When I meet with medical practices or large groups about their patient portal, I’m always amazed that it’s usually “one big thing” that drives their interest in the patient portal. This morning I spoke with a 14-physician orthopaedic group that was interested primarily in using the patient portal as a marketing tool. Their “one big thing” was using their website to do a better job of converting visitors on their website into actual new patients.
But what I find is probably the most common “one big thing” is online registration. It seems almost unthinkable that when you go to a doctor’s office you still fill out all your registration forms by hand. And yet, that’s the healthcare world we live in. At the recent Winter Health IT Summit I attended, one heated panel member made the point that while you fill out those medical practice registration forms by hand, you can use your iPhone to place an order for a burrito at the nearest Chipotle.
(more…)
