Patient Portals

What is a patient portal?

A patient portal is a secure online website that gives patients convenient 24-hour access to personal health information.

Patient portals signal a change in the operation of general practices and have the potential to allow patients and general practice teams to interact in a more meaningful way. The goal of patient portals is to broaden the engagement between patients and their general practice to create better patient outcomes.

It seems that most patients are enthusiastic about having the opportunity to access their health records online and use services such as booking visits or requesting repeat prescriptions.

Some health professionals could be concerned that patients may be confused by medical jargon or that practices might be bombarded by patients commenting or seeking additional information. Feedback from GPs suggests portals do not change the level of contact patients have with their practice and that making health information and services available online can reduce the number of phone calls and text messages between patients and practices.

Patient portals give patients online access to their health information and enable them to manage aspects of their own health care.

The diagram shows the services that general practices can offer patients through a patient portal:

Patient portal benefits

Enhanced experience between patients and practices

Many patients find a patient portal enhances their experience of their general practice. Patient portals give convenient access to health information. Your patients may find it easier and faster to articulate their issues or questions in a secure message delivered through a portal than in a phone call.

Encourages patient empowerment and self-care

Portals are a proactive tool that enables your patients to play a greater role in managing their own care. Portals can start to create a patient-centric view of the patient/practice interaction.

Greater accuracy of patient information and patient records

Giving patient’s access to their medical records and personal information, and the ability to suggest corrections, can improve the accuracy of your database.

Patient portals can also offer the following benefits to practices:

• save time for practice staff
• enable GPs to focus on the patients who most need face-to-face appointments
• reduce phone calls and phone tag
• reduce paperwork
• automate recalls and appointment reminders
• improve safety by giving patients a written record of clinical instructions
• provide 24/7 access for patients without extending practice hours
• reduce no shows by enabling patients to schedule appointments at a time to suit them.