Indeed, the nurse who has to train patients on using the portal is distracted from attending to patients, which could lower treatment outcomes. The patient portal’s adoption is becoming an exciting idea given that one among ten Americans is online, and seventy-seven percent of Americans have a smartphone (Campbell et al., 2020). The 2017 Government Accountability Office report indicated that less than a third of patients have enrolled to use the patient portal (Campbell et al., 2020).
However, the impact of this adoption on the hospital workforce and resources may be neglected. Some patients, especially those with chronic illnesses, think that they do not need the patient portal, and providers have to convince them, using treatment time on the portals’ explanations (Anthony et al., 2018). A regular patient often visits a doctor or physician; hence, the patient portal’s use is relevant to such a person. A healthy person who seldom uses it will think that the patient portal is not necessary for him/her.
The patient portal is difficult to use on the go for the average patient. This lengthy process leads to the healthcare workforce taking much time to register each patient to his/her rightful account (Lyles et al., 2020). Since most patients trust their primary care doctor, the teaching duty is also transferred to these doctors, extending the amount of time spent on a single patient’s visit. The ease of navigation on the patient portal will speed up its usage and save the practitioner time. The patient portal would be vital if it had data such as lab results and clinical notes easily accessible to appeal to patients (Arcury et al., 2017). That way, nurses will not be required to teach most patients about the usage of the portal.
References
Anthony, D. L., Campos-Castillo, C., & Lim, P. S. (2018). Who isn’t using patient portals and why? Evidence and implications from a national sample of US adults. Health Affairs, 37(12), 1948-1954. Web.
Arcury, T. A., Quandt, S. A., Sandberg, J. C., Miller Jr, D. P., Latulipe, C., Leng, X., Talton, J. W., Melius, K. P., Smith, A., & Bertoni, A. G. (2017). Patient portal utilization among ethnically diverse low-income older adults: An observational study. JMIR Medical Informatics, 5(4). Web.
Campbell, K., Louie, P., Levine, B., & Gililland, J. (2020). Using patient engagement platforms in the postoperative management of patients. Current Reviews in Musculoskeletal Medicine, 13, 479-484. Web.
Lyles, C. R., Nelson, E. C., Frampton, S., Dykes, P. C., Cemballi, A. G., & Sarkar, U. (2020). Using electronic health record portals to improve patient engagement: Research priorities and best practices. Annals of Internal Medicine, 172(11_Supplement). Web.