Characteristics of Patient Portal Usage by Pediatric Emergency Patients

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Emergency Medicine
• Health Informatics
• Patient Engagement

Background:

• Patient portals are increasingly integrated into healthcare delivery.
• Understanding patient and encounter characteristics associated with portal usage is crucial for optimizing engagement in pediatric emergency settings.
• Previous research has not fully detailed portal function utilization within the pediatric emergency department (PED) context.

Purpose of the Study:

• To characterize patient and encounter factors differentiating patient portal users from nonusers in a PED.
• To evaluate the usage patterns of specific patient portal functions among users in a PED.

Main Methods:

• A retrospective analysis of 29,881 patients (up to 21 years) at an urban, tertiary care PED.
• Logistic regression was used to identify variables associated with portal usage.
• Analysis of portal function utilization relative to the PED encounter timing.

Main Results:

• Nearly half (48.4%) of patients were portal users.
• Factors associated with increased portal usage included multiple prior PED visits, multiple admissions, longer PED length of stay (>6 hours), and Hispanic ethnicity.
• Non-English primary language and male sex were associated with decreased portal usage.
• 17% of users accessed results during the PED visit, while 67% accessed them within 7 days post-visit.

Conclusions:

• Significant differences exist between patient portal users and nonusers in the PED, related to demographics, prior healthcare utilization, and visit severity.
• Patient portal adoption and usage patterns vary widely.
• Portals serve as a key tool for post-visit information retrieval, particularly for laboratory and imaging results, rather than for real-time access during the acute care encounter.