Being identified as a Gen X, I find myself with each passing year being more proactive with my health and scheduling visits with doctors.
I recently called my family physician to schedule an appointment for annual blood work. I put the call in, scheduled the in-office appointment and within a week of the appointment, I received an email from the hospital that owns this facility, to confirm my appointment to start my check-in.
Excuse me…. What? I needed to do something on-line prior to my in-office visit to my doctor. Ok, great!!! Now maybe instead of being there for two hours, I will only be there for one hour.
I received the email, clicked on the link that was provided and it directed me to a site, “patient portal” where I needed to set up my account, an online profile. I created a user profile, that is basically, a central repository for information regarding my health.
I instantly thought of my elderly mother and all the other Baby Boomers, who are not as educated with today’s technology or even aware of it. How does this work for them, would it even apply?
The day of my visit I decided to leave a little later, technically since I already completed the “check-in” there was no reason I needed to be at my appointment 15 minutes before-hand, unless I was being courteous. I must say I proved myself right and within 3 minutes of my arrival went back to see the doctor.
Within that same week, I received two additional emails, notifying me that the “visit summary was available in my portal as well as my test results for the labs they had taken.
Within a 5-day period, I received three email notifications. Though I appreciate the transparency, as a busy “working mom”, I was annoyed of all the emails I received in one week.
Email communications to log in to my portal:
- Email to confirm appointment to check in
- Visit Summary
- Test Results Notification
In addition to the numerous emails, my records are now stored on-line, not just any records-my medical records. WELCOME TO THE 21ST CENTURY.
Maybe I am just showing my age by going on this rant, as mentioned in class it is more about the “transformation” than it is the “technology”. I need to keep reminding myself of this!
I often wonder if opinions relating to topics regarding “Digital Transformation” are based on one’s generation era, I believe this to be true to some degree.
Curious to know your thoughts.
Personal Health Records (PHR) were the “next big thing” when I worked on a major health insurer a decade ago. Needless to say, reality took a bit longer to catch up to the promise.
I hear you on the concern about health data being stored online. It’s certainly uncomfortable in some aspects. That said, PII (personally identifiable information) brings with it a host of regulation and severe penalties for violation. Working with many health systems, I can tell you confidently that most will not let anyone come anywhere near their operational data.
The idea here was to democratize your health. Improving the UX by minimizing time on site is part of it, but the bigger idea was that it should empower you to seek better care as its easier to transfer a file “between” patient portals than transferring a physical file between offices.
Has anyone had experience moving their records between providers? Having a hospital access their primary’s records more easily?
Please do not share too much personal details. Mainly curious to hear of digitizing data has improved your experience.
Hi Janice,
I don’t think you are showing your age with this post! I am a Millennial and I am still fascinated by all the emails I get from any physician in this day and age. A little background story…I had to take a Covid-19 test before I went the Bahamas this past summer. Instead of simply calling to make an appointment. I had to Google “Rapid Covid-19 test” to see where the nearest center was to me. I found a CVS that was able to do it in person and I made an appointment. I opted for text messages for reminders since I am more likely to check my texts rather than my emails. I got a text a few days before my appointment that the CVS had closed down. While I appreciated the text, this was highly inconvenient since these appointments were hard to get in the summer with so many people traveling. While I did find another place and made an appointment, I also got an email about making an profile prior to my appointment. I was also able to put a credit card on file to pay for the test (which also made me mad cause CVS was taking my insurance). While I found all of thus convenient, I thought of other people who aren’t as tech savvy, or don’t have a reason to check their email as often. I understand the “Digital Transformation” and how technology is suppose to make our lives easier. But at the same time, It’s going to make some people’s lives harder. Especially those that aren’t as tech savvy.
Great points Janice! I, too, have a love – hate relationship with the health portal related to my hospital. While it is very nice for checking in and speeding up the process at the doctor’s office, I find it absolutely terrible to integrate into my daily life. I have one main issue with this technology, it is too complicated for some of the staff using it or they have not received enough training to be helpful. My personal experience was extremely upsetting and happened just this past year. I was extremely sick with COVID-like symptoms in early January of 2022 and with COVID being upon us, I went to my doctors office to get a PCR test after my at home tests had been negative. I already had my portal set up however the office decided not to look up my name in their system and set up an entirely new account, overwriting all of my data from previous visits. After 10 days of not receiving results, I called (and was transferred multiple times) to figure out what was taking so long. Apparently, yes my results did come in and while I was negative, they did not explain to me where my results were. When I returned home and tried to log into my portal, my password was not working. It took several more phone calls to find out about the duplicate account made by a nurse at the office and had erased all of my health data in the past. The established portal system is not to hinder the doctor’s office process, it is meant to make it simpler and faster, however without a dedicated training for the employees using the system, significant problems can occur causing customer frustrations and a risk to the personal information/data of health records for each patient.
I loved reading you post Janice. I am a big person for virtual appointments and health portals. I think in todays day in age with the world being full of technology, I don’t think that this is ever going away. I really think that is all depends on how you look at technology and how you approach it. You could love the idea of patient portals or you could hate it and I it is all preference and the way you approach it.
Hi Janice, great post.
After reading your article I think that for me, I personally really enjoy the ability to have all this information at my fingertips since when it comes to medical information, I am pretty useless. I bring this up because I am blessed to have a mother who is a nurse is understands all this medical information.
As I have gotten older and with COVID having my mom come to the doctors with me had become less frequent than when I was younger. Sharing this information with my mom has made it easier for her to help me understand what medicine I’m provided, what side effects to look for, and having someone in my corner to stand up for me even though I could share this information without using the portal before its a lot easier to have everything in one digital location that has everything written down (so I don’t mispronounce any medication names) and kept on file.