Patient Portals - the latest, useless medical nonsense.

What portal?  Summit Health uses Athena and I've found it to be pretty good.

Agree that Athena is pretty good but I generally avoid looking at the test results they post.  I don't understand what I'm reading and when specific items are out of the normal range, it scares me.   If there is something wrong, I expect to hear from the doctor.  

Our doc uses HotDoc, I really only confirm my appointments on there.  The other nearby practice uses UpDoc which is apparently really good for Telehealth.  
I also check Medline Plus website for basic medical info - not as much as before RFK Jnr started changing definitions etc. Hope you find that helpful.

jamie said:

What portal?  Summit Health uses Athena and I've found it to be pretty good.

Atlantic's "My Chart."  When I visit a new provider and they ask for email, I explain to the clerk that I am being  treated for high blood pressure and since patient portals raise my blood pressure, It is not a good idea for me to sign up.

The clerk moves on to the next question.

When my doc left Atlantic Health, I stayed with the office so I could keep MyChart because it's so simple. So YMMV.

I've had two Surgeries in the last 3 years at Overlook (Atlantic Health) that have involved multiple docs, pre-surgery tests, after surgery tests, different post-op specialists, even PT, etc. The MyChart app has been a true gift in helping me schedule everything, get quick test results and doc summaries of appointments, and what's next. I was skeptical at first, but now I'm a true fan.  

I love MyChart.  They do text a lot but I've gotten used to it.  In the beginning I didn't like it.  But now a different story. You can see doctor visits and their notes on visit.  One doctor that I did not like put a sarcastic note in the portal and it just confirmed my dislike of him.  You can check test results and view upcoming appointments.  I think it's user friendly.  That being said, my eye doctor has one that is useless for me.  But for him it's very useful because people can pay online.  I think that's the only reason he got it 😂.  But if you don't like all that online "stuff" definitely opt as it can be frustrating navigating through their systems.  I get it.   

Formerlyjerseyjack said:

They are presented as a link to viewing your latest health information.

So ya open up the link, waste time trying to remember your login info and BEHOLD ! A screen full of Latin words and related numbers - as useless as the Fox channel on my TV.

What we need instead, are brief statements to interpret the data for us:

Like - Ok to go roller skating today.

or,

"Better stay in bed.

or, 

"You're ....d"

There's a link on My Chart which translates from the Latin of Ceaser's Gallic Wars to "just make sure you don't drop your camera."

I use MyChart. Overall, it's pretty good. It's not good for scheduling appointments for my doctors. I have to call directly for most of them. I like getting all the results quickly, but some of the doctors take a long time to add their analysis.  Being able to compare test results over the years from all of my physicals is very beneficial.

In Hong Kong, the public system has a really good app. 

No worries about premiums, no weirdos in charge of the nation's health pretending to be doctors, no defunding or belittling science. 

I wish they all used MyChart and I wish those would all join the (EPIC?) system that allows you to access all of your MyChart accounts from a single initial login page.  I have Athena with my Summit Health docs and MyChart with Atlantic Health, RWJ Barnabas, and NYU. But NYU isn't in EPIC.  That being said, I do like those systems in general although I wish that all the docs (or their staffs) would do patient messaging and online appointment requests, which are apparently optional features. Also, most of the appointment notes are fairly useless. I wonder if they are hesitant to provide all that information that they tell you verbally. (I do try to take notes.) Hopefully they will evolve further over time in some of these aspects.

EMR allows a physician to upcode (and thus receive payment he’s not entitled to) more easily than when he had to write the false words with his own hand. Checking a box; cutting and pasting. Quick and easy. Less impactful on the conscience than when pen and paper are used. 

Patient portals allow the patient to easily see any falsehoods (false documentation) his physician may attest to.

In the past, if you saw a CPT code on your EOB that didn’t match what you knew your physician did, you would have to request the medical record for that visit (as the first step to setting the record straight, and helping preserve the Medicare trust fund) from the provider.  I imagine this discouraged many patients from proceeding.

But now, it’s right there in the patient portal. So no, JJ, I don’t find it useless. 

What I’ve seen as a patient is that in the Epic system, physicians can edit/delete entries they made in the medical record without leaving any evidence (at least evidence visible to the patient) that they have done so. Not that long ago, that was verboten.   

It brings to mind DJT’s reliance on couriers and paper. But then again, documentation in the past could have been removed from the hospital record 3 ring binder surreptitiously.