A Patient Portal’s role in providing urgent care to the community

Patient portals are software applications used by many healthcare businesses to give patients access to their appointments, payments, and medical data.

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Benefit of Patient Portal

Clinical appointment scheduling

Patient Scheduling

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Patient Notes

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Accept Payments

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An overview of patient portal

An overview of patient portal

Patient portals are software applications utilized by healthcare businesses that give patients access to information related to their appointments, payments, and medical data. According to the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, 64% of hospitals used some form of a patient portal in 2014. Accompanying the recent rise in inpatient portal use, research has been conducted on how they impact various healthcare fields, including urgent care. The majority of this research has indicated that utilizing patient portals has significant benefits for both patients and healthcare providers. Introducing patient portal software for your healthcare teams will improve effective communication, give patients a more substantial role in managing their healthcare, and save a significant amount of time and resources.

What are the benefits of patient portals for healthcare providers?

If your business chooses to implement a patient portal, you are facilitating optimizing your clinic’s productivity and general workflow. Healthcare teams that use patient portals can streamline several tasks that save them both time and resources. Some of the benefits your healthcare practice will experience if you implement a patient portal include:

  • Streamline administrative tasks: As most healthcare providers know, administrative tasks can take up a lot of time and resources. Patient portals allow these tasks to be streamlined, increasing the productivity of your practice. For example, when booking their first appointment, patients must fill out a registration form that contains all of their personal information and medical history. This allows the process of checking in at the clinic at the time of their appointment to be much more efficient.
  • Improve patient communication: Using a patient portal allows physicians to maintain effective communication with their patients. The busy lives that physicians lead can make it challenging to find time to reach out to clients. With a patient portal, secure direct messaging makes communication much more accessible, facilitating a stronger patient-physician relationship.
  • Clinical outcomes: Patient portals can improve the clinical effects of your practice. With a streamlined channel for communication, patients can reach out to their physicians, who can provide them with the resources they require. This is especially effective for referrals and renewed prescriptions.
What are the benefits of patient portals for healthcare providers?
Are patient portals beneficial in urgent healthcare?

Are patient portals beneficial in urgent healthcare?

We understand that implementing new software into your healthcare practice can seem like a big step, especially if the systems you already have in place are effective. This concern can be exacerbated if you work in urgent healthcare, as an effective strategy is a key to delivering critical care to patients. While aspects of acute healthcare require face-to-face interactions between a patient and medical staff, patient portals can still streamline specific processes. To help you understand whether or not a patient portal will improve your practice, we have broken down some of the key benefits of using patient portals in urgent care.

What role does urgent care play in health care delivery?

  • Reaching new patients: Patient portals and other telehealth features are increasingly requested by clients. By implementing a patient portal, you will widen the scope of potential clients interested in your business.
  • Accessibility: Patient portals provide clients with 24/7 access to necessary medical information. Lab results can be uploaded to the portal, meaning that patients don’t have to wait until the medical clinic’s opening hours to access essential results.
  • Fewer Medical Errors: Miscommunication errors can sometimes occur when information is transmitted from a patient to a physician via a third-party administration staff. Using a patient portal will significantly reduce the possibility of errors, as patients can communicate exactly what they are feeling directly to the physician.

Are patient portals beneficial in urgent healthcare?

It may seem like patient portals only have a place in specific healthcare departments, like general practitioners and therapists. However, as healthcare technology keeps advancing, it is becoming more apparent that patient portals also have a role to play in managing emergency care. Using a patient portal in an emergency hospital can control the flow of patient traffic, allowing administrative information to be processed faster, and helping prioritize the needs of patients. 

The most significant barrier facing effective patient portal use in hospitals is the lack of patients utilizing the software. Many hospitals have implemented portals but have found it challenging to encourage patients to access them frequently. Because of this, there are a few things you should keep in mind when implementing your patient portal. Firstly, they should be easy to navigate and accessible from any device. Most patients will resort to the latter if it is more confusing to guide the patient portal than to phone a medical clinic. Secondly, the more integrated your patient portal is, the better. Patient portals that display medical information, lab results, appointment times, and invoices will significantly advance patient experience. No longer will they have to book a separate appointment to receive results or play phone tag with administrative staff. Instead, patients can access all relevant medical information and effectively manage their health with a few simple clicks.

This raises the other important aspect of incorporating patient portals into emergency care. Patient portals facilitate patient management of their health, which will improve general health standards and reduce the number of people needing hospital care. With a patient portal, people can keep track of their health conditions and symptoms, be informed in the healthcare decision-making process, and engage in the treatment plans that optimize their health. 

In emergency healthcare, patient portals can streamline the administration and registration processes, leading to a more efficient turnover rate. They will also give patients all necessary information to manage their health, hopefully reducing the number of people requiring emergency care.

Final thoughts

Patient portals pose significant benefits for all physicians and patients, including in urgent care. With a patient portal, your business will indicate its focus on value-based care, strengthening patient-physician relationships, and improving effective communication. The other advantage of using patient portals is the amount of time and resources your practice will save by not completing specific administrative tasks. Carepatron offers a fully integrated HIPAA-compliant patient portal that will help you achieve all these things. Using Carepatron’sCarepatron’s patient portal will allow your urgent care practice to improve its productivity and efficiency, all while guaranteeing physician and patient satisfaction. 

Further Reading:

Understanding a patient portal’s role in emergency care

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Patient portals are one of the best features you should consider implementing into your healthcare practice, as their versatile design allows you to increase engagement and workflow. They grant clients access to booking and scheduling appointments themselves, as well as to review payment and history information, in addition to medical records. Patient portals also allow clients to communicate with healthcare professionals at any time, with video conferencing and messaging features available.
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A patient portal refers to a platform provided by a healthcare business that patients have access to. Depending on the requirements of your business, patient portals can include medical records, appointment and invoice information, and direct messaging channels between physicians and clients. Implementing a patient portal into your healthcare business facilitates effective communication between physicians and patients and ensures that the needs of patients are being met.