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. 2019 Sep 17;2(4):479-488.
doi: 10.1093/jamiaopen/ooz039. eCollection 2019 Dec.

Policies and procedures governing patient portal use at an Academic Medical Center

Bryan D Steitz  1 , Joseph Isaac S Wong  2 , Jared G Cobb  3 , Brian Carlson  3 , Gaye Smith  3 , S Trent Rosenbloom  1   4   5
Affiliations

Policies and procedures governing patient portal use at an Academic Medical Center

Bryan D Steitz et al. JAMIA Open. .

Abstract

Background and objective: Patient portal use has increased over the last two decades in response to consumer demand and government regulation. Despite growing adoption, few guidelines exist to direct successful implementation and governance. We describe the policies and procedures that have governed over a decade of continuous My Health at Vanderbilt (MHAV) patient portal use.

Methods: We examined MHAV usage data between May 2007 and November 2017. We classified patient portal activity into eight functional categories: Appointment, Billing, Document Access, Genetics, Health Result, Immunization, Medication, and Messaging. We describe our operating policies and measure portal uptake, patient account activity, and function use over time.

Results: By the end of the study period, there were 375 517 registered accounts. Policies made MHAV available to competent adults and adolescents 13 and over. Patients signed up for a limited access account online, which could be upgraded to a full-access account after identity verification. Patients could assign proxy accounts to family and caregivers, which permitted nonpatient access to select MHAV functions. Laboratory and radiology results were accessible via MHAV. Results were classified into three groups based on sensitivity, which govern the length of delay before results appeared in MHAV.

Discussion and conclusion: Patient portals offer significant opportunity to engage patients in their healthcare. However, there remains a need to understand how policies can promote uptake and use. We anticipate that other institutions can apply concepts from our policies to support meaningful patient portal engagement.

Keywords: consumer health informatics; patient engagement; patient portals; policy.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
MHAV governance structure.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Length of time using MHAV by (A) age and (B).
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
MHAV function access by year.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
MHAV function usage by age and gender. The drop-off in appointment events in March 2013 corresponds to an interruption to scheduling as new functionality was developed.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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