Impact of Patient Portal Messaging Reminders with Self-Scheduling Option on Influenza Vaccination Rates: a...

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Public Health
• Preventive Medicine

Background:

• Patient portals are increasingly used to enhance provider-patient communication.
• These platforms show potential for improving health outcomes and patient engagement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of automated patient portal messages and self-scheduling on influenza vaccination rates.
• To determine if enhanced communication strategies improve adherence to annual influenza vaccination.

Main Methods:

• A prospective, randomized, controlled study was conducted at an academic health center.
• Patients were assigned to three groups: portal message reminder, portal message with self-scheduling, or control (no message).
• Influenza vaccination rates were compared among groups for the 2019-2020 season.

Main Results:

• The group receiving portal messages with self-scheduling had a significantly higher vaccination rate (15.7%) compared to the control group (13.5%).
• The group receiving only portal messages also showed a significantly higher vaccination rate (15.1%) versus the control group (13.5%).
• No significant difference in vaccination rates was observed between the two intervention groups (message alone vs. message with self-scheduling).

Conclusions:

• Automated patient portal messaging is an effective strategy for increasing annual influenza vaccination rates.
• The addition of a self-scheduling option to portal messages does not yield a further increase in vaccination rates.
• Leveraging patient portals for reminders can improve preventive care uptake.