Patient Portal Overview
When used appropriately, a patient portal is an excellent tool for improving the quality of medical care through efficient communication. However, our providers must be able to focus on the care of their patients in the office, and the volume of portal messages we’ve received in the past has become a problem. Please see the information below to be aware of best practices and policies related to portal messages.
The patient portal is a great tool for the following:
Following-up on a recent visit with an update on symptoms/side effects from a medication etc. “Recent” generally means within the past couple of weeks.
Requesting an appointment
Paying outstanding balances
Updating insurance information
Reviewing medical records
Sending questions re: billing, appointment scheduling, prior authorizations or other non-urgent administrative issues
What the portal is NOT…
1) The portal is not for medical advice on issues for which we have not recently seen you. We receive a lot of messages describing symptoms and asking if we feel they require a visit. The answer is almost always the same. If the symptom is bothering a patient enough to ask a medical quesiton about it, it deserves a visit.
2) We only provide medical advice to our patients. We cannot provide medical advice or care for family members or friends who are not our patients.
3) Urgent issues should not be communicated via the portal. If you have a medical emergency, dial 911. If you have an urgent issue requiring same day care, call the office during office hours (or when absolutely necessary, contact the provider on-call after hours). Portal messages are generally reviewed and responded to within 3 days. Patients often treat our portal as if they are texting with their provider or our team, expecting very rapid responses. This is not the purpose of a portal.
4) Patients should not expect a provider to engage in a lengthy set of messages/responses over the portal. Please understand that our providers are fully engaged in the care of their patients in the office and cannot commit extensive time to lengthy and sometimes complicated electronic discussions. These situations require a visit.
Our Communication Policy
We adhere to strict standards for how our patients treat our providers. Fortunately, we have had relatively few abusive patients over the years, but it happens and we do not tolerate it. Abusive language or threatening behavior of any type either in person, over the phone or via portal messages will result in immediate suspension of a portal account and notification that we are initiating our right to terminate our patient/provider relationship.
Requesting Medication Refills
The decision to refill a medication is a clinical decision, not a clerical one. Every time we receive a medication refill request a chart is reviewed determine when the patient was last seen, is the refill appropriate without further information, should the patient still be taking the medication, etc. In short, every refill request requires medical decision making. Therefore, we are focused on making sure that every patient receives enough refills at each visit to bridge them to their next appropriate visit. Refills in between visits should not generally be needed. When a refill is required without a visit, please contact your pharmacy to initiate an electronic request. This is by far the most efficient way to handle refills as leaving messages over our portal or via phone leads to a large volume of messages and inherent delays.
