their sensitive information is in good hands. Clinical health workplaces must comply with HIPAA laws, as explored, otherwise they could face immensely high violation costs. Practitioners can also be more confident in the security of their business information, as patient portals are often encrypted with bank-level cybersecurity measures, which makes it extremely difficult for external parties to hack. Within the context of general privacy, younger patients who don’t feel safe or comfortable sharing their medical information can also gain access to private portals with restricted access. This means they can easily receive healthcare treatment, without fear of their information being jeopardized.
Better professional relationships: Patient portals are highly effective at building and strengthening professional practitioner-to-patient relationships, as the service is available 24/7. As a two-way communication channel, patients can question their provider about any healthcare concerns they may have, through their desired mode of communication, either email, messaging, or video consults, and receive prompt responses. Practitioners can choose when to answer, based on availability within their schedules, and spend time constructing useful, fact-based answers that directly respond to the patient’s needs. Accessible at any time and location, patient portals can foster stronger connections and ensure patients’ voices are heard.
Cost-efficiency: Because patient portals can also eliminate overhead and administrative costs, they can actually work towards decreasing business costs. Depending on the software you choose, and the features they offer, many software companies design patient portals at a range of prices, including for free! Patient portals don’t always have to be an expensive option for your practice, and can actually cut costs in places you didn’t think to look at. Implementing their services means you can spend more time and disposable income on improving existing technology and specialization within your practice, elevating the overall quality of care.
Common mistakes in health patient portals
When embarking on your journey with patient portals, it’s important that you consider your resources, and spend time ensuring that they are maximized. You must acknowledge competitors’ positions, and always work towards growing your position and advantages within the healthcare space. Part of this process means taking note of commonly made mistakes, so you know what to avoid when it comes to prioritizing patient needs and furthering the goals of your practice.
Lack of online presence: A major mistake with healthcare practices introducing patient portals, is that patients don’t know it exists! With advances in technology, having an online presence is essential for the success of businesses, and it increases the likelihood of patients seeing your information. You are more likely to attract patients, and using a website means you are also more likely to show up higher in Google search results. A good website can generate a large amount of traffic for patients, and so it is always a critical first step to ensure that patients make use of your patient portal services.
Difficulty in appointment scheduling: Patients always want to know that the service provider they use offers easy options for booking appointments. Especially considering that patients lead busy schedules, it’s important that appointment booking is hassle-free, and as a result, your patient portal needs to be efficient and work to simplify and streamline the appointment process. Patients should be able to see what appointments are available, and be able to book outside of your office hours.
No multichannel marketing: Multichannel marketing is a common method used by businesses to attract more clients, and to also ensure that your clients can seamlessly navigate the healthcare features within your business. This means that you should be utilizing several different technologies, such as social media, websites, and other means, to emphasize the benefits of your practice.
Irrelevant features: Patient portals need to be designed with patient needs in mind, as they are the main target audience, and so their feedback should be prioritized. This may mean conducting surveys to evaluate the patient perception of your services, as you need to ensure that your chosen features work towards elevating the quality of your service and providing better care. You should be optimizing the patient experience by creating convenience, flexibility and efficiency.
Poor reputation management: Reputation can make or break a business, and when it comes to healthcare practices, this is no exception. While you may not work as a traditional retail business, you can still receive negative reviews that can damage your reputation. You must work to actively take note of negative feedback, and use it to strengthen your business through improvements and strategy plans. Following up on these reviews highlights the care taken towards patients, and you can also gauge a more accurate understanding of the patient experience within your practice.
For more information, feel free to refer to 5 reasons potential patients choose providers over you (and how to fix that guide
How should I communicate within a patient portal?
Communication within patient portal software may look a little different from communication within in-person facilities. To ensure that you’re on the right track when it comes to communication skills, it’s important that you consider some of the following factors when interacting with patients. Good communication is key to excellent service when it comes to patients, so it is critical that you take on board the following characteristics.
Clarity: Because the health discipline is a highly technical one, you must convey information in a way that is concise and as clear as possible. Your patients won’t be able to interpret charts and other medical data in the way that you do, as medical jargon can be intensely difficult to understand and decipher. You must ensure that patients have a good grasp on their healthcare status and treatment, and you are fully responsible to ensure that information is translated and received well.
Small talk: Despite your busy schedule, it is still important to ensure that patients feel comfortable and at ease when in your care. It’s a great way to build and strengthen professional relationships, and asking simple questions about their day can open the floor to any concerns or queries they may have concerning your service. Implementing small talk, as trivial as it seems, can work towards increasing patient satisfaction and engagement within your practice.
Empathize: Working in the healthcare industry means that you often deal with heavy content and subject matters, and so it must come as no surprise that you need to continuously implement empathy skills within the workplace. Patients need to feel that they are being heard and understood, particularly when dealing with sensitive topics. This can make a huge difference between a good and excellent practice, and can mean all the world to your patients.
Note-taking: It’s important that you always take accurate clinical notes that reflect the patient experience, and capture all essential details. Everything, including treatment, is based on the notes you give patients, and recording information while it’s fresh in your mind will ensure that patients receive the highest level and coordination of care. Failing to write important details can lead to catastrophic consequences in worst-case scenarios, so it’s best to avoid this by implementing good note-taking practices.
Listen: Listening to your patients is of utmost importance when it comes to healthcare, as they need to be assured that you are confident in your practice, and that you are hearing out their concerns and queries. Patients must feel that they are being understood, and that you are actively working to treat their pain. This means no interruptions, with high attendance to their body language, and answering their questions directly.
Family and children patient portals
It’s also important to note that patient portals can be applicable to families, including young children. Establishing positive relationships with healthcare practices from an early age is a great asset to healthcare practices, and so many companies provide software that gives children and young adults access, as well as having family accounts. Parents can have greater flexibility when it comes to healthcare, as they can also have access to medical records, invoices, and lab results concerning their children, as well as having separate access to their personal medical data. Young adults (usually 16+) who may seek medical advice and help without informing their parents, can have their own portal, allowing them to maintain their privacy whilst still receiving medical care.
For further details concerning young adults access with portals, feel free to check out, Why communication is critical for any growing healthcare business guide.
Patient portals, as a whole, also effectively work towards Patient and Family-Centered Care, more commonly known as PFCC. It is a model of healthcare that considers the context of a patient, such as their broader life experience and family, with these factors incorporated within their treatment plans. This may mean practitioners collaborate with family members, to an extent, to help with treatment plans, which can also lead to improved effectiveness. Patients may see increased satisfaction and faster recovery, which can also work towards fostering meaningful professional relationships between patients and practitioners.
To summarize
Patient portals are the perfect way for patients to effectively communicate with practitioners, and play a larger managerial role within the healthcare space. While every healthcare practice may operate patient portals differently, we hope that this guide has clarified its uses, and has aided in your understanding of general patient portals. From the basics, to the nuances, advantages, and challenges, we hope you’ve consolidated your knowledge concerning patient portals, and how to use them to optimize the patient experience and prioritize patient needs.
One Patient Portal to replace them all: Try Carepatron for free today!
For more information, feel free to check out the resources below:
- Communicating Through a Patient Portal to Engage Family Care Partners
- Patient Portals and Patient Engagement: A State of the Science Review
- Patient portals for the adolescent and young adult population: Benefits & risks
- Patient portals - an online tool for your health
- Individual's right under HIPAA to access their Health Information
- eHealth Partnered Evaluation Initiative
- Patient portal messaging for care coordination: a qualitative study of perspectives of experienced users with chronic conditions
- How Technology has Changed Health Care Management
- Cybersecurity in healthcare: A systematic review of modern threats and trends
- What are the benefits of increased access to the information? | HealthIT.gov
- Primary Care Providers' Views of Patient Portals: Interview Study of Perceived Benefits and Consequences
- The role of informatics in promoting patient-centered care
- Personal Health Journals for Recovery, Cancer & More
- An Ode To Digital Health: The U.S. Government Is Investing $80 Million To Create A New Public Health Informatics & Technology Program
