Abstract
BackgroundHealth care personnel’s (HCP) engagement in patient portal implementation is necessary in embedding the use of the portal in everyday practices of a health care organization. While portal implementation may raise personnel’s positive expectations of the benefits in patient care, it is often also stressful for them due to increased workloads and disruptions in clinical workflows. An understanding of social and technical factors that build personnel’s support for patient portal implementation and alleviate their eHealth-related stress is therefore needed to realize the full potential of portals.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to explore the influence of managerial implementation practices, information technology (IT) usability, and personnel’s eHealth competences on support for patient portal implementation and eHealth-related stress among primary HCP.MethodsThe data were collected through a survey of 919 members at 2 health organizations in Finland. Linear and logistic regression models were fitted to study the associations between the variables.ResultsProfessionals’ eHealth competence (β=.15, P<.001), usability (β=.11, P<.001), and implementation practices (β=.07, P<.001) were positively associated with professionals’ support and negatively associated with professionals eHealth-related stress (β=−.07, P=.010; β=−.27, P<.001; and β=−.14, P<.001, respectively). Professionals’ support was associated with their promotion of the portal to the patients (odds ratio 1.22, 95% CI 1.07-1.40).ConclusionsThe adoption of appropriate implementation practices and the usability of the technology can build personnel’s support for a patient portal and alleviate their stress related to eHealth. Personnel’s support is manifested in their promotion of the portal to patients. Health care managers are encouraged to consider the usability of the technology and the good implementation practices, such as proper informing, engagement of the personnel in planning the services, and allocation of resources to improve eHealth competence, as prerequisites for meaningful and sustainable use of patient portals.
Highlights
BackgroundPatient portals provide online access to personal health information and interactions with health care providers
Success of the implementation relies on how the health care personnel (HCP), together with the patients, use the portal [6,7]
Building on recent sociotechnical research on the technical and organizational factors in successful health information technology (HIT) adoption and use [7,29,30,31], this study investigated the associations of (1) Health care personnel (HCP)’s perception of organizational implementation practices and (2) patient portal usability with their support for the technology and their eHealth-related stress
Summary
BackgroundPatient portals provide online access to personal health information and interactions with health care providers. HCP’s effort in making sense of the portal utility together with colleagues and patients is necessary for the normalization of the use [7,8,9]. Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the influence of managerial implementation practices, information technology (IT) usability, and personnel’s eHealth competences on support for patient portal implementation and eHealth-related stress among primary HCP. Conclusions: The adoption of appropriate implementation practices and the usability of the technology can build personnel’s support for a patient portal and alleviate their stress related to eHealth. Health care managers are encouraged to consider the usability of the technology and the good implementation practices, such as proper informing, engagement of the personnel in planning the services, and allocation of resources to improve eHealth competence, as prerequisites for meaningful and sustainable use of patient portals
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