Friday 8 August 2014

3 Factors to Consider Before Purchasing an Online Patient Portal

Online patient portals are becoming a necessity these days. The graph of health problems has risen and also, people are becoming more and more health conscious. It has become difficult for the hospital and healthcare organizations to manage such large influx of patients. As a solution to this problem, the IT consulting companies have developed the online patient portals that offer various beneficial features. Unfortunately, not all the patient portals are created with quality features. Investing in an unworthy portal can cost a lot in the long run. Therefore, before investing in an online patient portal, considering the following factors.

1. Useful features – Check for features that will help in improving the hospital efficiencies. The portal should integrate with the hospitals EHR system. Also, it should have the feature to extract and exchange data from other sources. It should have custom content on login like articles, news feed, optional interaction levels like click to chat with staff, for document exchange, online appointments, request for a prescription refill, e-consultations, online bill payments, lab data et al. Along with features, check for security, privacy and legal considerations. After all, improving and streamlining the communication channel is the main motive of an online portal.

2.  EHR strategy –  The working strategies of the electronic health record have to be flexible and effective. Like, some portals may demand manual interpretation and manual process of an online patient query. And with some portals, the staff can answer the query or process a request online. It is necessary to have a persevering strategy with an effective workflow.

3. Portal cost – Generally, the cost of a patient portal includes installation charges,the licensing fee and the maintenance charges. While, some portals may also charge for every transaction like every bill payment or online communication that have been made. This raises the cost of the portal. To avoid being surprised with the cost later on, try and learn the cost estimation of both up-front and other services.

There are many good development companies, but choosing the best web development company that offers great features and excellent services at the right price, is an important decision to make.

No comments:

Post a Comment