Nursing Informatics: Implementation of Patient Portals

Patient Portals
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Patient Portals
1 Background
The prognosis procedure known as, “Patient Centered Approach” is one of the most significant approaches used by medical institutes in today’s world. This approach requires the patients to be an active part of their treatment procedures. The concept of the ‘patient-centered care’ first arrived on the medical sphere in the year 2001 and since then evolved itself to become one of the most reliable and efficient methods to devise a treatment plan for the patients (Grilo, Dos Santos, Gomes, & Rita, 2017). The concepts include the active participation of patients in their treatment and meeting their individual needs and preferences. The approach makes the patients and their loved one an active part of the treatment leaving the health professionals to deal with clinical methods and introducing less invasive treatment measures. The approach also facilitates inaccurate sharing of information between the patients, relatives, health professionals, and medical research institutes.
From the offset of the patient-centered approach as the preferred prognosis method the ‘information’ its representation and sharing are identified as a critical factor. The field of informatics is all about the collection, storage, and representation of the information. The technical information and communication and the ability of nurses to use these tools are of vital importance for this process. However, the use of technology can also create barriers for the treatments. The presence of information can contribute to ‘dehumanization’ and interfere with the conventional doctor-patient relationships (Grilo, Dos Santos, Gomes, & Rita, 2017). The following figure summarized the way information plays an integral part of the entire treatment process:
Figure 1: Interaction of informatics in the patient-centered approach (Grilo, Dos Santos, Gomes, & Rita, 2017).
One of the ways to reduce the communication gap between patients and doctors resulting from sharing of information is to ask the patients of their opinions, concerns, and limitations regarding a specified clinical approach. The clinical experts or physicians can also use this information to compare their medical knowledge, patient’s individual conditions, and the experience of other patients to devise a reliable treatment approach based on the patient’s preferences (Hanna & Pantanowitz, 2017). The quality of information plays a vital role in this regard as it is observed the higher the quality of the information and its presentation higher will be coordination between the stakeholders of the treatment processes. Thus the accurate, meaningful, and friendly representation information has a critical importance in the clinical decisions and resulting effectiveness. In this research, the benefits of patient portals and their benefits to the patient based care approach is discussed in detail. Moreover, some of the barriers to the adoption of technology are also discussed in this research.
1 Patient Portals or Personal Health Records (Patient Portal)
These records and portals are exclusively designed for the patients and have the ability to record the feedback and concerns of the patients against any treatment process. These records are divided into two categories, one is the storage of Patient Portal on the cloud services provided by companies like Google and Microsoft or tethered Patient Portal which are provided by specialized EHR vendors. However, despite the encouragement of the using PHR at both federal and state levels, their adoption rate is slow. The main reasons for the slow adoption are attributed to lack of knowledge and standardization in both patients and the kept records. The field of nursing informatics is all about creating standards and presenting the information in a reliable manner to both patients and physicians. The nurses should be able to integrate the clinical data, patient’s perceptions, and their knowledge to create a reliable and readable form of information. The standards for measurements like volume (mL or L), dosages (mg, grams), and temperatures (°F or °C) can be adapted to eliminate the standardization issues from both EHRs and Patient Portal (Hanna & Pantanowitz, 2017). The patients, however, must not be bombarded with irrelevant information like clinical or nursing notes and should be presented with a user-friendly version of both diagnostic and prognosis procedures.
2 Stakeholders
Figure 2: Information Flow (Hanna & Pantanowitz, 2017).
The figure ‘2’ shows a schematic of the information in a conventional information flow in a healthcare system. The nursing informatics have to create at least two different representations of the same information which include the clinical and nursing practices. The physicians and patients should not be bothered with the managerial information like finances, government support, and drug inventories. The information regarding these elements is only shared within the organizations, authorities, and other healthcare facilities. The confidentiality of the patients, doctors, and nurses involved in the process are of vital importance. The commonly used approach is to represent the data in tabular or numeric form rather than presenting it as a descriptive text. The clinical information and best clinical and nursing practices can also be shared with the physician and nurses having first-hand experiences with the individual patients.
As stated earlier, in the patient-centered approach the patients play a vital role in their treatment procedures. The self-management of chronic diseases has provided its wort especially in patients suffering from type-2 diabetes, depression, and hypertension. The information shared with the patients should be descriptive and facilitate them in the effective management of their diseases. The patients should be able to add necessary information in the records regarding their vital signs. For instance, the patients should be able to add the values of blood pressure, blood, and urine glucose levels, and changes in their symptoms for the doctors to review and devise a change in treatment or dosage of medications. Owing to the evolution in the communications technology both forms of the information should be accessed using mobile platforms like cell phones and tablets etc.
Electronic Health Records (EHRs) is becoming one of the most reliable and efficient form of info Electronic Health Records (EHRs) is becoming one of the most reliable and efficient forms of informatics which is applied in daily clinical practices and management. This technology is one of the parent technologies used for the development of the Patient Portals (Bavafa, Hitt, & Terwiesch, 2013). A successful implementation of an EHR system ensures improvements in quality and management...