The Patient Portal: Reasonably Accommodating or Not? | Written By: Carrie Elizabeth Johnson, Paralegal Student

Carrie E. Johnson | Results from Free Online Paralegal Test 

EDI Distance Learning Initiative

Published Article Submission

July 22, 2024

The Patient Portal: Reasonably Accommodating or Not?

The patient portal is an electronic discovery tool being implemented into many healthcare facilities to meet the growing needs of working adults, gig workers, college students and single parents. A patient portal can be described as a secure online website that is accessible to its patients 24 hours a day from virtually anywhere that the internet is readily available. What is being stored in the patient portal is the electronic health records of patients that are being seen at local hospitals, doctors’ offices or the neighborhood clinics. An average of about 90% of the healthcare systems have started offering access to electronic health records through patient portals within the United States, as being reported by the National Library of Medicine. This article will discuss both the advantages and disadvantages when using patient portals in the healthcare system with a personalized touch from the author and writer of this article, as she shares her experience with the patient portal in the legal profession and what individuals can hope for in the future advancements through digital access of protected health information.

One of the more noticeable advantages for using this electronic discovery tool, such as the patient portal is the eco-friendly progression in eliminating the need to print hardcopies and lessening the travel time required by either the patient or the patient’s legal representation to obtain hardcopies of an individuals protected health records within a healthcare facility. The time saving tactic of waiting in line at the records departments becomes less egregious by using the online patient portal to access electronic health records for Rule 26(f) meet and confer, as a busy litigant responsible for disclosing certain medical records in an automobile accident case. Although healthcare workers appear to be one of the busier professions, the ability to utilize the patient portal for scheduling around the gig workers, young college students or single parent’s busy schedules is another advantage when using this electronic discovery tool. Equipped with many functionalities, the patient portal allows individuals to do e-check-in’s ahead of their appointments that saves’ both the patient and healthcare staff less time in filling out paperwork. Text communications is sent right to a patient’s phone that allows the patient to cancel an appointment if something comes up on short notice or when to confirm an appointment is still on schedule.

With improvements in the use of patient portals, as a discovery tool in the healthcare and legal profession, there is a lack of patient education and the need for continuous on-going training amongst both healthcare staff and their patients is among one of the disadvantages of this eDiscovery tool. There is very little communication between the healthcare workers and patients, due to the doctor’s busy work schedules and limited time in patient’s visits to explain the many useful features in the patient portal outside of obtaining their electronic health records; there is a medical library and videos to inform the patient on a recent diagnosis. After a doctors’ visit with a painful diagnosis delivered, it usually leaves the patient frantic and confused until their next visit. Secondly, the feature inside of Epic’s Patient Portal, is the ability to merge patient portals with their affiliate hospitals that is another disadvantage to this eDiscovery tool, as it lessens the chance of holding each hospital and their healthcare workers accountable for medical negligence or discriminatory practices that are inherently present in the State of Massachusetts healthcare industry and clinical research studies [self-defense & defense for my daughter only]that opposing healthcare workers may perceive as an interference with either the diagnosis or treatment of their patients.

As the writer of this article with a college major in paralegal studies at Riverside City College, I have encountered both discriminatory practices and medical negligence at two offending hospitals in the City of Boston. Prior to my previous established clinical visits inside of Boston Medical Center STI Clinic, I was placed on a temporary assignment through Snap Chef, Inc. in 2017, as a line server. The duties and responsibilities that were associated with this line server position, entailed the placement of food on plates based on the dietary needs of patients on each floor of Boston Medical Center, delivery of those food carts on each patient floor, unloading of the food carts, before placing the dirty dishes in the dishwasher and returning them to their proper storage space within the hospital. Working alongside an unfamiliar racial demographic that neither black nor white native Bostonians mentioned to me was the Cape Verdeans that are similar in my skin color but was difficult to work with in such tight shared working conditions. Next, I would encounter intentional medical negligence by a MGH doctor on a 2018, ER visit for dehydration by a French-immigrant that could easily pass for a Black American doctor with a discriminatory diagnosis that one could assume was based on the address of the pick-up location, upon arrival to the local hospital.

The future developments in the eDiscovery tool being used in many healthcare facilities, such as the patient portal; one can only hope for further improvements rather than distractive disadvantages with the use of the patient portal implementation that will make more reasonable accommodations for all working professionals that are trying to prioritize work, on-going education and family obligations that are mutually beneficial to all. As for the legal profession, the accessibility of the digitally stored protected health information that assists the attorneys in the oral presentation of some of the simpler on-job work-related injuries in the hearings with the Department of Industrial Accidents to the more complicated legal representation of a licensee that is being accused of medical negligence within the scope of their practice, during a trial hearing that resulted in either the death or injury of a patient. Further strengthening workers defense when documenting pre-existing medical conditions, the patient portal shows written letters or test results that can be reproduced to employers at any time in the absence of a doctor’s note and use of telehealth appointments during a worker’s lunch break, all prove to be beneficial to the working poor that everyone can gain something from the use of the patient portal.

 

Works Cited

Using Electronic Health Record Portals to Improve Patient Engagement: Research Priorities and Best Practices

Lyles CR;Nelson EC;Frampton S;Dykes PC;Cemballi AG;Sarkar U;

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32479176/