eHealth Patient Portal – Becoming an Indispensable Public Health Tool in the Time of Covid-19

Abstract

Patient Portal represents a connecting service for the Slovenian eHealth solutions and enables patients with effective and secure access to their medical documentation. Ever since its national roll-out in 2017 the number of visits of the Patient Portal has been constantly growing, however, during the time of Covid-19, the number of visits has increased dramatically to reach almost 1.9 million visits in 2020. This article initially presents the functionalities of the Patient Portal and the dynamics of the visits to the Patient Portal in the time of Covid-19. In the second part, the article outlines the most significant benefits to healthcare stakeholders provided by the Patient Portal in the period of Covid-19. The study applies a focus group methodology. Structured focus group discussions were carried out with prominent experts, who are in charge of the Patient Portal and other national eHealth solutions in Slovenia. Research results indicate that the Patient Portal has attracted enormous interest and has become one of the essential public health tools empowering patients and supporting the enactment of public health policies and measures during the Covid-19 crisis.

The Factors Associated With Nonuse of and Dissatisfaction With the National Patient Portal in Finland in the Era of COVID-19: Population-Based Cross-sectional Survey

“…In the future, it might be expected that increasingly more patients have prior knowledge and experience with the service. This might also represent a significant incentive for the public’s further adoption of electronic services [ 4 ].…”

“…Patient portals have been reported to increase the patients’ knowledge and understanding of their own health condition, and thus they might be better prepared for future contacts with health care professionals [ 12 ]. This supports patient empowerment and engagement [ 4 , 5 ] as the patients feel more involved and responsible for their own care [ 12 ]. In addition, patient portals might increase the patients’ satisfaction with care [ 13 - 18 ] and improve patient safety [ 15 , 17 ].…”

“…The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic limited the provision of nonurgent health care services [ 1 , 2 ]. During this time, the use and interest in patient portals increased [ 3 , 4 ] because portals have enabled patients to have continuous [ 5 ] and secure access to their health care documents and medical information [ 4 ]. Patient portals are electronic services that allow patients to access [ 6 ] and in some cases manage their electronic health record documentations [ 7 ] and interact with health care professionals [ 6 , 8 , 9 ].…”

“…Furthermore, it has been reported that perceptions of electronic services may encourage or impede their use [ 31 ]. However, these previous studies have been conducted under normal circumstances before the COVID-19 pandemic and are thus only partially applicable in the context changed by the pandemic [ 4 ].…”

41 st International Conference on Organizational Science Development

“…Največji razvoj v zadnjih dveh letih je doživela rešitev Zdravstveni portal za paciente zVEM -zdravje vse na enem mestu (Stanimirović, 2021). Portal zVEM je bil zasnovan kot povezovalna storitev, osrednje stičišče osnovnih rešitev eZdravja za paciente, za omogočanje varnega in učinkovitega dostopa do njihovih napotnic, receptov, izvidov in drugih dokumentov in naročanje na sekundarne storitve in pregledovanje čakalnih dob (Janet & Stanimirović, 2020).…”