Evaluation of Case Study: Patient Portal Implementation Improves Quality of Patient Care and Strengthens Preventative Care

The Dover Family Physicians or DFP adopted an EHR to better preventative services and provide a high quality of care in 2008 (HealthIT.gov, 2019). With four physicians and two physician associates (not assistants) the organization is a primary care provider for 800 visits every week (AAPA, 2021). The scope of the project to select, design, and implement a system that would meet the requirements of flexibility, communicability with the Delaware Health Information Network (DHIN) and eventually expansion to the patient portal, Medfusion.

Data Exhibits

In order to decide best for the organizations mission and community care, the Quality Insights of Delaware to determine the best EHR and implement it effectively. Shadowing staff and learning workflows was key to understanding the best way to implement. User assistance testing helped to provide feedback and design decisions. Superusers from each role were consulted for practice-runs to use feedback for the final implementation. Allscripts was chosen as the medical record system to implement.

Current industry standard and where Patient Portal fits in

The current industry standards of information sharing are using Hospital Language 7 or HL7 and Allscripts is compatible with it (Allscripts, 2013). HL7 can help with communicability with the DHIN. Using patient portal, since patient can schedule appoints, manage their prescriptions, bill, review test results, and message the nurse, they note improvements in their quality of care. Being able to access their information this way, they had to pick up the phone less and has less delayed while the operational office side saw better office patient communication.

Can EHR’s be optimized for the future for Dover Family Physicians

An area that can benefit for future functionality of DFP is introducing functionality of providing clinical summaries via the patient portal. Printing patient summaries at the end of a visit when the full visit information is not may be a hinderance to proper recall of patient instructions since written materials lead to positive recall quality (Watson, McKinstry, 2009). Although this is a challenge, technology is being developed to upgrade the system which opens the door for future functionality.

Future goals of EHR use at Dover Family Physicians

DFP can continue to bolster its patient care using its EHR system. Tangible and quick, a goal of 50% use rate of the patient portal can be achievable by implementing a register process at all returning visits. In a 3-year process this is something that targeted in increments every year. Future updates are important and an effective way to ensure that they are performed well is to form a team responsible for quarterly or biyearly updates. The funding can be budgeted for as part of the annual operating budget.

References

“AAPA House of Delegates Votes to Change Profession Title to Physician Associate.” AAPA, AAPA, 24 May 2021, www.aapa.org/news-central/2021/05/aapa-house-of-delegates-votes-to-change-profession-title-to-physician-associate/.

“HL7 Is as Open as a Fax Machine.” Allscripts, Allscripts, 12 Aug. 2013, www.allscripts.com/2013/12/hl7-is-as-open-as-a-fax-machine/.

“Patient Portal Implementation Improves Quality of Patient Care and Strengthens Preventive Care.” HealthIT.gov, 7 Feb. 2018, www.healthit.gov/case-study/patient-portal-implementation-improves-quality-patient-care-and-strengthens-preventive.

Watson, Philip Wb, and Brian Mckinstry. “A Systematic Review of Interventions to Improve Recall of Medical Advice in Healthcare Consultations.” Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, vol. 102, no. 6, 16 June 2009, pp. 235–243., doi:10.1258/jrsm.2009.090013.