Browsing by Subject "Patient portals"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Insecure messaging: how clinicians approach potentially problematic messages from patients
    (Oxford University Press, 2020-12-05) Lee, Joy L.; Matthias, Marianne S.; Huffman, Monica; Frankel, Richard M.; Weiner, Michael; Medicine, School of Medicine
    Objective: Secure messaging has become an integrated function of patient portals, but misuse of secure messaging by both patients and clinicians can lead to miscommunication and errors, such as overlooked urgent messages. We sought to uncover variations in clinician approaches and responses to messaging with patients. Methods: In this two-part study, 20 primary care clinicians (1) composed message responses to five hypothetical patient vignettes and messages and (2) were subsequently interviewed for their perspectives on appropriate circumstances for secure messaging. Messages and interviews were analyzed for themes. Results: Clinicians have different experiences with, and perceptions of, secure messaging. The messages the clinicians wrote were uniformly respectful, but differed in degrees of patient-centeredness and level of detail. None of the clinicians found their messaging workload to be unmanageable. From the interviews, we found divergent clinician perspectives about when to use secure messaging and how to respond to emotional content. Conclusion: Clinicians have different opinions about the appropriateness of secure messaging in response to specific medical issues. Our results noted a desire and need for greater guidance about secure messaging. This aspect of informatics education warrants greater attention in clinical practice. Practical implications: We summarize the types of issues raised by the participants yet to be addressed by existing guidelines. Further guidance from hospitals, professional societies, and other institutions that govern clinician behavior on the appropriateness and effectiveness of delivering care through secure messaging may aid clinicians and patients.
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    Too Many Don’ts and Not Enough Do’s? A Survey of Hospitals About Their Portal Instructions for Patients
    (Springer, 2020-04) Lee, Joy L.; Williams, Claire E.; Baird, Sean; Matthias, Marianne S.; Weiner, Michael; Medicine, School of Medicine
    Background: Patient portals present the opportunity to expand patients' access to their clinicians and health information. Yet patients and clinicians have expressed the need for more guidance on portal and secure messaging procedures to avoid misuse. Little information is currently available concerning whether and how expectations of portal and messaging usage are communicated to patients. Objective: To identify the information made available to patients about patient portal use, and to assess ease in accessing such information. Design: A national survey of publicly available portal information from hospital websites. The study team followed up with phone calls to each hospital to request any additional patient-directed materials (e.g., pamphlets) not located in the web search. Participants: A random sample of 200 acute-care hospitals, 50 from each of four US Census regions, selected from the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Hospital Compare dataset. Main measures: Availability of patient portals, secure messaging, and related functionality; the content and ease of access to patient-directed information about portals. Key results: Of the hospitals sampled, 177 (89%) had a patient portal; 116 (66%) of these included secure messaging functionality. Most portals with secure messaging (N = 65, 58%) did not describe appropriate patient messaging conduct. Although many included disclaimers that the service is not for emergencies, 23 hospitals only included this within the fine prints of their "Terms and Conditions" section. Content analysis of additional patient-directed materials revealed a focus on logistical content, features of the portals, and parameters of use. Of the three categories, logistical content (e.g., creating an account) was the most thorough. Conclusions: Although most of the sampled hospitals had patient portals, many fail to educate patients fully and set expectations for secure messaging. To improve patient engagement and minimize harm, hospitals and clinicians need to provide more information and set clearer guidelines for patients.
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    Using cognitive fit theory to evaluate patient understanding of medical images
    (IEEE, 2017) Gichoya, Judy Wawira; Alarifi, Mohammad; Bhaduri, Ria; Tahir, Bilal; Purkayastha, Saptarshi; Radiology and Imaging Sciences, School of Medicine
    Patients are increasingly presented with their health data through patient portals in an attempt to engage patients in their own care. Due to the large amounts of data generated during a patient visit, the medical information when shared with patients can be overwhelming and cause anxiety due to lack of understanding. Health care organizations are attempting to improve transparency by providing patients with access to visit information. In this paper, we present our findings from a research study to evaluate patient understanding of medical images. We used cognitive fit theory to evaluate existing tools and images that are shared with patients and analyzed the relevance of such sharing. We discover that medical images need a lot of customization before they can be shared with patients. We suggest that new tools for medical imaging should be developed to fit the cognitive abilities of patients.