Why?

A real time link to the underlying EMR data is very important when implementing a patient portal.  Real time links provide the ability to schedule directly to the scheduling system at your organization, allow patients to fill out questionnaires that can be synched with their internal chart, and allow patients to update demographic information so your records stay up to date.  Many other possibilities exist that will make future workflows more successful.  E-Visits, messaging, and billing all become much more feasible if the portal ties in with your EMR and billing systems.  Many vendors out there are basically selling a shell website that only works with asynchronous communication to your databases.  This usually comes in the form of functionality that ends in “request”.  The “request” piece means a glorified email is sent to someone at your organization to review and manually enter into your system.  This can be very time consuming, resource intensive, and offer no savings over telephone calls.  Patients get delayed service and your resources get over utilized…You do not want this!

Requirements

Simple…direct link via interface or as part of a proprietary EMR solution.  Period.

Questions to Ask

To Vendors

What interfacing options are available? (if Portal comes from a different vendor than your EMR)

How is the direct link secure?

How do you prevent performance and record locking issues if data can be accessed directly from the website?

Will advanced functionality respect business rules configured in the internal EMR systems?

For Patients

How current is the information I see online?