Date of Award

Spring 2020

Document Type

DNP Project

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

Department

Nursing

Committee Chairperson

Jacquelyn M. Owens, DNP, CRNP

Committee Member

Michelle Siebel, DNP

Committee Member

Cheryl D. Schlamb, DNP, CRNP

Abstract

Abstract

The patient portal was created to offer the opportunity for patients to become more involved with their health care outcomes. However, it has been identified that patient portals are not being widely used. The portal can increase a patient’s knowledge about their health care and provide significant communication exchanges with their health care providers to help improve and understand their care needs. This quality improvement project was implemented to evaluate whether using an educational intervention of the benefits of the portal would increase usage of the portal and patient-provider communication utilizing the portal. Each patient, upon checking in with the front desk were given education on accessing and using the portal. Pre-intervention data were collected from the portal prior to the educational intervention. The pre-interventional data showed that in 2019 patients were sent 12 messages, 59 people accessed their records and 19 messages were sent to the patient from the provider. The post intervention data showed 190 patients had an educational intervention with an increase to 118 messages being sent by the provider, 113 patients accessed their records, and 85 patients electronically sent patient communication messages to the provider in the office. The framework model used for evaluating the project was Imogene King’s goal attainment theory. Through realization of goals, better outcomes in healthcare can be achieved with using the patient portal for guidance.

Keywords: patient portal, patient communication, patient outcomes, quality improvement

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