Patient Portal Software In The Era Of COVID-19: How To Get Started?
As the patient’s expectations towards accessing quality and secure healthcare continue to grow, the specialty clinics are in the stage to get started with the patient portal. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the real benefits of patient portal software as the secure way to share patient health information and eliminate the risk of virus spread.
Traditional System Vs Patient Portal
Before the implementation and usage of these advanced systems like patient portal, appointment scheduling software, if a patient wishes to visit a doctor, there are several steps to be followed. First, the patient needs to call the doctor’s office and schedule an appointment, then after consultation, several lab works need to be done and wait for a couple of days or a week for your results. This is how healthcare consultation was done.
The implementation of patient portal software streamlined this time-consuming process with the extra opportunity to boost your patient engagement. How it is possible? Saving the time of both patients and providers and providing faster access to health information will lead to achieving better outcomes for your practice.
The recent COVID-19 pandemic has clearly shown the real need for patient portals as one of the best and secure methods for connecting both patients and doctors securely while also offering effective care on time. As a healthcare practice, how you will develop better patient portal software in the era of this pandemic? How you will improve your patient portal usage?
How To Get Started With Patient Portal Software?
The online patient portals should be very easy to use and give patients admittance to features like appointment scheduling, bill payment, etc. This has significantly more important in the COVID-19 time when more things are done online to encourage social distancing. That is the reason online portals have new upgrades to energize more prominent use and viability. Patients would now be able to plan on the web, affirm visits, and even check in practice.
There are more advanced options for informing the healthcare team, and test outcomes are not, at this point simply a rundown of numbers patients should unravel — one of the frequently noted issues with patient portals. All things considered, they would now be able to be worked to incorporate test outcomes, so patients can all the more likely comprehend and keep track of their progress.
Adding Insurance Information
Another big issue with patient portals is, first and foremost, they did exclude protection data, or if they did, it was confounding. Presently portals can incorporate simple to-peruse advantage rundowns. By including clear advantages synopses and other significant protection data, patients can more readily comprehend what is accessible to them, select the appropriate healthcare providers, use their funds wisely.
RELATED: Physician’s Guide: Top 5 Patient Portal Software Challenges
Adding Prescription Refills
With an online patient portal, healthcare providers can likewise restrict telephone discussions with patients and their pharmacies when it comes time to refill prescriptions. Patients can sign on straightforwardly to their portals, request a refill, and work with their pharmacy to find a pick-up at the right time that works for them.
They at this point don’t have to call your office, wasting your significant time that your healthcare organization can focus on delivering quality care to your patients.
Adding Telehealth Visits
Sometimes when you’re sick, the last thing you need to do is get up and drive to the specialist, even though you need clinical consideration. On different occasions, you may have a normal visit plan however don’t have any desire to face the challenge of sitting in a waiting room with infectious patients. During a pandemic, going to a medical clinic or facility may likewise put extra weight on individuals who have an all-around undermined resistant framework and put numerous others in danger, including specialists, attendants, office staff, and patients in waiting rooms.
A superior option is telehealth visits. Telehealth is a moderate innovation that can be gotten to using online patient entrances. While new, it is rapidly acquiring prominence, particularly now when individuals are more reluctant to visit the specialist, in any event, when they need to.
With telehealth, patients can view and address their primary care physician over a protected association. Suppliers can ask and answer inquiries, give analysis, and recommend a strategy, all while the patient is in the solace of their own home. In addition to the fact that this helps alleviate the spread of any transferable disease, however, it can likewise help cut down on time typically spent checking in and waiting to be seen.
Telehealth likewise helps healthcare providers triage emergency patients all the more successfully. Most telehealth visits may bring about a course of care including a pharmacy prescription and guidelines for diet and rest. However, a few cases may bring about a choice to carry the patient into the facility or clinic right away. Along these lines, telehealth assists free with increasing bed space for the individuals who genuinely need it, while all the more successfully treating different patients at home.
RELATED: The New Era Of Telehealth: Mobile Devices Are Trending Today!
Secure Information Sharing
Your patient portal can likewise work as a valuable way to impart significant information and improvements identified with the infection and how your practice is responding to it. Numerous suppliers have conveyed messages about new COVID limitations and how their practice is making a move to prevent the spread and development of the virus with their patient portal software.
A quality patient portal with a portable application assists with alarming your patients when you have imparted another improvement to them so they can monitor the subtleties. These messages may illuminate patients on the significance regarding remaining at home, using virtual visits, messaging their provider, or requesting prescription refills.
Real-Time Push Notifications
The web is flush with data about COVID-19, yet quite a bit of it is clashing and leaves patients asking, “Which sources would I trust?” This has significantly more noteworthy in circumstances like COVID-19, where new data is found each day. Frequently the best hotspot for precise clinical data is a believed specialist or medical services group, who approaches a patient’s history and are particularly situated to respond to their inquiries and concerns.
With the best online patient portal software, the healthcare expert team can share complete, continuous data with patients. For instance, when patients are searching for data on COVID-19, suppliers can post best practices for remaining healthy. For example, incessant hand washing, list basic indications and give guidelines on when and where to go if an infection is suspected.
As well as being posted in an assigned segment of the portal, these messages can likewise be shipped off a select gathering of patients and show up in their portal inbox. A few portals likewise offer message pop-ups that can go to the patient’s very own email or mobile phone. By doing this, patients can feel quite realizing they have a confided in an asset for data, and medical care groups can rapidly and effectively arrive at their patients with the most recent data.
Key Takeaway
Patient portals have become very popular and even see greater demand from both patients and providers with the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Portals offer a safe and secure way to connect patients and their healthcare experts. With easy access to insurance information, appointment scheduling, telehealth options, and more, Vozo patient portal software will be the right choice for your practice to get started.
Improve the value of your practice by implementing the best online patient portal
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With more than 4 years of experience in the dynamic healthcare technology landscape, Sid specializes in crafting compelling content on topics including EHR/EMR, patient portals, healthcare automation, remote patient monitoring, and health information exchange.
His expertise lies in translating cutting-edge innovations and intricate topics into engaging narratives that resonate with diverse audiences.