News Feature | November 4, 2014

HIMSS: Patient Portals Have ‘Room For Improvement'

Christine Kern

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

Self-Service Field Service Portals

It execs are not supportive of current patient portal solutions.

HIMSS Analytics has released the findings of its 2014 Patient Portal Study, and, according to a press release, the news is mixed. The study reflects insights from healthcare IT executives from 125 hospitals across the U.S. and incorporates data from the HIMSS Analytics Database. Key findings in the study:

  • IT executive indicate there is much room for improvement for portals
  • patient portals typically come from the EMR vendor currently used by the organization
  • cultural issues within organizations are a major challenge to overall patient engagement initiatives

The study includes voice of customer (VOC) insight from healthcare IT executives nationwide, as well as data from the HIMSS Analytics Database in order to collate a comprehensive view of the market as it pertains to the use of patient portals. The study examines market utilization, vendor market share and trajectory, and the relationship between Meaningful Use (MU) Stage 2 and patient engagement.

“Patient engagement is more than just today’s hot topic – it is foundational to the future of healthcare,” said HIMSS Analytics Research Director Brendan FitzGerald, in a statement. The study “is the first in our series of Briefs dedicated to patient engagement, and we wanted to go beyond the statistics and delve into the executive mindset.”

According to Health Data Management, while the report found providers have a high level of familiarity with MU Stage 2 requirements and generally have the capabilities to satisfy them, and that the market is likely to continue to grow, HIMSS Analytics warns “there appears to be room for improvement from the patient portal solutions offered to the market as respondents were not necessarily passionate about their current solution.”

The report also found IT leaders are not convinced that MU Stage 2 is providing benefits to clinicians, as Health Data Management pointed out. Ultimately, in terms of patient portal functionality, the report demonstrated organizations are only applying limited functions. Although 65.8 percent of hospitals with a patient portal used it in billing, the portal was not utilized to the same degree for patient access to diagnostic results (23.2 percent) or access to personal health records (22.5 percent), demonstrating great room for growth in terms of how patient portals are being utilized.

HIMSS Analytics concluded, “Notwithstanding the challenges these issues present, healthcare organizations are positively leaning towards implementing patient engagement efforts.”