Ophthalmology Patient Portal and Online Communication Editorial

Build It and They Will Come

Are you an ophthalmology practice thinking about how to engage more of your customers in the online world? Have you been thinking about a patient portal? Have you held back because you feel that your customers are not of the cyber space age group?

Well don’t believe it. The 65+ age group is the fastest growing group of users of the internet. Also, remember that this age group has children, like you and me, which are already heavy users of the internet and desire convenience.

If you build a patient interface or portal on your website, patients will use it. At the end of January, we launched our patient portal or On Line Clinic using the Sage Portal engine. The very first day we had six patients with upcoming appointments create a secure account and complete the patient demographic and medical history information. We were amazed to say the least.

 Keith R. Froleiks, COE,
 CMA
 Practice Administrator
 
 Rockland Eye Physicians
 New York, NY

How did the patients find the portal? Why were they looking for it? Well this definitely shows that patients want a convenient way to communicate with their physicians. There has been a lot of hype over secure patient communication and in our case the patients were looking for this interface. We had no marketing or press releases announcing the launch, it was a soft launch. But right in the forefront of our home page was the section “My Online Clinic”. Our customers found it.

We have started pushing the online registration process since our launch a few weeks ago. Our appointment schedulers inform patients that they can save time by registering on line and how to find it. In addition, we have modified our appointment reminder message to include a statement about completing the information ahead of time so that you can save time in the office. A next step is to develop a VIP Check-in process for patients that have used the online clinic.

Remember that a solid back office support process is also a key to success. Team members must monitor the portal activity. Respond back to secure messages from customers in a timely manner. Oh yes, why do I call them customers? because they have a choice of ophthalmologists. This is no longer the late 1900s. You must win your patients. Ophthalmologists now need to treat their practice like a business and allocate some of their revenue towards technology and marketing. In the long run, a practice will benefit by creating operational efficiencies, increased appointment volumes and a more satisfied patient base.

One of our goals of the patient portal is to push the data entry from our front desk and clinical staff to our patients. The higher the acceptance rate of the patient portal, the more success of this labor reallocation will occur. We are currently working with Sophrona to directly interface the patient demographic information into our Patient Management Information System (PMIS). Once that is done, we will move on to the Medical History data getting imported into our Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system.

Gain the advantages of the online world and technology by developing your practice’s Patient Portal now. I think that you and your physicians will be pleased.

Keith R. Froleiks, COE, CMA
Practice Administrator
Rockland Eye Physicians
Email: keith@rocklandeye.com 

Quick Biography:
Keith is a seasoned manager with 18 years of operational experience managing cable television systems in the northeast and 7 years managing ophthalmology clinics. He is a Certified Management Accountant and holds the designation of Certified Ophthalmic Executive.