the impact of secure messaging between patients and providers

Deliver better healthcare through effective use of secure mobile messaging

 

 

 

Secure messaging between patients and healthcare providers through Internet websites, commonly known as “patient portals,” allows patients and providers to communicate with each other via electronic messages outside of office visits.The use of secure messaging is becoming more and more widespread among healthcare institutions. Secure patient-provider messaging is frequently used between office visits to manage chronic conditions such as type 2 diabetes.

 

Secure Messaging and Diabetes Care

Internet-based messaging was initially established to improve patient access to clinicians without the added burden of time and cost of traveling to the clinicians' office. Clinician access is further facilitated by the nature of Internet-based messaging because the clinician and patient do not need to be available at the same moment in time to send or respond to the message. Instead, patients may send a message at a time of their choosing, and clinicians may respond when their schedule allows.

According to Sukyung Chung, PhD, from the Palo Alto Medical Foundation in California, secure patient-provider messaging improves patient satisfaction significantly and has a positive impact on the overall experience of care. In addition, secure messaging may help alleviate the time pressure that clinicians often experience. “Physicians have a limited amount of time to see patients in the office and to answer telephone calls,” Dr Chung said in an interview with Endocrinology Advisor. The asynchronous nature of secure messaging may allow clinicians to communicate with patients in a way that fits into their schedule.

Secure patient-provider messaging may also increase patient engagement and self-management. “Brief, intermittent office visits with physicians are not well designed for coaching patients to self-manage their own condition, which really requires more ongoing engagement between visits,” James Ralston, MD, MPH, from Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Washington, told Endocrinology Advisor. “Secure messaging presents a great opportunity for patients and healthcare providers to collaborate on self-management issues like glycemic control, diet, and exercise.”

However, responding to patient messages outside of visits can be time-consuming for providers. In addition, time spent interacting with patients via secure messaging is often not reimbursed in the traditional fee for service model. “If secure messaging takes over a significant portion of the day, and you can't get reimbursed for that time, it's hard to support secure messaging to engage with patients.

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