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Improving Patient Portal Activation for Newborns in the Well Baby Nursery
Sheetal Sriraman1,2, Reem Saadoon3, Risa Bochner4
1Department of Pediatrics, State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate Health Sciences University, Brooklyn, New York.
Insights
Patient portal activation for newborns significantly increased after quality improvement interventions, with most parents finding the tool useful for managing appointments and test results. This enhances patient engagement in early pediatric care.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Health Informatics
- Quality Improvement in Healthcare
- Patient Engagement Strategies
Background:
- Patient portals offer parents access to child health data and provider communication.
- Improving newborn patient portal activation during nursery stays is crucial for early engagement.
- This study aimed to boost newborn portal activation rates and identify usage facilitators and barriers.
Purpose of the Study:
- To significantly increase patient portal activation rates for newborns during nursery hospitalization.
- To identify key facilitators and barriers influencing patient portal utilization among new mothers.
- To assess the impact of portal use on healthcare appointment adherence.
Main Methods:
- Employed a mixed-methods approach combining quality improvement (QI) initiatives and cross-sectional analysis.
- Implemented interventions including an activation algorithm, staff huddles, and documentation templates.
- Conducted telephone interviews with mothers of infants to explore portal usage patterns and experiences.
Main Results:
- Portal activation surged from 12.9% to 85.4% following QI interventions.
- Among interviewed mothers, 70% used the portal, with 85.4% finding it beneficial for tasks like appointment checking.
- Lack of portal functionality knowledge was a primary barrier; portal users showed significantly lower no-show rates for appointments.
Conclusions:
- Quality improvement interventions effectively enhanced newborn patient portal activation rates in the nursery setting.
- The majority of parents actively used and found value in the patient portal.
- Patient portals demonstrate potential to improve healthcare delivery and foster patient engagement from the newborn period onwards.
Background:
Patient portals provide parents access to their child's health information and direct communication with providers. Our study aimed to improve portal activation rates of newborns during nursery hospitalization to >70% over 6 months. Secondarily, we describe the facilitators and barriers to portal use.
Methods:
The study design used a mixed-methodology framework of quality improvement (QI) and cross-sectional analyses. The Model for Improvement guided QI efforts. The primary outcome was the proportion of portals activated for newborns during nursery hospitalization. Interventions included portal activation algorithm, staff huddles, and documentation templates. Telephone interviews were conducted with a randomized sample of mothers of infants who activated the portal. These mothers were divided into portal "users" and "nonusers." We examined sociodemographic variables and health care utilization outcomes in the 2 groups.
Results:
Portal activation increased from 12.9% to 85.4% after interventions. Among 482 mothers with active portals, 127 (26.3%) were interviewed. Of those, 70% (89 of 127) reported using the portal, and 85.4% (76 of 89) found it useful. Reasons for accessing the portal included checking appointments and reviewing test results. Lack of knowledge of portal functionality was the main barrier to portal use (42.1%). Portal users were less likely to have a no-show to primary care appointments compared with nonusers (44.9% versus 78.9%, P < .001).
Conclusions:
Portal activation rates increased after QI interventions in the nursery. Most parents accessed the portal and found it useful. Portals can improve health care delivery and patient engagement in the newborn period.
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