Everything you do in your practice is to best serve your patients, and taking advantage of a patient portal is one big way you can help to better serve your patients. We've discussed before how patient portals can help your staff and workflow, but we would like to spend today discussing which benefits your pateints receive when your practice takes advantage of patient portal technology. If you're still on the fence about implementing a portal in your practice, maybe seeing the specific benefits your patients could receive will be the final point to convince you.
Why Patients Will Love Having Access to Your Patient Portal
Simple Scheduling
The benefits of a patient portal begin with easy scheduling. Yes, this is a benefit for your staff, but your patients will also love the convenience of swapping a phone call to your office with online scheduling. People get busy, and it can often be difficult for a patient to find time during the day to call your office and schedule an appointment. When you offer online scheduling, patients can quickly schedule their eye exam as soon as they remember, even if that means scheduling after your business hours.
Shorter Appointments
We are not a society who likes to wait, and your patients are no exception. One of the easiest ways to cut down on patient wait time in your office is to have them fill out their pre-appointment paperwork ahead of time. Patient portals make it easy to send all necessary forms to your patients at the time they schedule their appointment. Your patients can then fill out the information ahead of time, and it can be sent automatically into your EHR system, saving even more time when the patient arrives for their appointment.
Secure Messaging
With secure messaging, your patients can have access to the information they need, when they need it. Your practice can communicate everything from test results to treatment instructions through the messaging system, and the best part is, the patient has that information in writing. Gone are the days when a patient has to call your office to ask for a reminder of what was told to them during their appointment. This convenient way to communicate helps ensure that your patients are always informed, and is a great way to build strong relationships between your patients and practice.
Smart Education
Patients like to take an active role in their health care, and one of the best ways for them to do this is by being educated on their health. Patient portals are a great avenue for sharing educational materials with patients that are specific to their individual needs. Your patients will love having reliable access to information that is unique to them. The more informed your patients are, the more likely they are to be smart and responsible about their eye health and schedule regular appointments with your practice (which thanks to your pateint portal they can do conveniently online).
Looking for ways to increase patient care in your practice? Uprise is a cloud-based practice management and EHR system that comes equipped with a patient portal!
