What is a Patient Portal?
A patient portal is a secure online website both enhances the provider patient relationship and empowers you by giving you convenient 24 hour access to your doctor’s office; care team, and personal health information from anywhere with an internet connection at a time and place that is convenient for you.
Portals can help you be a more active participant in your own care and provide you with some of the information you will need to make health care decisions that reflect your values and preferences. Many portals offer self service options like secure email that can eliminate phone tag or even an office visit.
What can patients use a portal for? (Note: edit to reflect practice)
- You can securely view portions of their health record including recent visits, medications, immunizations, allergies and most lab results anytime, anywhere they have access to the web.
- Communicate non-urgent questions and concerns with your healthcare team.
- Request prescription refills, make or change non-urgent appointments, check benefits, coverage and make payments.
What else can you find on a Portal?
Portals may offer educational content about specific health concerns, preventative guidelines, drug recall information and customized communication from your provider as well.Is it Secure?
Privacy and security safeguards are in place to ensure that your health information is secure and protected.- Patient portals are hosted on a secure connection and accessed via an encrypted password protected logon so your private health information is safe from unauthorized access
- With electronic health records, the HIPAA Security Rule, a federal law, visit HHS.gov; sets national standards to ensure that your health information in electronic form is secure.
- EHRs also have an “audit trail” feature which records who accessed your information, what changes were made and when.
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