Perspectives of medical specialists regarding the introduction of a patient portal

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2017-10-31
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en
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In this study I have analyzed the perspectives of medical specialists about the introduction of a patient portal at the Laurentius Hospital in Roermond. By Dutch law (First chamber votes, 2016) healthcare institutions are required to make patient portals available before the first of January 2020. Patients are then able to look in their medical record on which the Dutch government has decided what should be visible, such as the Basic dataset healthcare (Basic dataset healthcare, 2016), supported with letters of medical specialists, discharge letters, laboratory results, and radiology reports. The Dutch government issued a subsidy program to aid healthcare institutions. This subsidy program named VIPP (Accelerating-program Information-exchange Patient and Professional, 2017). The research question of this study was to find out what the main concerns of medical specialists were at the Laurentius Hospital regarding the introduction of a patient portal, and how might this affect their medical practices. The main discussion in the hospital was whether patients should be able to look in to their medical record in real time or with a maximum delay time of seven days. In this study I identified three themes of concerns from specialists: Patient interaction, Specialist process and Specialist accountability. These themes were identified and reveal how the patient portal could affect the practices of medical specialists. The themes presented are based on meetings with almost all specialties of the Laurentius Hospital and interviews with medical specialists. Following from the work of Lawrence and Suddaby (2016), Currie et al. (2012), and Levay and Waks (2009) regarding institutional work, similar examples of institutional work have been identified. The theoretical contribution of this study gives perspectives of medical specialists who provide insights for the doctor-patient relationship (Goodyear-Smith and Buetow, 2001; Nictiz, 2015,2016), and providing examples of institutional work in healthcare (Currie et al., 2012; Lawrence and Suddaby, 2016; Levay and Waks, 2009). The term ‘Utilizing’ has been introduced by me to define professionals who are seeing opportunities to extend their practices, and thereby use both creating and maintain institutions. Practical implications regard the insight of concerns from medical specialists about the patient portal, from which the Laurentius Hospital in Roermond can make decisions regarding showing patient results real time or whether it should be with a delay time.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen