It Seems Portals Allowing Access to Health Information Do Not Make Much Of A Clinical Difference.

This appeared last week:

Study shows patient portals have no impact on hospital readmissions or mortality

by Evan Sweeney 

Jan 3, 2018 10:33am

Previous research has have tackled patient portal usability and satisfaction among users, but few studies have looked at the impact of portals on hospital outcomes.

A new study out of the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, does just that with relatively uninspiring results.

Researchers found that 30-day readmissions, inpatient mortality and 30-day mortality were virtually the same when comparing hospitalized patients that used portals versus those that did not, leading them to conclude that patient portals may not ultimately improve hospital outcomes. The results were published last week the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.

But that doesn�t mean patient portals are entirely worthless. The researchers noted that of the 44% of patients that registered for a portal account, just 20.8% accessed it while they were hospitalized. Therefore, higher adoption rates could have a bigger impact on outcomes. 

Portal usage may also be more impactful for patients managing chronic diseases rather than an acute illness. Several other factors including mobile device availability, education and real-time access to physician notes could also have a positive influence on engagement and perhaps tip the scales when it comes to outcomes.

More here:

https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/mobile/patient-portal-study-outcomes-mortality-readmissions-mayo-clinic

Yet another reason to be a little skeptical of the various claims of benefit that are made for the myHR portal.

It would be really good to see some real evidence of significant benefit flowing from the myHR. Thus far there has been little credible evidence of benefit I have seen.

David.