Benefits, Problems, and Potential Improvements in a Nationwide Patient Portal: Cross-sectional Survey of Pharmacy Customers’ Experiences

BACKGROUND: Patient engagement is a worldwide trend in health care. Patient portals have the potential to increase patients’ knowledge about their health and care and therefore enhance patient engagement. Portal users’ experiences are needed to determine if these portals work appropriately and if there are barriers to achieving the aims that were set before their implementation. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to analyze pharmacy customers’ experiences of the Finnish nationwide patient portal My Kanta in terms of benefits, problems, and potential improvements. METHODS: A questionnaire survey was conducted among pharmacy customers in the spring of 2019. The questionnaires (N=2866) were distributed from 18 community pharmacies across mainland Finland to customers aged ≥18 years who were purchasing prescription medicines for themselves or their children aged <18 years. Using open-ended questions, customers were asked about their experiences of the benefits and problems of My Kanta and what improvements could be made. Their responses were encoded and categorized using inductive content analysis, stored in SPSS Statistics for Windows, and analyzed using frequencies. RESULTS: Of the 2866 questionnaires, a total of 994 (34.68%) questionnaires were included in the analysis. Most respondents were My Kanta users (820/994, 82.5%); of these 820 users, 667 (81.3%) reported at least one benefit, 311 (37.9%) reported at least one problem, and 327 (39.9%) reported at least one potential improvement when using My Kanta. The most commonly mentioned benefits were opportunities to view health data (290/667, 43.5%) and prescriptions (247/667, 37%) and to renew prescriptions (220/667, 33%). The most extensively reported problems with My Kanta were that the portal lacks health data (71/311, 22.8%), navigating the service and searching for information is difficult (68/311, 21.9%), and the delay before health data are incorporated into the service (41/311, 13.2%). The most frequently suggested potential improvements were that My Kanta needs more comprehensive health data (89/327, 27.2%); the service should be easier to navigate and information easier to access (71/327, 21.7%); the service should have more functions (51/327, 15.6%); and health data should be entered into the portal more promptly (47/327, 14.4%). CONCLUSIONS: Pharmacy customers reported more benefits than problems or potential improvements regarding the use of My Kanta. The service is useful for viewing health data and prescriptions and for renewing prescriptions. However, portal users would like to see more data and functions available in the portal and data searches to be made easier. These improvements could make the data and functions provided by the portal easier to view and use and hence promote patient engagement.