Dataset Information

Benefits, Problems, and Potential Improvements in a Nationwide Patient Portal: Cross-sectional Survey of Pharmacy Customers' Experiences.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Patient engagement is a worldwide trend in health care. Patient portals have the potential to increase patients' knowledge about their health and care and therefore enhance patient engagement. Portal users' experiences are needed to determine if these portals work appropriately and if there are barriers to achieving the aims that were set before their implementation.

Objective

The aim of this study is to analyze pharmacy customers' experiences of the Finnish nationwide patient portal My Kanta in terms of benefits, problems, and potential improvements.

Methods

A questionnaire survey was conducted among pharmacy customers in the spring of 2019. The questionnaires (N=2866) were distributed from 18 community pharmacies across mainland Finland to customers aged ≥18 years who were purchasing prescription medicines for themselves or their children aged <18 years. Using open-ended questions, customers were asked about their experiences of the benefits and problems of My Kanta and what improvements could be made. Their responses were encoded and categorized using inductive content analysis, stored in SPSS Statistics for Windows, and analyzed using frequencies.

Results

Of the 2866 questionnaires, a total of 994 (34.68%) questionnaires were included in the analysis. Most respondents were My Kanta users (820/994, 82.5%); of these 820 users, 667 (81.3%) reported at least one benefit, 311 (37.9%) reported at least one problem, and 327 (39.9%) reported at least one potential improvement when using My Kanta. The most commonly mentioned benefits were opportunities to view health data (290/667, 43.5%) and prescriptions (247/667, 37%) and to renew prescriptions (220/667, 33%). The most extensively reported problems with My Kanta were that the portal lacks health data (71/311, 22.8%), navigating the service and searching for information is difficult (68/311, 21.9%), and the delay before health data are incorporated into the service (41/311, 13.2%). The most frequently suggested potential improvements were that My Kanta needs more comprehensive health data (89/327, 27.2%); the service should be easier to navigate and information easier to access (71/327, 21.7%); the service should have more functions (51/327, 15.6%); and health data should be entered into the portal more promptly (47/327, 14.4%).

Conclusions

Pharmacy customers reported more benefits than problems or potential improvements regarding the use of My Kanta. The service is useful for viewing health data and prescriptions and for renewing prescriptions. However, portal users would like to see more data and functions available in the portal and data searches to be made easier. These improvements could make the data and functions provided by the portal easier to view and use and hence promote patient engagement.

SUBMITTER: Saaskilahti M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8600438 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BackgroundPatient portals have been introduced in several countries in the last few decades. Despite worldwide objectives of introducing patient portals, nationwide portals are rare, and studies about their use are limited. Finland is one of the forerunners in developing nationwide health data systems. A nationwide patient portal, My Kanta, for viewing electronic prescriptions and health data has been phased in, starting in 2010.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to investigate what functions Finnish pharmacy customers use in My Kanta, their perceptions of the service's usability, and how satisfied users are with My Kanta overall.MethodsIn spring 2019, questionnaires (N=2866) were distributed from 18 pharmacies of varying size across mainland Finland to adult pharmacy customers purchasing prescription medications for themselves or for their child under 18 years of age. Questions were asked about the use and usability of the patient portal by means of structured and Likert-scale questions. Statistical analyses included frequencies, means, medians, chi-square tests, Fisher exact tests, and Kruskal-Wallis tests.ResultsIn total, 994 completed questionnaires of 2866 delivered questionnaires (34.68%) were returned. The most-used My Kanta functions were browsing prescription information (781/802, 97.4%), records of health care visits (772/802, 96.3%), and results of laboratory tests and x-ray examinations (722/804, 89.8%). Most users (558/793, 70.4%) had also requested a prescription renewal using the service. My Kanta was perceived as easy to log into (772/816, 94.6%) and clear to view (709/808, 87.7%). Most users considered the service useful for monitoring their health information (753/813, 92.6%) and felt that it provides a good overall picture of the medications prescribed to them (711/813, 87.5%). The majority of users found the information recorded about them easy to understand (684/800, 85.5%). Of the users, 16.7% (135/807) disagreed with the statement that the information they were looking for was easy to find. Approximately two-thirds (501/814, 61.5%) of users did not know whether it is easy to view in which pharmacies and health care units their prescription information has been viewed, and over one-third (306/805, 38.0%) did not know whether it is easy to view in which health care units their health information has been processed. Approximately one-fifth of participants (181/805, 22.5%) feared that unauthorized persons might view their information and that their electronically saved prescription and health information might disappear (180/810, 22.2%). In addition, 16.1% (129/799) expressed interest in receiving guidance on My Kanta use. The vast majority of users (719/804, 89.4%) were satisfied with the service overall.ConclusionsPharmacy customers were satisfied with the nationwide patient portal. It was mostly used for browsing e-prescriptions and medical records. Overall, the usability of the service was good. However, users need to be better informed about data privacy and security issues, and guidance on using the portal needs to be improved.

Project description:BACKGROUND:One of the forerunners in electronic health, Finland has introduced electronic prescriptions (ePrescriptions) nationwide by law. This has led to significant changes for pharmacy customers. Despite the worldwide ambition to develop ePrescription services, there are few reports of nationally adopted systems and particularly on the experiences of pharmacy customers. OBJECTIVE:The aim of this study was to investigate Finnish pharmacy customers' (1) experiences with purchasing medicines with ePrescriptions; (2) experiences with renewing ePrescriptions and acting on behalf of someone else at the pharmacy; (3) ways in which customers keep up to date with their ePrescriptions; and (4) overall satisfaction with ePrescriptions. METHODS:Questionnaires were distributed to 2913 pharmacy customers aged ?18 years purchasing prescription medicines for themselves with an ePrescription in 18 community pharmacies across Finland in autumn 2015. Customers' experiences were explored with 10 structured questions. The data were stored in SPSS for Windows and subjected to descriptive analysis, chi-square, Fisher exact, Kolmogorov-Smirnov, the Mann-Whitney U, and Kruskal-Wallis tests. RESULTS:Completed questionnaires were returned by 1288 customers, a response rate of 44.19% (1288/2913). The majority of the respondents did not encounter any problems during pharmacy visits (1161/1278, 90.85%) and were informed about the current status of their ePrescriptions after their medication was dispensed (1013/1276, 79.44%). Over half of the respondents had usually received a patient instruction sheet from their physician (752/1255, 59.92%), and nearly all of them regarded its content as clear (711/724, 98.2%). Half of the respondents had renewed their ePrescriptions through the pharmacy (645/1281, 50.35%), and one-third of them had acted on behalf of someone else with ePrescriptions (432/1280, 33.75%). Problems were rarely encountered in the renewal process (49/628, 7.8%) or when acting on behalf of another person (25/418, 6.0%) at the pharmacy. The most common way of keeping up to date with ePrescriptions was to ask at the pharmacy (631/1278, 49.37%). The vast majority of the respondents were satisfied with ePrescriptions as a whole (1221/1274, 95.84%). CONCLUSIONS:Finnish pharmacy customers are satisfied with the recently implemented nationwide ePrescription system. They seldom have any difficulties purchasing medicines, renewing their ePrescriptions, or acting on behalf of someone else at the pharmacy. Customers usually keep up to date with their ePrescriptions by asking at the pharmacy. However, some customers are unaware of the practices or have difficulty keeping up to date with the status of their ePrescriptions. The provision of relevant information and assistance by health care professionals is therefore required to promote customers' adoption of the ePrescription system.

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