What is a patient portal in healthcare?

Doctor suggesting hospital program to patient

If there were ancient times, we would say that healthcare consultancy worked due to human-to-human contact. Thanks to the dot-com bubble in the 1990s and the current pandemic, that’s no longer possible. There are other ways of making healthcare cheap and available from the comfort of your home. Patient portals are one of the tools which have been used over the current years. Other methods and technologies include the use of appointment reminder apps or telemonitoring devices to gather information on the patient or book or cancel an appointment.

A patient portal is like a blog that gives personal healthcare information. The great advantage of a patient portal is that it is online, with 24/7 access, as long as you have an Internet connection. You can have access to your records and previously attended appointments with a particular doctor. This is convenient, as it can serve anywhere at any time without interfering with the doctor’s schedule. All you need is a username and password.

You can also learn the patient’s portal by understanding its functions:

Provide drug information

Sometimes you will experience drug effects that are beyond what is written on the back of a medicine bottle or spoken by a doctor. This kind of misinformation or mistaken omission leads to unnecessary pain for a patient. Instead of taking a trip to the hospital or making a call to the doctor, you can visit the portal and search for the drug effects to get more information.

You will save time and money and have an understanding of how the drugs work. These invaluable pieces of information will prevent unnecessary complaining to the general healthcare unit.

Immunizations

Vaccines are generally administered in hospitals for various reasons. Patients in dire need of a particular injection need information on when and what kind of disease it will cure. The portal acts as a newsletter and notifies a patient who wants to be vaccinated. If you are a patient, you should always allow notifications from the portal to get new and current information about the immunization process.

Lab results

After physical consultancy, there is no need for sitting in the waiting room again. You can go home and wait for your lab results in the portal. Lab results are usually shared privately on your account so that you can see if it’s positive, neutral, or negative – depending on what is being tested. You do not have to spend another hour waiting for a lab result. Just go home and search for the results after the promised date.

Secure communication

The consultancy also happens with online meetings and tailored messages from bots if the doctor is not available at that time. Safe communication is guaranteed to and from both parties. You can talk with your medical provider about how you are progressing and the current effects of the prescribed drugs.

View educational materials

Sometimes you will find research material on the medical patient portal. Portals have periodicals and books that you can download and read later. This also applies to the patient when he or she is asked to value the situation. For example, an athlete may need to know the percentage of consequences he or she will experience if they undergo surgery.