What Are Patient Portals And Factors To Consider When Getting One Developed

Key Takeaways

• A good patient portal must have a minimum feature set that includes appointment scheduling, asynchronous chats (doctors respond when they are available), and the collection of medical records.
• Software development for patient portals entails creating various programs. We should prioritize developing patient-focused websites and mobile applications, but we should also roll out provider-facing technologies.
• According to our experience, companies creating unique patient portals have the greatest success with their offerings since they ideally complement existing workflows.

Patient portals have exploded in popularity over the past few years with the adoption of technology for medical records. Regardless of their size or area of expertise, healthcare businesses are searching for the best patient portal development organization to create one.

Patient portals are frequently employed to raise the standard of care given to patients. It makes it possible for doctors and patients to communicate more effectively. It improves the patient-physician bond and gives people more say in how they are treated.

Information is available to patients wherever and whenever they need it. They may handle delinquent amounts, update insurance information, check lab results, manage prescriptions, and more. In order to stay on top of health measures, a survey found that patient portal software is 90% adopted in the healthcare industry.

In order to digitize important components of the medical workflow, healthcare officials increasingly promote the usage of multipurpose healthcare portals. Additionally, administrative and clinical tasks are managed using portals. It enables patients to interact more actively with their care team.

This post will define a patient portal in detail and explain how to choose the best patient portal development company for your enterprise. We’ll go through everything you should understand before buying a patient portal. We’ll also talk about:

What are patient portals?

A web and/or mobile application called an online patient portal is designed to facilitate seamless communication and interaction between healthcare and a patient. A patient can save time and effort while also benefiting the hospital with the use of this program.

Two different kinds of patient portal exist:

A standalone response

In this instance, a patient portal contains only a few functionalities and is not linked to any other hospital-related systems. Simple interactions like making payments and booking appointments are handled with this technology.

Patient portal with integration

A medical billing system and electronic health record (EHR) are combined into this more complicated solution. Although this kind of patient portal software costs more to develop, the hospital gains more advantages because more administrative tasks can be automated.

Patient portal benefits for medical practice

The portal aims to address the administrative problems associated with patient management. Patient portals have a number of advantages. The following are the key benefits of patient portals for medical facilities.

• Assist healthcare administration in their duties. Your hospital’s support staff may be your medical patient software. The software enables your patients to handle problems independently, lessening the administrative burden on your healthcare providers.
• Boost the dialogue between the patient and the medical staff. Additionally, your hospital portal software, particularly if it uses artificial intelligence, can serve as a potent communication tool (AI). AI-driven chatbots integrated into patient portals may assist patients in managing their insurance claims, reminding them to make payments, sharing self-care advice, and setting up appointments automatically.
• Assist in the growth of telemedicine. Custom patient portal solutions have a 90% adoption rate in the US, but there are still problems, according to study. If your hospital has never employed this solution, now is a terrific time to do so. By using patient portal best practices, you can create a fantastic solution that will benefit your patients, streamline your in-hospital operations, and produce high-quality medical data.
• Eliminate medical blunders. There is always a chance of misunderstanding when a manager or nurse speaks with patients on the phone. The patient can autonomously control the scheduling of consultation appointments through the medical portal, ask questions about the operation, and get prompt responses.

When Should You Opt For Custom Patient Portal Development?

Partnering with experts in healthcare software development for a bespoke software solution would always have an edge over off the shelf software. You should consider opt for custom development of patient portal if you are looking for the following. 

• Integrating the portal with various systems, especially legacy ones (such as hospital department systems, CRM, EHR/EMR, like marketing automation tools, RIS (Radiology Imaging System) etc.).
• Providing branded user interfaces that may be challenging or impossible to customize with out-of-the-box software features.
• Utilizing cutting-edge patient engagement strategies (e.g., gamification elements, such as social media sharing options, achievements).
• Including telehealth capabilities, such as e-visits, to provide care for patients remotely.

How to develop a patient portal?

Step-by-step guide to getting started with patient portal development:

• Decide who your target market is. It makes sense to create such a portal when the vast majority of your patients are tech-savvy (i.e. Millennials and Generation Z). And over 90% of medical providers offer this service; however, only a third of patients actually utilize the medical portal, according to the survey mentioned above. If a hospital or clinic mostly treats elderly patients who are not tech-savvy, there may not be a need for the solution among the target demographic.
• Observe the priorities of your patients. The scheduling of doctor consultations is the most frequently requested function of patient portal systems, per the same research. Millennials will also value the opportunity to pay for services via the app and the ability to know the price of services in advance.
• Remember the prerequisites for the patient portal. Your hospital’s patient management software needs to comply with HIPAA. Additionally, you must adhere to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), which consists of 12 security standards, if you plan to include payment capabilities.
• Analyze the portal’s effectiveness. Development of a healthcare online portal alone is insufficient. Utilizing indicators and data comparison, you should distinctly assess its efficacy. For instance, data analysis can be used to determine how much time your doctors have saved by using a pre-visit form.
• Take data security into consideration. The value of medical data exceeds that of all other types of data on the black market. Data protection is a concern for patients. Along with seriously securing your system, you also need to persuade your users of its security.
• Find a partner in software development. It can be difficult to decide which software suppliers to choose for patient portals. We advise beginning with a business with prior medical development experience to identify your present issues and how portal technology in healthcare can help you address them.

What is the cost of patient portal development?

The size of the team engaged, the technologies chosen, and the time needed for implementation all affect how much it will cost to construct a patient portal.

Development Team

A project manager, two to three developers, and a QA specialist are often needed to create a simple patient portal with a few key features.

In the United States, hiring a coder is pricey. A front-end developer can earn up to $105K annually, or at least $8K each month.

This kind of assignment typically lasts between two and three months. For a period of three months, hiring three independent devs will run you at least $70-80K. In  order to include a project manager and QA engineers in the process, pay should also be added.

It will be less expensive to hire a group of remote developers. The minimum monthly wage for developers offshore at the same competency levels is $2,500–3,500, so hiring the same staff may run you $30–40,000.

Please be aware that we are discussing an approximation of manpower costs for a small team working alone. Please get in touch with us for additional information if you require more precise figures, such as an estimated cost of the entire project. 

Timeframe for the Project

Execution of a project can take anywhere between three and six months, based on the technological profile and the strength of the team.

By integrating ready solutions from patient portal software providers, various libraries, and open-source catalogs via API integration and proper setup of those components, the project’s duration can be kept to a minimum.

At the same time, senior software engineers will need more time to work on a highly personalized patient interface with many unique solutions. This will significantly raise the price of development.

It can cost between $40 and $60K to develop a moderately complicated patient portal software project, and projects typically last between three and six months.

Patient portal software features

While the list of the patient portal features that you could choose to integrate within your software is long, here are the core features that the users most commonly look for. 

1. Booking appointments. One of the most requested patient portal features is this one. Patients wish to use it for seamless planning 77% of the time.

2. Accessing health-related data. Your patients can access their lab test results, examine their medical history, and view changes in treatment with the help of this function.

3. Paying for and viewing bills. Patients will be able to pay for services or submit insurance claims more easily if your patient portal software is linked to your medical billing system.

4. Completing forms ahead of time. Doctors interview patients for 10 to 20 minutes about their general health, immunizations, allergies, and concerns. Doctors can save this time (which could be 1-2 working hours per day) by completing a pre-visit form and responding to patient inquiries online.

5. Sending messages that are HIPAA-secured. The communication that a patient has with a chatbot should be encrypted for security purposes. Furthermore, web portal software development must adhere to HIPAA regulations.

Conclusion

Are you experiencing trouble locating a collaborator for the creation of an app for the patient portal? Arkenea is available to assist. You can be guided in developing an efficient and interesting portal that can streamline the procedures at your hospital by using our experience in developing medical apps and tips that have been tested in the real world. Reach out to us to learn how we may help you.