Older adults using a patient portal: registration and experiences, one year after implementation

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The interest of older adults in using patient portals is rising, yet subject to functional and usability barriers. This study aims to gain insight into registration rates and experiences of older adult patients using a patient portal, one year after implementation in an academic hospital. METHODS: Registration rates for one year were collected via automated data extraction. Older adult patients’ experiences were collected through a survey, available via the portal in the last three months of the year. RESULTS: Older adults were a large user group of the patient portal and appreciated its functionalities. In one year, 10,679 older adult patients (aged 56+) registered, which constituted 47% of total portal registrations. The 131 older adult survey respondents had a mean age of 64.5 years and 40% indicated that they liked to review their medical information and appointments via the portal. Yet, older adults experienced user interaction issues and had higher expectations of content within the portal and patient/provider communication through the portal. Of the survey respondents, 22% experienced usability issues at login and in viewing test results, 15% commented on late or no responses by providers on patients’ sent messages and 24% expected the portal to provide medical history information. Implications: Patient portal designs should be optimized to usability needs of older adults. Portals preferably include medical history information, physicians’ notes and require prompt responses of providers.