

Griffin A, Skinner A, Thornhill J, Weinberger M. Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research ().

©Ronald Dendere, Christine Slade, Andrew Burton-Jones, Clair Sullivan, Andrew Staib, Monika Janda.

High-quality studies are needed to fully understand, improve, and evaluate their impact.ĭigital hospital electronic health record electronic medical record patient engagement patient portal. While the evidence is currently immature, patient portals have demonstrated benefit by enabling the discovery of medical errors, improving adherence to medications, and providing patient-provider communication, etc. In the outputs category, some but not all studies found patient portals improved patient engagement patients perceived some portal functions as inadequate but others as useful patients and staff thought portals may improve patient care but could cause anxiety in some patients and portals improved patient safety, adherence to medications, and patient-provider communication but had no impact on objective health outcomes. In the processes category, sociodemographic characteristics and medical conditions of patients were predictors of portal use some patients wanted unlimited access to their EMRs, personalized health education, and nonclinical information and patients were keen to use portals for communicating with their health care teams. Several methods were used to train portal users with varying success. Findings in the inputs category showed wide-ranging portal designs patients' privacy concerns and lack of encouragement from providers were among portal adoption barriers while information access and patient-provider communication were among facilitators.

Nineteen articles had high- to very high-quality, 21 had medium quality, and 18 had low- to very low-quality. The inputs category was addressed by 40 articles, while the processes and outputs categories were addressed by 36 and 46 articles, respectively: 47 articles addressed multiple themes across the three categories, and 11 addressed only a single theme. The systematic search identified 58 articles for inclusion. Included studies were categorized by their focus on input factors (eg, portal design), process factors (eg, portal use), and output factors (eg, benefits) and by the valence of their findings regarding patient portals (ie, positive, negative, or mixed). Articles for inclusion were evaluated for quality using A Measurement Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR) for systematic review articles and the Quality Assessment Tool for Studies with Diverse Designs for empirical studies. The aim of this study was to review literature describing patient portals tethered to an EMR in inpatient settings, their role in patient engagement, and their impact on health care delivery in order to identify factors and best practices for successful implementation of this technology and areas that require further research.Ī systematic search for articles in the PubMed, CINAHL, and Embase databases was conducted using keywords associated with patient engagement, electronic health records, and patient portals and their respective subject headings in each database. Patient portals may enhance patient engagement by enabling patients to access their electronic medical records (EMRs) and facilitating secure patient-provider communication. Engaging patients in the delivery of health care has the potential to improve health outcomes and patient satisfaction.
