Impact of Patient Portal Use on Duplicate Laboratory Tests in Diabetes Management
- PMID: 32045320
- DOI: 10.1089/tmj.2019.0237
Impact of Patient Portal Use on Duplicate Laboratory Tests in Diabetes Management
Abstract
Background: Patients seek care across multiple health care settings. One coordination issue is the unnecessary duplication of laboratory across different health care settings. This analysis examined the association between patient portal use and duplication of laboratory testing among Veterans who are dual users of Veterans Affairs (VA) and non-VA providers. Materials and Methods: A national sample of Veterans who were newly authenticated users of the portal during fiscal year (FY) 2013 who used Blue Button at least once were compared with a random sample of Veterans who were not registered to use the portal. From these two groups, Veterans who were also Medicare-eligible users in FY2014 were identified. Duplicate testing was defined as receipt of more than five HbA1c (hemoglobin A1c) in 1 year. Results: Use of the Blue Button decreased the odds of duplicate HbA1c testing in VA and Medicare-covered facilities across three comparisons: (1) overall between users and nonusers: portal users were less likely to have duplicate testing; (2) pre-post comparison: there was a trend toward lower duplicate testing in both groups across time; and (3) pre-post comparisons accounting for use of the portal: the trend toward lower duplicate testing was greater in Blue Button users. Conclusion: Duplicate HbA1c testing was significantly lower in dual users of VA and Medicare services who used the Blue Button feature of their VA patient portal. Non-VA providers encounter barriers to access of complete information about Veterans who also use VA health care. Provider endorsement of consumer-mediated health information exchange could help further this model of sharing information.
Keywords: Veterans; diabetes; electronic health records; health information exchange; patient portals; telemedicine.
Similar articles
-
Web-based patient portal use and medication overlap from VA and private-sector pharmacies among older veterans.J Manag Care Spec Pharm. 2021 Aug;27(8):983-994. doi: 10.18553/jmcp.2021.27.8.983. J Manag Care Spec Pharm. 2021. PMID: 34337984
-
Blue Button use by patients to access and share health record information using the Department of Veterans Affairs' online patient portal.J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2014 Jul-Aug;21(4):657-63. doi: 10.1136/amiajnl-2014-002723. Epub 2014 Apr 16. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2014. PMID: 24740865 Free PMC article.
-
Patient Education for Consumer-Mediated HIE. A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial of the Department of Veterans Affairs Blue Button.Appl Clin Inform. 2016 Aug 3;7(3):765-76. doi: 10.4338/ACI-2016-01-RA-0014. Appl Clin Inform. 2016. PMID: 27484821 Free PMC article. Clinical Trial.
-
Use of the Blue Button Online Tool for Sharing Health Information: Qualitative Interviews With Patients and Providers.J Med Internet Res. 2015 Aug 18;17(8):e199. doi: 10.2196/jmir.4595. J Med Internet Res. 2015. PMID: 26286139 Free PMC article.
-
Evidence Brief: The Quality of Care Provided by Advanced Practice Nurses.2014 Sep. In: VA Evidence Synthesis Program Evidence Briefs [Internet]. Washington (DC): Department of Veterans Affairs (US); 2011–. 2014 Sep. In: VA Evidence Synthesis Program Evidence Briefs [Internet]. Washington (DC): Department of Veterans Affairs (US); 2011–. PMID: 27606392 Free Books & Documents. Review.
Cited by 4 articles
-
Implementation Strategies to Improve Engagement With a Multi-Institutional Patient Portal: Multimethod Study.J Med Internet Res. 2021 Oct 28;23(10):e28924. doi: 10.2196/28924. J Med Internet Res. 2021. PMID: 34709195 Free PMC article.
-
Patient portal engagement and diabetes management among new portal users in the Veterans Health Administration.J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2021 Sep 18;28(10):2176-2183. doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocab115. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2021. PMID: 34339500 Free PMC article.
-
Sustaining Patient Portal Continuous Use Intention and Enhancing Deep Structure Usage: Cognitive Dissonance Effects of Health Professional Encouragement and Security Concerns.Inf Syst Front. 2021 Jun 21:1-14. doi: 10.1007/s10796-021-10161-5. Online ahead of print. Inf Syst Front. 2021. PMID: 34177359 Free PMC article.
-
Patient and Provider Experience of Electronic Patient Portals and Secure Messaging in Mental Health Treatment.Telemed J E Health. 2022 Feb;28(2):189-198. doi: 10.1089/tmj.2020.0395. Epub 2021 Apr 21. Telemed J E Health. 2022. PMID: 33887164
Publication types
MeSH terms
Grant support
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources
Medical