Constantly ringing phones, overflowing medical filing cabinets, and harried staff could remind you of your busy healthcare practice. However, it’s time you invested in a patient portal to stay updated with today’s trends. Patient portal software is a recent innovation that helps patients play a much more active role in their healthcare journey. This software allows them to access their healthcare records on a computer connected to the internet, unlike when they had to visit the doctor’s office to access a copy of their medical records.
With the advent of such portals, most information is available in a digitized format. Nowadays, these portals can include appointment scheduling, telehealth options, and even educational content so patients can better understand their medical condition. These portals have become popular with them due to their inherent benefits. Let us now investigate why patient portals are popular with healthcare providers:
Streamlines Patient Registration
Earlier, patients needed to fill out forms manually, which would keep front-office staff busy. Instead of spending time with them and assisting them on the administrative side, the front office staff can encourage them to use this software. These portals allow registrations to be completed electronically before the patient checks in for the appointment. Thus, front office staff only need to answer medical-related questions, while patients can handle the administrative aspect.
Facilitates Better Patient Communication
Earlier, it was essential for patients to make phone calls for even small tasks such as appointments, referrals, and prescription refills. This would keep the provider’s staff engaged for a considerable time as they would need to answer calls and act on their requests. Now, with the help of portals, patients can accomplish such tasks themselves. This helps free your clinical staff and improve their efficiency, allowing them to focus on those with the most urgent needs.
Improves The Patient-Physician Relationship
Since patients have 24-hour access to their providers through these portals, this can further improve the patient-physician relationship. Physicians can review Patient Health Information (PHI), ask questions, and even review notes.
Allows Better Focus on Patient Care
Portals allow patient information to be stored electronically, easing the distraction of the physicians’ time today. Doctors need not focus on the administrative side of patient care but can focus better on providing better medical attention.
Enhances Clinical Outcomes
Using such portals helps improve compliance, as patients tend to follow doctors’ prescriptions and orders. This improves clinical outcomes and makes the patient and the provider tasks easier.
Optimize Medical Office Workflow
Online patient portals improve medical office workflows, as tasks that usually need staff assistance can be accomplished electronically. Staff can be freed from administrative tasks such as scheduling appointments, reporting on lab results, taking physician messages, etc. Portals can facilitate better communication, enhanced outcomes, improved relationships, and optimized workflow.
Satisfy Meaningful Use Standards
The use of these portals satisfies meaningful use standards. The goal of meaningful use standards includes improved quality and safety, reduced health disparities, increased engagement, improved care coordination, and adequate privacy and security for personal health information. Thus, With the help of these portals, you can easily connect and treat patients adequately under your care.
Help Ensure Safety
One of the biggest concerns in the medical field today is the safety of a patient’s sensitive medical data. However, the good news is that these are safe portals. These are governed by the rules of HIPAA that are concerned with sensitive health information. So, these portals must be designed for safety and hosted securely. It would help to choose a web host offering a secure HIPAA-compliant service. Simultaneously, it should provide frequent updates, responsive speeds, and limited downtime. All these factors will encourage patients to use your portal regularly.
Allows Online Bill Payments
Most portals offer an online payment mode, meaning fewer missed payments. Patients can see the outstanding payments highlighted in the portal, while your practice staff can easily track unpaid amounts. This also helps your practice staff spend less time tracking down late or missed payments, so you can free up more time to help your practice grow. Sometimes, you may need to educate them about where to pay their bills on the portal. You may have a dedicated member of staff to run through the portal for those who need help.
Conclusion
Patient portal software is not just a trend but a vital component connecting various aspects of modern healthcare. OmniMD’s portals allow you to improve patient experience and engagement through easy access and management of records but also facilitate easy bill payments, convenient appointment scheduling, and quick prescription refill requests. Contact us to learn more!