Engaging Primary Care Patients to Use a Patient-Centered Personal Health Record

In Brief

Engaging Primary Care Patients to Use a Patient-Centered Personal Health Record

Alex H. Krist , and colleagues

Background Electronic personal health records hold great promise for improving health, but implementation has been a challenge. This study examines cost-effective ways that small- to medium-sized primary care practices can effectively encourage patients to use online patient portals to access their personal health records.

What This Study Found In eight Virginia primary care practices, integrating promotion of patient portals into the office visit is more effective at increasing usage rates than mailing invitations and other costly advertising campaigns. Over the 30-month study period, 26 percent of the 112,893 patients who had an office visit created an account on the patient portal. Of patients who visited the practices in the final month, 33 percent had a new or preexisting account. This uptake is significantly greater than the 17 percent observed in previous research in which the portal was only promoted through mailings. One out of three patients aged 60 to 69 years enrolled, the highest use rate of any age group studied, and a key factor influencing use of the patient portal was having a comorbid condition; 33 percent of patients with chronic conditions created a patient portal account. Uptake was influenced by the adoption of a team-based approach to notify patients about the patient portal rather than relying solely on clinicians, as well as adding portal features to report laboratory test results and generate after-care summaries.

Implications

• By directly engaging patients to use a portal and supporting practices to integrate its use into care, primary care practices can match or surpass the usage rates achieved by large health systems.