Econ241 | International Economics | Assessment Answers

Answer:

Kaiser Permanente (KP) is the world’s largest not-for-profit integrated delivery system of patient information that has been using a portal since the last one decade. KP is a prepaid integrated delivery system that operates on a global budget. Patient portals are known to the secure websites that enable health care consumer’s access to their personalised health records. The portal is integrated with the KP HealthConnect, that is a system-wide electronic health record (EHR) under full implementation. Such patient portals lead to proper management of diseases, retention of health plan, improvement in channel utilisation and lastly reduced environmental waste. Though a rich of studies are going on to highlight the impact of patient portals, the understanding of organisational dynamics explaining the impact of the patient portal is limited. There are distinct differences between Patient Health Record (PHR) and Patient Portal. PHR is commonly owned by the patient. Information may be present in the case of PHR that is not present in the medical record. Patient portal is a secured website through wich all patients have access to PHR. The portal is responsible for securing all the relevant information of the patient. Such portals are commonly tethered to a certain healthcare organisation. The patient portal at KP would enable the users to complete online forms for communicating with the providers of healthcare, review laboratory results, request for prescription refills and reschedule the medical appointments (Otte-Trojel et al., 2015).

Research indicated that there are five distinct ways in which patient portal of KP impacts cares delivery for producing reported effects. Firstly, the ability of the portal to enable patients to have easy access leads to increased patient satisfaction. The way by which patients seek the necessary care is also changed. Secondly, activation and trasnperacny of information enable patients to manage the care in a better manner. Thirdly, care management may witness improvement due to patient-physician communication. Fourth, a closer association of the patients with KP would be beneficial. Lastly, the efficiency of physician workflow as well as of administrative tasks would become better. Seven organisational factors gain importance in connection with the development of the portal; adequate financial incentives, alignment with IT operations and infrastructure, governance of physicians, inclusive power of decision making, continuous innovation, patient centred design and regional flexibility.

The leaders at KP have the strong belief that investment in the portal paves the way for the fulfilment of the operational goals of the organisation, like improvement in the quality of services and access to services. This action is consistent with the rich pool of evidence that highlight that adequate investments are to be done on maintaining the patient portal as the reason is increased retention of patients in relation to cost savings (Bajracharya et al., 2015). However, there are disparities among use of patient portals by the patients of different socio-economic groups. Increase in patient satisfaction will be achieved if there are no disparities in the use of patient portal across income, racial background, gender, health literacy and ethnic groups

There are a number of alternatives that could be considered for the proper maintenance and functioning of the patient portal. Increased patient engagement would be needed for the better achievement of quality care. This could be achieved through an increase in patient portal awareness, assigning a care coordinator, strengthening the role of the physician and highlighting the useful features of the portal (Street et al., 2015).  Possibilities lie that with such strategic steps the ability to engage the patient more with the portal would be fostered. Furthermore, this would facilitate the fulfilment of meaningful goals. Staffs and physicians need to know the means of leveraging the portal for improved two-sided communication and boost of engagement.

The strategy for the promotion of the patient portal needs to me made stronger. Patients are to be made aware of the facts regarding when the portal would be available and what benefits they can derive from it. An initial introduction of the portal to the patients would facilitate this approach. Patient coordinators would act as the agents for promotion of the use of portals. The role of the physicians is to be strengthened through the formation of a team within which each agent of change can exercise their leadership and governance for aligning with the set objectives. Additionally, the healthcare professionals might play a central role in portal communications. Communication of the patient with the concerned authorities managing the portal is crucial (Shortliffe & Cimino, 2013).

The response to the key concerns would change the dynamics of the way the patient portal is managed. The balance between patient factors and organisational factors would trigger valuable improvements in the performance of the portal. KP would be enabled to become a functional and comprehensive patient portal shortly (Wildevuur & Simonse, 2015).

References

Bajracharya, A. S., Crotty, B. H., Kowaloff, H. B., Safran, C., & Slack, W. V. (2015). Improving health care proxy documentation using a web-based interview through a patient portal. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, ocv133.

Otte-Trojel, T., Rundall, T. G., de Bont, A., van de Klundert, J., & Reed, M. E. (2015). The organizational dynamics enabling patient portal impacts upon organizational performance and patient health: a qualitative study of Kaiser Permanente. BMC health services research, 15(1), 559.

Shortliffe, E. H., & Cimino, J. J. (Eds.). (2013). Biomedical informatics: computer applications in health care and biomedicine. Springer Science & Business Media.

Street, R. L., Gold, W. R., & Manning, T. R. (2013). Health promotion and interactive technology: Theoretical applications and future directions. Routledge.

Wildevuur, S. E., & Simonse, L. W. (2015). Information and communication technology–enabled person-centered care for the “big five” chronic conditions: scoping review. Journal of medical Internet research, 17(3), e77.