The Cost of Implementing a Patient Portal

The implementation of office technology is an unavoidable task laid upon every medical provider in the country. The challenges that many providers are facing include the quality of technology alongside the overall cost of implementation. Vendors of healthcare technology are taking advantage of providers and their need for these tools at their practice by over complicating and overcharging the process. Providers feel the pressure of spending a large amount of money, time, and energy on the implementation of tools such as electronic health records, billing technology and a patient portal.

The patient portal is one of the most important tools that a provider needs to have a successful practice. It increases patient engagement like no other tool ever has and cultivates a better patient-provider relationship. It is necessary to have, so how much should a provider set aside to invest in this technology?

The truth about the cost of implementing a patient portal is that, it really shouldn’t cost anything.

The truth about the cost of a patient portal is that it does not, and should not, have to cost a provider a dime. Each component of a physician’s office technology is related and should work together to make sure physicians are offering quality care, meeting regulatory requirements and practicing medicine to their best ability. If each tool works together why are vendors charging for individual tools (EHRs, billing, practice management software, patient portals, etc.) separately?

Vendors that are wanting to partner and truly help physicians elevate their practice will ensure that their tools not only work together, but that they are available to a physician to use altogether in order to better their practice and the physician’s patients. At this point, you may be thinking “Why is this so important?” Let us explain.

The patient portal is essential to increasing patient engagement and making sure patients have access to their personal health information. Within the patient portal, patients have the ability to evaluate their health stats, ask their provider questions, request appointments, pay their bills and more. The patient portal is the hub many patients use to stay involved in their health care. Here they can access all the information and tools they need to have insight, understanding and control of their medical care. Without integration to their physician’s office and personal health record, a patient portal would be useless as it wouldn’t help a patient find out necessary information or complete a variety of tasks all from one place.

The Added Value of Patient Portals

Having a totally integrated patient portal has the potential to develop your practice to the point of success like no other tool. It opens the line of communication between patient and provider in a valuable and integral way.

A quality patient portal should have a messaging center that patients and providers can use to address health questions and concerns quickly and efficiently. With this open flow of communication, patients can contact their provider immediately when something comes up. Their provider can then follow up appropriately, whether it be a prescription or advising the patient to set an appointment. Due to this, patients are catching red flags and addressing health concerns before they become much worse.

In the past, patients have put off and avoided going to their doctor’s office because it can become very inconvenient, taking large amounts of time out of their day or just interrupting their lives in general. The patient portal eliminates this barrier by making it easy for patients to contact their providers and address issues.

It does not go unnoticed how important the patient portal is to any medical practice. Yet, with the right EHR partner, a patient portal does not have to cost a provider anything at all. If searching for a new EHR, physicians should find a vendor who offers total integration with other office technology, making implementation a simple and affordable process with one cost for everything. Increase the lines of communication between patient and provider and give your patients and practice the tools they need to achieve the success through a patient portal.

Interested in a patient portal? Contact us or request a free demo to see how it works.