The use of a patient portal in your eyecare practice will have a lot of benefits for both you and your patients. But sometimes, practices can run into challenges getting all of the benefits out of a patient portal due to lack of acceptance, promotion, or use by your patients. We found survery data that talks about some of the features that patients enjoy the most from patient portals.

In a survey of 1,540 U.S. patients, the following functions were wanted most in a patient portal:

• Online appointment scheduling (24%)
• View lab and test results (22%)
• View bills and make payments (21%)
• Check prescriptions or refills (19%) 
• Email communication with staff (10%)

Making The Most Out of Your Patient Portal

How Your Practice will Benefit

Quicker Appointments - Patients will be more prepared for their appointments and will move quicker through your office. 

Fewer Phone Calls - With more information available at their fingertips, you and your staff will spend less time on the phone answering patient questions.

More Accurate Patient Info - When patients submit information to the portal, it will update into the EHR to ensure accurate and secure data. 

How Your Patients will Benefit

Easy Scheduling - With so much being done online these days your patients will love the option to schedule an appointment online with a few clicks!

Easy Communication - Having information down in writing that patients can refer to instead of trying to remember everything from a phone conversation will save everyone time. The more informed the patient can be, the better they will feel about the care they are receiving. 

Less Wait Time - Online pre-appointment forms let your patients get paperwork done ahead of time and spend less time in your waiting room the day of their appointment. 

More Resources - Access to a greater amount of resources, like patient education material and treatment instructions keep patients informed at all times. 

How to Get More People Using It

Promote Through Your Entire Office - Having your entire team involved in the promotion of your patient portal will help patients see all of the benefits. Your front desk can talk about the benefits of online scheduling and pre-appointment paperwork, while the OD can discuss secure messaging and treatment instructions. 

Offer Incentives - An easy way to get people on board with something is to offer some type of incentive for their participation. Even something like 5% off your purchase when you get set up and make your first portal interaction, or everyone who registers their portal gets submitted into some type of drawing.

Promote Updates and Benefits - Chances are, updates will be made to your patient portal that could have new benefits for your patients. Use your marketing channels to promote the changes and benefits to remind your patients why they should be taking advantage of it.  

Interested in a practice management and EHR solution that comes equipped with a patient portal?
Watch our portal video for more details.