Page 27 - Part 2 Navigating Electronic Media in a Healthcare Setting

SVMIC Navigating Electronic Media in a Healthcare Setting

refills, mailing appointment reminders, etc. will decrease. A great
deal of the staff’s and provider’s time is wasted each day playing

phone-tag with patients or family members. A portal can help

eliminate this wasted time.

Informed consent forms can be sent to a patient via the portal in

advance of a scheduled procedure, allowing the patient sufficient
time to review the consent form prior to signing it. In many lack of

informed consent cases, the patient asserts after-the-fact that he or

she was not allowed adequate time to review the form before
signing it. Delivering the form to the patient in advance of the

procedure by using the portal could be helpful in defending the
provider against these types of claims. Obviously, allowing the

patient to review the forms in advance on the portal is no
substitute for the discussion and documentation of the discussion

that must take place to establish the patient’s informed consent.

There are a few negatives associated with a patient portal.
Authentication is the process used to verify whether someone or

something is who or what it purports to be in the electronic
context, while keeping unauthorized people or programs from

gaining access to information. For purposes of accessing the

portal, authentication typically consists of user names and
passwords. The authentication parameters of the portal are usually

established by the vendor from whom the portal is purchased.

However, it is up to the practice to educate each patient on the
need to protect the portal login information (username and

password) in the same manner he or she would protect other
online password-encrypted information such as bank accounts,

credit cards, etc. The burden is on the provider or staff to provide
this information. Patients must be told that if they share their

Authentication (login) information with anyone else, including a

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