The Practice Perspective - Integrated
Much of our inspiration for PortalPlus™ came directly from our medical practice clients who made us aware of many common problems. We engineered PortalPlus™ to make life easier, more efficient, and ultimately more profitable for medical practices. Our goals were to:
- Convert the inefficient and labor-intensive pen & paper patient registration process to one that requires far less staff time and is more convenient for patients
- Reduce overall phone volume by enabling the patient to submit routine transaction requests online.
- Save time and reduce expenses by securely sending lab results through the patient portal.
- Do a much better job of preparing the patient for the upcoming visit or procedure, without requiring hardly any additional time for the practice.
- Deliver the right patient education at the right time.
- Give patients more convenience, highly relevant patient education, and a more personalized experience.
...all while saving staff time, and eliminating expenses associated with paper-based transactions.
We also designed PortalPlus™ to take advantage of a very important principle:
When it comes to entering their own data, patients don't mind doing data entry.
This meant that if we could only give patients an opportunity to enter their own data and find a way to easily and securely transmit that data back to the practice, we could enable practices to outsource their data entry labor to their own patients!
Now let's see how PortalPlus™ improves the practice experience.
Patient Requests an Appointment
A patient requests an appointment.
The Old Way
A phone call comes in - which must be answered immediately regardless of the current phone volume. A staff member speaks with the patient and schedules the appointment. The average phone call time for a staff member is usually 3 - 5 minutes.
The Better Way
With PortalPlus™, instead of calling, the patient submits an appointment request online. When a staff member has a free moment, she can check the secure inbox to review all outstanding appointment requests. She can then respond by secure message to each request, requiring roughly 30 seconds per response. Since she processes the appointment requests in batch, she can handle multiple appointment requests more efficiently. Best of all, every appointment request she processes is a phone call the practice never received!
Patient Requests a Rx Renewal
A patient has run out of medication refills and requests a renewal.
The Old Way
The patient calls the practice and eventually speaks with a medical assistant or leaves a message. The medical assistant takes down the information and manually enters it into the EMR system.
The Better Way
With PortalPlus™, the patient logs into the patient portal, views a list of current medications, and selects the medication he wants to renew. He then enters the pharmacy he wants to use, and the request is automatically routed directly to the personalized EMR screen of the doctor who needs to approve the request.
No data entry is required by the practice, no staff time is required, and there is no confusion about for which medication the patient is requesting a refill. Best of all, the practice has received one less phone call!
The First Visit
A patient registers and prepares for the first visit.
The Old Way
The patient either downloads the patient forms from the practice website, or waits until he arrives at the office to begin filling out forms. The patient hand writes all information on the forms. The front office staff then work to translate the handwritten information into typed data into the practice management system.
The Better Way
With PortalPlus™, at the time the first appointment is made, a staff member instructs the patient to register for the first visit through the patient portal. The patient creates a patient portal account in under 2 minutes, and completes all first visit forms directly through the patient portal.
The practice is notified by email that a new patient registration has been completed, views the forms in the Practice Portal and updates any information that appears incomplete. The practice then sends the data directly to the practice management system, and all patient data is automatically entered without any manual data entry!
This process is more convenient for the patient since the patient can fill out forms at his leisure and through typing instead of writing. This process is considerably more efficient for the practice since the bulk of data entry labor is handled by the patient instead of staff!
Send Lab Results to Patients
Lab results have returned and are normal. The practice is ready to notify the patient.
The Old Way
The doctor views the lab results in the EMR and decides they are normal. He then composes a brief message to the patient, prints the lab results, envelopes them, seals the envelope, and mails them. This takes approximately 90 seconds by the doctor, and costs paper, ink, and postage. More importantly, we have no idea whether the patient ever received the results.
Alternatively, a staff member manually delivers the lab results by phone. The phone call itself is cumbersome and time-consuming to make, and valuable time is wasted as the staff member wrestles with missed calls and voice mails. Also, if the patient wants to review the lab results again he must call the practice - another phone call - and use staff time to retrieve them. Finally, little supplemental information is provided to help the patient better understand the results.
A second alternative is to have an automated outbound calling system inform the patient of the lab results. Although this saves the practice the hassle of manually making lab results calls, these messages must be manually entered in a separate system. Also, this is an audio message only and generally offers little supplemental information to help the patient better understand the results.
The Better Way
With PortalPlus™, the doctor views the lab results directly in the EMR, decides they are normal, composes a brief message and automatically routes the results and message directly to the patient portal! The patient is notified by email that an important message is waiting. The patient can then visually interact with the full lab results, easily retrieve them in the future, and view supplemental information to help the patient interpret the lab results.
The lab results were delivered without any printing costs or extra staff time, the practice can be notified if the lab results are not read, and the patient can more easily share lab results with family or even other doctors simply by printing them. Finally, the patient can more easily add the lab results to a personal health record like Google Health or Microsoft HealthVault.
Issue Patient Education
A patient is in need of additional educational materials.
The Old Way
After a patient receives a prescription, is scheduled for a procedure, or is diagnosed with a new condition, he may or may not receive additional information, usually in the form of printed brochures. Unfortunately, these brochures are often out of date and expensive.
The Better Way
With PortalPlus™, a patient can view her full list of current medications with your practice. This information is taken directly from the EMR and requires no additional data entry on the part of the staff. Each medication is then linked directly to an up to date article on all the important information to know about that medication. For example, a patient who was just prescribed Veramyst® (a common asthma medication) would link to an article on "Fluticasone and Salmeterol" where the patient might learn that a diuretic is contraindicated with a diuretic.
With office visits, procedures or surgeries, the practice has the option of associating educational material with a particular procedure or visit type so that any patient scheduled for that procedure or visit type will be automatically presented with that information.
In all cases, the content is either custom-created by the practice, or drawn from the award-winning PortalPlus™ patient education library, which is automatically kept up to date to feature the latest content across all of medicine.
Prepare Patients for Procedures or Surgeries
A patient is scheduled for a procedure or surgery.
The Old Way
Once the patient is scheduled for a procedure or surgery, the patient must fill out some paperwork, may listen to a brief speech by the doctor or nurse, may review some additional printed literature the practice provides, and almost always signs an informed consent form.
The Better Way
With PortalPlus™, the patient must still fill out some paperwork for the hospital, but all educational information is available directly through the patient portal. PortalPlus™ automatically reads the scheduled surgery directly from the EMR, or the information can be manually entered by staff. Once the patient logs in, he will see for what procedure he is scheduled, at what time, at what location and with which provider. He will also see educational content that your practice selected (or created) as part of the one-time setup process of PortalPlus™.
The patient is now crystal clear on all important details of the procedure, had ample opportunity to review quality and comprehensive information on risks and what to expect, and can easily share the information with family and friends.
Demographic Updates
A patient wishes to update his address, insurance, or other information.
The Old Way
The patient calls the practice and a staff member fields the patient request, updating the practice management system as necessary. The practice has handled yet another routine phone call.
The Better Way
With PortalPlus™, the patient is able to update all information via the patient portal. If the patient updates her address or phone numbers, the practice is notified of the update and these changes are automatically reflected in the practice management system. If the patient updates a more "fragile" item like insurance, the practice is notified of the requested change, reviews and edits the data as desired, and then approves the change.
We have avoided a phone call, and make it more convenient for a patient to keep the practice up to date!
Bill Pay
A patient has a balance and wishes to remit payment.
The Old Way
The patient calls the practice to pay the bill by credit card, or mails a check or cash. In a world where banking, shopping, and most bill payments are done online, these methods are inconvenient for the patient and reduce the likelihood of payment. Mail is also easily lost for patients, particularly if address information on file is incorrect.
The Better Way
With PortalPlus™, the patient can see his current balance, and pay the amount by credit card. A staff member receives a notification that a patient has submitted a bill payment so that the practice management system can be updated accordingly. The funds are deposited into the practice checking account within 3 business days.