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Patients’ Experiences of a National Patient Portal and Its Usability: Cross-Sectional Survey Study

BACKGROUND: Patient portals not only provide patients with access to electronic health records (EHRs) and other digital health services, such as prescription renewals, but they can also improve patients’ self-management, engagement with health care professionals (HCPs), and care processes. However,...

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Autores principales: Simola, Saija, Hörhammer, Iiris, Xu, Yuhui, Bärkås, Annika, Fagerlund, Asbjørn Johansen, Hagström, Josefin, Holmroos, Mari, Hägglund, Maria, Johansen, Monika Alise, Kane, Bridget, Kharko, Anna, Scandurra, Isabella, Kujala, Sari
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: JMIR Publications 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10365631/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37389909
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/45974
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author Simola, Saija
Hörhammer, Iiris
Xu, Yuhui
Bärkås, Annika
Fagerlund, Asbjørn Johansen
Hagström, Josefin
Holmroos, Mari
Hägglund, Maria
Johansen, Monika Alise
Kane, Bridget
Kharko, Anna
Scandurra, Isabella
Kujala, Sari
author_facet Simola, Saija
Hörhammer, Iiris
Xu, Yuhui
Bärkås, Annika
Fagerlund, Asbjørn Johansen
Hagström, Josefin
Holmroos, Mari
Hägglund, Maria
Johansen, Monika Alise
Kane, Bridget
Kharko, Anna
Scandurra, Isabella
Kujala, Sari
author_sort Simola, Saija
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Patient portals not only provide patients with access to electronic health records (EHRs) and other digital health services, such as prescription renewals, but they can also improve patients’ self-management, engagement with health care professionals (HCPs), and care processes. However, these benefits depend on patients’ willingness to use patient portals and, ultimately, their experiences with the usefulness and ease of use of the portals. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the perceived usability of a national patient portal and the relationship of patients’ very positive and very negative experiences with perceived usability. The study was aimed to be the first step in developing an approach for benchmarking the usability of patient portals in different countries. METHODS: Data were collected through a web-based survey of the My Kanta patient portal’s logged-in patient users in Finland from January 24, 2022, to February 14, 2022. Respondents were asked to rate the usability of the patient portal, and the ratings were used to calculate approximations of the System Usability Scale (SUS) score. Open-ended questions asked the patients about their positive and negative experiences with the patient portal. The statistical analysis included multivariate regression, and the experience narratives were analyzed using inductive content analysis. RESULTS: Of the 1,262,708 logged-in patient users, 4719 responded to the survey, giving a response rate of 0.37%. The patient portal’s usability was rated as good, with a mean SUS score of 74.3 (SD 14.0). Reporting a very positive experience with the portal was positively associated with perceived usability (β=.51; P<.001), whereas reporting a very negative experience was negatively associated with perceived usability (β=−1.28; P<.001). These variables explained 23% of the variation in perceived usability. The information provided and a lack of information were the most common positive and negative experiences. Furthermore, specific functionalities, such as prescription renewal and the ease of using the patient portal, were often mentioned as very positive experiences. The patients also mentioned negative emotions, such as anger and frustration, as part of their very negative experiences. CONCLUSIONS: The study offers empirical evidence about the significant role of individual experiences when patients are evaluating the usability of patient portals. The results suggest that positive and negative experiences provide relevant information that can be used for improving the patient portal’s usability. Usability should be improved so that patients receive information efficiently, easily, and quickly. Respondents would also appreciate interactive features in the patient portal.
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spelling pubmed-103656312023-07-25 Patients’ Experiences of a National Patient Portal and Its Usability: Cross-Sectional Survey Study Simola, Saija Hörhammer, Iiris Xu, Yuhui Bärkås, Annika Fagerlund, Asbjørn Johansen Hagström, Josefin Holmroos, Mari Hägglund, Maria Johansen, Monika Alise Kane, Bridget Kharko, Anna Scandurra, Isabella Kujala, Sari J Med Internet Res Original Paper BACKGROUND: Patient portals not only provide patients with access to electronic health records (EHRs) and other digital health services, such as prescription renewals, but they can also improve patients’ self-management, engagement with health care professionals (HCPs), and care processes. However, these benefits depend on patients’ willingness to use patient portals and, ultimately, their experiences with the usefulness and ease of use of the portals. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the perceived usability of a national patient portal and the relationship of patients’ very positive and very negative experiences with perceived usability. The study was aimed to be the first step in developing an approach for benchmarking the usability of patient portals in different countries. METHODS: Data were collected through a web-based survey of the My Kanta patient portal’s logged-in patient users in Finland from January 24, 2022, to February 14, 2022. Respondents were asked to rate the usability of the patient portal, and the ratings were used to calculate approximations of the System Usability Scale (SUS) score. Open-ended questions asked the patients about their positive and negative experiences with the patient portal. The statistical analysis included multivariate regression, and the experience narratives were analyzed using inductive content analysis. RESULTS: Of the 1,262,708 logged-in patient users, 4719 responded to the survey, giving a response rate of 0.37%. The patient portal’s usability was rated as good, with a mean SUS score of 74.3 (SD 14.0). Reporting a very positive experience with the portal was positively associated with perceived usability (β=.51; P<.001), whereas reporting a very negative experience was negatively associated with perceived usability (β=−1.28; P<.001). These variables explained 23% of the variation in perceived usability. The information provided and a lack of information were the most common positive and negative experiences. Furthermore, specific functionalities, such as prescription renewal and the ease of using the patient portal, were often mentioned as very positive experiences. The patients also mentioned negative emotions, such as anger and frustration, as part of their very negative experiences. CONCLUSIONS: The study offers empirical evidence about the significant role of individual experiences when patients are evaluating the usability of patient portals. The results suggest that positive and negative experiences provide relevant information that can be used for improving the patient portal’s usability. Usability should be improved so that patients receive information efficiently, easily, and quickly. Respondents would also appreciate interactive features in the patient portal. JMIR Publications 2023-06-30 /pmc/articles/PMC10365631/ /pubmed/37389909 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/45974 Text en ©Saija Simola, Iiris Hörhammer, Yuhui Xu, Annika Bärkås, Asbjørn Johansen Fagerlund, Josefin Hagström, Mari Holmroos, Maria Hägglund, Monika Alise Johansen, Bridget Kane, Anna Kharko, Isabella Scandurra, Sari Kujala. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org), 30.06.2023. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://www.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Simola, Saija
Hörhammer, Iiris
Xu, Yuhui
Bärkås, Annika
Fagerlund, Asbjørn Johansen
Hagström, Josefin
Holmroos, Mari
Hägglund, Maria
Johansen, Monika Alise
Kane, Bridget
Kharko, Anna
Scandurra, Isabella
Kujala, Sari
Patients’ Experiences of a National Patient Portal and Its Usability: Cross-Sectional Survey Study
title Patients’ Experiences of a National Patient Portal and Its Usability: Cross-Sectional Survey Study
title_full Patients’ Experiences of a National Patient Portal and Its Usability: Cross-Sectional Survey Study
title_fullStr Patients’ Experiences of a National Patient Portal and Its Usability: Cross-Sectional Survey Study
title_full_unstemmed Patients’ Experiences of a National Patient Portal and Its Usability: Cross-Sectional Survey Study
title_short Patients’ Experiences of a National Patient Portal and Its Usability: Cross-Sectional Survey Study
title_sort patients’ experiences of a national patient portal and its usability: cross-sectional survey study
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10365631/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37389909
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/45974
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