Greetings!: Medical Portals

Saturday, February 16, 2019

Medical Portals

Portal - noun
1 a doorway, gate, or other entrance, esp. a large and elaborate one.
2 Computing - an Internet site providing access or links to other sites.

Today the term portal has been applied to medical practices and their internet sites on which one can gather information about future appointments, summaries of previous visits, test results, meds and a variety of important information. I use ours quite frequently.
But there are some problems associated with medical portals. A major one is that in many cases practices have their own portals and aren't linked to those of others. For example, we have two portals for LGH, two for our family practice, two for our urological group, one for Women's and Babies practice, two for our eye doctor, and one for my foot doctor. I think that is ten different medical portals, all with their own required passwords and information. And there is no sharing of results with other portals and that is both inconvenient and sad.
The best of our portals are those with Lancaster General Hospital. Of course they have the money and many area practices are now under their umbrella. We like it because it is fast, up to date, and complete. For example, we can go to one of their main labs for blood work and sometimes the results will be posted on the portal an hour or two later. In contrast, our family practice will often take four or five days to show the results. My wife and I both had the same blood tests done recently but at two different locations. We had the results on the LGH portal in two hours and on the family practice portal five days later.
Several of the portals have links to our particular doctors and most times the doctors or their nurses readily answer our questions and give us advice online. We have used this feature extensively especially in situations where we needed some quick advice when appointments were difficult to get. Of course one of our specialists refuses to do this because he doesn't get paid for it. Last week we made three contacts with three of our doctors by sending messages on the portal. We received answers from all three within two days, one on the portal and two others by telephone.
The portals can also be very helpful in reviewing results and recommendations from previous visits and also for checking on refills of meds. The same can be true about comparing previous test results. In some cases you can even graph the results as a comparison.
While I am bothered about the speed of some of the portals, the poor organization, and the lack of information on some, generally they work well. However, I have really been disappointed with one feature on my favorite portal, LGH. Future appointments are listed and you are asked to confirm them by going through four or five screens of information about you, your meds, your conditions, your allergies, your pharmacy, the reasons for your visit and other details. I get particularly annoyed about a Medicare screen which continues to ask me about the date of my retirement which certainly doesn't change between visits. And finally, when you approve each screen, you are then asked to submit the report and confirm your visit. If you have 30 consecutive visits as I do with pulmonary rehab, you must do this for each of the 30 visits. Now why couldn't some of the data, such as my date of retirement, be stored? Oh yes, and when I finally actually check in at some of the the practices, I am often again asked the very same questions even though I had confirmed them online as requested. What a waste of my time.
I guess with any new use of technology there are pros and cons. I generally like the portals. I just wish they could all be combined into one portal and that they could be more efficient in the questions they ask and information they collect.
I also wonder how folks who don't have computers adjust to these changes. And there are still many people who don't have them. Of course, we are beginning to face such pressure since we refuse to buy a smart phone and more and more things require one. But my $29 a month cell phone still meets our needs. But with all the changes we may soon be forced to "bite the bullet" and change, even though that will be very difficult to afford on our fixed income. But the wonders and applications of technology march on despite the financial challenges that some of us must face
However there are greater wonders than technology that we live with each day of our lives.

(1) There's the wonder at sunset at evening

The wondrous sunrise I see

But the wonder of wonders that thrills my soul

Is the wonder that God loves me

The wonder of it all

Just to think that God loves me

Oh the wonder of it all

The wonder of it all

Just to think that God loves me

(2) There's the wonder of spring time and harvest

The sky, the stars, the sun

But the wonder of wonders that thrills my soul