Home Healthcare, Hospice, and Information Technology Innovations Conference

Innovations in Home Healthcare, Hospice, and Information Technology

A forum towards achieving evidence-based diffusion and implementation of innovations

Fri, Nov 3, 2017

Friday, Nov 3, 2017, Washington - D.C.

H3IT: Home Healthcare, Hospice, and Information Technology Conference Washington – D.C., 2014

Personal Health Information Management in Older

Adults: Use of Patient Portals

Anne Turner

, Katie Osterhage

, Andrea Hartzler

, George Demiris

nformation technologies for assisting older adults in managing their health information (e.g., patient portals)

have not been widely adopted, in part because they are developed without knowledge of what older adults want

and their health information management practices. The purpose of our AHRQ-funded SOARING (Studying

Older Adults and Researching Information Needs and Goals) Project is to investigate the personal health

information management goals, activities and practices of older adults in a variety of living environments. Findings will be

used to inform the design of tools which are tailored to the needs and health information management practices of older

adults.

Methods: We conducted 39 in-depth interviews with older adults whom we recruited from adult residential centers, assisted

living, and independent homes and apartments. We used a purposeful recruitment strategy to ensure diverse representation

of age, gender, socio-economic status, and racial and ethnic background. Inclusion criteria included age 60 years or older,

ability to speak and write English, lack of severe cognitive impairments, and ability to provide informed consent. Interviews

consisted of standardized surveys regarding demographics, overall health, social networks and use of technology, in addition

to open-ended questions concerning how participants manage their personal health information. Interviews focused on health

and personal health information management in general and did not focus on the use of speciﬁc technologies. We audio-

recorded, transcribed, and analyzed interviews for qualitative themes.

Results: Participants described information management styles ranging from complex systems for tracking medication

use and clinical visits to simply discarding all but the most critical personal health information. Seventy two percent of

participants (28/39) reported using a computer at least 2-3 days per week and 56% of participants (22/39) reported using

a computer 6-7 days per week. The majority of computer users reported accessing the Internet. A signiﬁcant number of

participants (8/39) mentioned their use of patient portals, deﬁned as a secure Website through which patients can access a

personal health record and often certain information from an electronic health record.

The ages of those eight participants

ranged from 73 to 93. By and large, those participants live independently, are well-educated, and represent middle to higher

incomes. The majority of participants using patient portals said they felt positive about the sp eciﬁc portal they use. A

majority of the patient portals mentioned were implementations of Epic MyChart™ (Epic Systems Corp, Verona, WI).

Speciﬁc discussion about patient p ortals generally focused on their usefulness and ease of use. Several participants mentioned

they have greatly reduced their own personal record keeping of health information because they access this information

through the patient portal. One participant reported that they used a portal brieﬂy, but stopped because of frustrations

with logging in.

Discussion: Many older adults are using computers and accessing the Internet. Despite reports of barriers to the use

personal health information technologies by older adults,

2–6

a surprising 20% of the older adults we interviewed use patient

portals to manage personal health information. This trend is encouraging for potential future adoption of patient portals by

older adults. Expanded research is needed to determine the general penetration of patient portals, factors that contribute to

portal use by older adults, and associations between use of patient portals and independent living.

Conclusion: Study ﬁndings highlight the value of patient portals as a platform to facilitate management of personal health

information and demonstrate their potential to help older adults maintain wellness and independence as well as to enhance

home care services in various residential settings.

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University of Washington

H3IT: Home Healthcare, Hospice, and Information Technology Conference Washington – D.C., 2014

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