Patient experience using an electronic patient portal in a tertiary care setting: A cross-sectional study

Electronic patient portals provide a unique opportunity for people with cancer to access their health information and engage in their care. In 2022, our health system launched a patient portal. The purpose of this study was to investigate how a patient portal influences communication and patient experience in the radiation department of a tertiary cancer center. The objectives were (1) to describe the uptake of the portal and factors associated with portal use; (2) to evaluate the association between portal use and experience of communicating with the clinic; (3) to describe how the experience of communication with the clinic changed over time when compared to historical data.

This cross-sectional study collected patient experience data using the validated Your Voice Matters (YVM) survey in the radiotherapy department of a tertiary care centre. Recruitment of people with a cancer diagnosis undergoing radiation therapy occurred between April and October 2024. A logistic regression was used to evaluate demographic factors associated with portal use. A second model was constructed to evaluate portal use with patient reported experience. Experience with communication in this cohort was compared to prior years' YVM data.

Overall, 400 people completed the survey and of those 265 (66%) were portal users. Portal users were younger and had higher education. Portal users reported more positive experiences (90%) for how the clinic responded when compared to non-users (73%) (p = 0.005). Patients with breast cancer reported more positive experiences compared to the other tumor groups. Since the launch of the patient portal in 2022, patient experience has improved significantly in areas such as contacting the clinic (from 30% to 84%) and how the clinic responded (from 48% to 80%) (both, p < 0.001).

This study highlights that certain patient subgroups are more likely to use the portal and that those who use the portal are more likely to have better experiences communicating with the clinic.