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On the effect of electronic patient portal on primary care utilization and appointment adherence
- Source :
- BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, Vol 18, Iss 1, Pp 1-12 (2018)
- Publication Year :
- 2018
- Publisher :
- BMC, 2018.
-
Abstract
- Abstract Background The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of patient portal adoption on patients’ primary care utilization and appointment adherence. Methods We conducted a retrospective observational study using a panel difference-in-differences (DID) framework to investigate the use of primary care services by patients, adjusting for their disease burden and allowing for time-dependent portal effect. A large dataset with 46,544 patients of University of Florida (UF) Health during the study period July 2013 – June 2016 was used. The main outcome measures are disease burden adjusted rates of office visits arrived, no-show, and cancellation to primary care physicians (PCPs) per quarter between patient portal adopters (denoted as users) and non-users. Results At the time of adoption, the quarterly PCP office visit rate ratio (RR) of patient portal users to non-users was 1.33 (95% CI, 1.27–1.39; p 0.05 for all cases). Conclusions Patient portal users’ disease burden adjusted PCP office visit rate was significantly reduced in one and a half year and thereafter post portal adoption. PCP appointment no-show rate was also significantly reduced and cancellation rate was not affected, implying improved care engagement of patients.
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 14726947
- Volume :
- 18
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Directory of Open Access Journals
- Journal :
- BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- edsdoj.01f0740d814b648f0383c8cb38baa1
- Document Type :
- article
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1186/s12911-018-0669-8