Role of provider encouragement on patient engagement via online portals

Abstract

Objective The study sought to examine whether provider encouragement is associated with improvements in engaging patients with their healthcare processes using online portals. Materials and Methods Using the Health Information National Trends Survey 2017 (N = 2, 670), we conducted an exploratory factor analysis with varimax orthogonal rotation and derived 3 outcome variables on patient engagement: (1) information access score, (2) care convenience score, and (3) patient engagement score. Multivariable linear regression on each outcome variable was conducted with provider encouragement as the main predictor, controlling for patient demographics. Results Women (60%), white participants (69%), and those with a college degree (49%) were more likely to report receiving provider encouragement. Those who were encouraged to use patient portals scored higher on all 3 outcome measures compared with those who were not encouraged (B = 0 .80 vs B = 0.11 for information access, B = 1.13 vs B = 0.13 for care convenience, and B = 0.44 vs B = 0.05 for patient engagement; all P < .001). For every additional 100 patients receiving encouragement, 65 more information access tasks, 94 more care convenience tasks, and 40 more patient engagement tasks would be performed. Discussion Provider encouragement was most influential concerning care convenience tasks and least influential on complex decision-making tasks. This may be due to portal design and the content available to patients, which merit consideration in future studies. Conclusions Provider encouragement is associated with more patient engagement, as indicated by significantly higher utilization of patient portals for accessing information, participating in routine care processes, and making complex healthcare decisions.

Revisiting Provider Role in Patient Use of Online Medical Records

“…OMR feature usage patterns (i.e., viewing results or secure communication) among different population segments were associated with encouragement. Prior research qualitatively observed similar findings, 19 although our study adopted a different methodological and clinically focused approach. Similar effects of encouragement were noted among CVMD patients.…”

“…16 17 Only 39% of patients reported to have discussed health information technology use with their providers 18 and 59% reported no provider encouragement for OMR use. 19…”

Association Between Patient Portal Use and Perceived Patient-Centered Communication Among Adults With Cancer: Cross-sectional Survey Study

“…One promising action to reduce such disparities in portal use is to aim for universal access to health information technology tools and to become aware of users' health literacy levels and preferred ways of communicating with the providers [66]. While provider encouragement is one of the factors associated with increased access and use of patient portals [67][68][69][70], referrals vary by patient race, socioeconomic status, and providers' personal beliefs about the benefits of patient portal use, contributing significantly to access disparities [22,71]. Targeting providers with additional patient portal referral training could be an effective strategy for increasing patient portal adoption among cancer patients, as demonstrated in studies of other patient populations [72][73][74].…”

The Interplay of Work, Digital Health Usage, and the Perceived Effects of Digitalization on Physicians’ Work: Network Analysis Approach

“…This finding supports the idea that digital health empowers patients to be active participants [ 9 - 11 ]. However, the changing role of patients may have required physicians to more actively encourage their patients to engage in digital health [ 73 ]. Patients also need a variety of skills, such as digital health literacy, to play an independent role [ 74 ].…”