TY - JOUR
T1 - Patient portal use and hospital outcomes
AU - Dumitrascu, Adrian G.
AU - Burton, M. Caroline
AU - Dawson, Nancy L.
AU - Thomas, Colleen S.
AU - Nordan, Lisa M.
AU - Greig, Hope E.
AU - Aljabri, Duaa I.
AU - Naessens, James M.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 The Author.
PY - 2018/4/1
Y1 - 2018/4/1
N2 - Objectives: To determine whether use of a patient portal during hospitalization is associated with improvement in hospital outcomes, 30-day readmissions, inpatient mortality, and 30-day mortality. Materials and Methods: We performed a retrospective propensity score-matched study that included all adult patients admitted to Mayo Clinic Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, from August 1, 2012, to July 31, 2014, who had signed up for a patient portal account prior to hospitalization (N=7538). Results: Out of the admitted patients with a portal account, 1566 (20.8%) accessed the portal while in the hospital. Compared to patients who did not access the portal, patients who accessed the portal were younger (58.8 years vs 62.3 years), had fewer elective admissions (54.2% vs 64.1%), were more frequently admitted to medical services (45.8% vs 35.2%), and were more likely to have liver disease (21.9% vs 12.9%) and higher disease severity scores (0.653 vs 0.456). After propensity score matching, there was no statistically significant difference between the 2 cohorts with respect to 30-day readmission (P=.13), inpatient mortality (P=.82), or 30-daymortality (P=.082). Conclusion: Use of the patient portal in the inpatient setting may not improve hospital outcomes. Future research should examine the association of portal use with more immediate inpatient health outcomes such as patient experience, patient engagement, medication reconciliation, and prevention of adverse events.
AB - Objectives: To determine whether use of a patient portal during hospitalization is associated with improvement in hospital outcomes, 30-day readmissions, inpatient mortality, and 30-day mortality. Materials and Methods: We performed a retrospective propensity score-matched study that included all adult patients admitted to Mayo Clinic Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, from August 1, 2012, to July 31, 2014, who had signed up for a patient portal account prior to hospitalization (N=7538). Results: Out of the admitted patients with a portal account, 1566 (20.8%) accessed the portal while in the hospital. Compared to patients who did not access the portal, patients who accessed the portal were younger (58.8 years vs 62.3 years), had fewer elective admissions (54.2% vs 64.1%), were more frequently admitted to medical services (45.8% vs 35.2%), and were more likely to have liver disease (21.9% vs 12.9%) and higher disease severity scores (0.653 vs 0.456). After propensity score matching, there was no statistically significant difference between the 2 cohorts with respect to 30-day readmission (P=.13), inpatient mortality (P=.82), or 30-daymortality (P=.082). Conclusion: Use of the patient portal in the inpatient setting may not improve hospital outcomes. Future research should examine the association of portal use with more immediate inpatient health outcomes such as patient experience, patient engagement, medication reconciliation, and prevention of adverse events.
KW - Health information technology
KW - Patient portal
KW - electronic health record
KW - hospital outcomes
KW - patient access
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U2 - 10.1093/jamia/ocx149
DO - 10.1093/jamia/ocx149
M3 - Article
C2 - 29300961
AN - SCOPUS:85055772735
SN - 1067-5027
VL - 25
SP - 447
EP - 453
JO - Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association
JF - Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association
IS - 4
ER -