1. Acute Care Patient Portal Intervention: Portal Use and Patient Activation
- Author
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Maxwell Grant, Theresa E. Fuller, Patricia C. Dykes, Julia E. Snyder, David W. Bates, Anuj K. Dalal, Catherine Yoon, Kumiko O. Schnock, Megan Duckworth, and Stuart R. Lipsitz
- Subjects
Male ,medicine.medical_specialty ,020205 medical informatics ,Health information technology ,patient portals ,Health Informatics ,02 engineering and technology ,patient-centered care ,patient activation ,Acute care ,Health care ,0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering ,medicine ,Humans ,Patient participation ,Patient Activation Measure ,Inpatients ,Original Paper ,business.industry ,Patient portal ,Middle Aged ,Emergency medicine ,Ambulatory ,Female ,patient participation ,business ,Medication list - Abstract
Background: Patient-facing health information technology (HIT) tools, such as patient portals, are recognized as a potential mechanism to facilitate patient engagement and patient-centered care, yet the use of these tools remains limited in the hospital setting. Although research in this area is growing, it is unclear how the use of acute care patient portals might affect outcomes, such as patient activation. Objective: The aim of this study was to describe the use of an acute care patient portal and investigate its association with patient and care partner activation in the hospital setting. Methods: We implemented an acute care patient portal on 6 acute care units over an 18-month period. We investigated the characteristics of the users (patients and their care partners) of the patient portal, as well as their use of the portal. This included the number of visits to each page, the number of days used, the length of the user’s access period, and the average percent of days used during the access period. Patient and care partner activation was assessed using the short form of the patient activation measure (PAM-13) and the caregiver patient activation measure (CG-PAM). Comparisons of the activation scores were performed using propensity weighting and robust weighted linear regression. Results: Of the 2974 randomly sampled patients, 59.01% (1755/2974) agreed to use the acute care patient portal. Acute care patient portal enrollees were younger, less sick, less likely to have Medicare as their insurer, and more likely to use the Partners Healthcare enterprise ambulatory patient portal (Patient Gateway). The most used features of the acute care patient portal were the laboratory test results, care team information, and medication list. Most users accessed the portal between 1 to 4 days during their hospitalization, and the average number of days used (logged in at least once per day) was 1.8 days. On average, users accessed the portal 42.69% of the hospital days during which it was available. There was significant association with patient activation on the neurology service (P
- Published
- 2019
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