The truth about portals: why is the use of patients so low?

The portals of the patients were supposed to be the HEALTHCARE digital front door. But what is a door for if no one opens it? After years of investment in portal technology, the adoption of patients remains dismal. Almost half of the patients use their health portal less than once a month, including 16% who have never connected.

This harsh reality raises an urgent question for the leaders of the health system: why don’t patients engage with these online tools, and how can we solve it?

Why don’t connect patients

Several factors maintain the use of the portal stuck in the slump. The main reasons why patients give not to use portals include:

• Lack of conscience or invitation – Many patients simply do not know that a portal exists for them, or they have never been properly invited and integrated. 27% of non-users said they were not aware of their portal or did not know how to access it. The implementation of a portal and the sending of a single registration email is not enough. If patients are not proactively educated and encouraged, most of them do not register.
• Bad user experience – Even when patients know the portals, the experience can be heavy and embarrassing. Some portals require tedious stages of registration or have obsolete and without mobile interfaces. In a world where patients expect practical or even immersive experiences of the companies with which they engage in other areas of life, the digital experiences that feel like a problem are everything you need for a patient already busy abandoning.
• Concerning confidence and confidentiality – Confidence is another roadblock. Patients rightly protect their sensitive health information, and some do not trust it online. About 17% of non-users cite concerns concerning the safety and confidentiality of patient portals as a means of deterrence. High -level data violations in health care only amplified these fears. If patients lack confidence that their medical data will remain safe, they will not engage with a digital tool. In short, part of the population avoids portals because they simply do not feel safe.

Beyond these factors, conviviality plays a major role. Portals often require clumsy connections, have hostile interfaces or offer limited value (for example, showing laboratory results without context or messaging that could have been more easily accomplished via simple text).

For busy patients, any friction is dissuasive. The result is that many portal characteristics are underused. The very tool intended to allow patients can end up feeling like another bureaucratic hoop to jump.

Meet patients where they are

While the adoption of the portal is late, simpler and more intelligent awareness methods are much more effective to hire patients. Rather than forcing people to connect to a portal, the main suppliers reach out through the channels that patients already use – such as text messages, automated calls or secure e -mails – and see striking results to increase the range of patients and fill preventive care gaps.

The automation of initial awareness and the surface of patients who need attention can considerably increase engagement without sacrificing the human touch. Using tools that allow staff to focus on significant follow -up, patients receive timely and usable awareness. It is precisely this type of multi-channel and effective strategy beyond the portal that helps systems connect with patients where they are.

Rethink the portal -centered strategy

For health care organizations, the point to remember is clear: it is time to go from a gate -centered commitment strategy to a patient -centered strategy. If patients do not come to the portal, we must meet them where they are.

This means adopting a multichannel communication approach and reducing obstacles to interaction, while maintaining privacy and personal touch that patients appreciate. Here are some key strategies to rethink patient engagement:

• Meet patients on their terms – Offer several communication channels so that patients can choose what is the easiest. This includes text messaging, phone calls, emails or even cat, not just the portal. By communicating by means that each patient prefers, you considerably increase the chances of seeing and responding to the message.
• Make it practical and relevant – Remove the friction as far as possible. Avoid requiring additional connections or forcing patients to download a separate application for basic tasks. Messages must be timely and suitable. When the information is delivered in a useful context (and without hassle), patients are more likely to engage.
• Maintain the human touch – Digital tools should increase human interactions, not replace them. Reassure patients according to which online communication is an extension of their care team. For example, automated monitoring text after a clinical visit must always include a way to easily connect patients with their suppliers if necessary. In this way, patients know that there are real people behind technology.
• Integrate into workflows – Going beyond the portal means ensuring that the communication tools that you deploy integrate into the workflows of your clinicians and your staff. The objective is a transparent experience. Messages to patients should be recorded appropriately and staff should be immediately alerted to significant responses or problems. No concerns of the patient slips through the meshes of the net, and the providers do not have to juggle with disparate systems or double work.
• Take advantage of AI to close the loop between information and action – AI -based engagement can analyze awareness responses, rounding notes and survey comments on surface models, summarize patient experiences and proactively report emerging concerns. The association of this information with clear and rich messages in context allows health systems to ensure that patients receive advice they include while care teams concentrate their attention where this is most necessary.

By implementing these strategies, health care providers can reduce obstacles that have a long adoption of portal. It is not that patient portals do not have their place, as they remain a useful repository for recordings and results, but they should not be the only digital door for the patient’s interaction. A modern engagement strategy deals with the portal as a single option among many and focuses on the design of tools that patients really want to use. Improving patient engagement is not to cross everyone through a single “front door”. It is a question of opening all the doors that allow patients to connect easily with their care. Whether it is an SMS, a call, a secure link or yes, even a portal, if applicable, what matters is to meet patients on their conditions. When we do this, we really unlock the potential of digital health tools.

The truth about patient portals is that commitment occurs when we go beyond the portal, creating a health experience that is practical, reliable and centered on the patient.

Photo credit: Ipopba, Getty Images

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