Patient Portals Provide Value Bedside

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

Patient engagement doesn’t have to begin when patients leave your care, give them access to portals during their stay.

Outpatients have all the fun when it comes to technology, according to many providers. Inpatient care lacks the tablets, apps, and portals patients crave during their hospital stay. Portals are often designed for patients checking in from home or paying bills, but why shouldn’t patients have access to the details of their care directly from their rooms?

“How come your Starbucks and McDonald's pays more attention to experience than your $5,000-per-night hospital?” said Jaap Suermondt, VP and director of analytics at the HP Labs division of Hewlett-Packard, according to Healthcare IT News. According to Suermondt, patients traditionally press call buttons and wait for someone to assist them, a rather outdated technology compared to the mHealth physicians send home with their patients.

A study from Ohio State University found portals increase patient engagement. This study used vaccination records to email patients, informing them of the dangers of shingles. Those patients who received emails through their portal had the highest vaccination rate.

Yet inside hospital rooms, portals are scarce. The Center for Nursing Excellence at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston is an institution known for its well-developed portal, yet Patricia Dykes, RN, program director for nursing research at the center admits, “Patient access on the inpatient side is somewhat limited.”

A paper presented at the AHIMA conference showed only 28 percent of hospitalized patients were given the chance to review their inpatient medication list. Additionally, less than a third could name one of the physicians on their hospital care team.

“A key ingredient of patient engagement is access to timely, clear and understandable information for patients and their caregivers. As anyone who has been a hospital patient or witnessed the hospitalization of a loved one knows, the lack of information in the inpatient care setting contributes to anxiety and feelings of helplessness,” the paper said.