ONC Data Brief: Few Hospitals See Patients Active with Portal Use

Although nearly all hospitals provided patients with the ability to electronically view and download their health information in 2017, most of the organizations had fewer than 25 percent of patients activate access to the hospital’s patient portal.

The latest information on health IT progress comes from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT’s (ONC) April 2019 Data Brief, which examined electronic capabilities for patient engagement among U.S. non-federal acute care hospitals from 2013 to 2017.

The data brief showed the percent of hospitals that provided patients with the ability to view/download/transmit (VDT) increased seven-fold from 2013 to 2015. However, VDT rates did not significantly change from 2015 to 2017, and in 2017, about 3 in 4 hospitals provided patients with the ability to transmit their health information.

Although nearly all hospitals provided patients with the ability to view their health information, small, rural and critical access hospital (CAHs) lagged behind their counterparts. About 5 percent fewer CAHs and small hospitals provided patients with the ability to download their health information compared to non-CAHs and medium and large hospitals, respectively.

Meanwhile, as it relates to patient portals, few hospitals (8  percent or less) reported that 50 percent or more of patients activated access to their patient portal. On average, four in 10 hospitals reported that 0 to 9 percent of patients activated their patient portal.

Also in 2017, four in 10 hospitals reported offering their patients access to their health information using an application programming interface (API). This is a noteworthy finding, as starting in 2019, hospitals participating in the government’s Promoting Interoperability program must provide patients with the ability to use a third-party app of their choice to access their patient health information electronically. Prior ONC analysis revealed that 82 percent of hospitals have  a  vendor  with  products  that  meet  the  2015 Edition API criteria  available.

In 2017, the capabilities most frequently available to patients were: family members or caregiver  access on behalf of the patient (86 percent), pay bills online (82 percent), and request amendments to their health record(79 percent).

Between 2013 and 2017 the percentage of hospitals that provided patients with the ability to request prescription refills and request amendments to their health records increased by 27 and 46 percent respectively, the data showed.