DURHAM, NC – Duke University Health System is using a new patient portal to improve customer service and help patients keep up with financial balances and pay bills.
As of September 1, the health system had about 8,600 patient accounts using the portal, and that number is growing at a rate of about 1,000 per month, said Asif Ahmad, vice president and CIO of Duke Health Technology Solutions, which develops technology solutions and provides IT support for the integrated health system.
Since a soft rollout at the start of the year, Duke has realized nearly $800,000 in payments through the portal, Ahmad said at a recent revenue cycle conference in Chicago.
The portal also provides a variety of clinical, administrative and financial information. For example, patients can make appointments, review past appointments, view lab and radiology reports and see detailed bills and insurance information.
In bill collection, the biggest benefit to Duke comes in providing a way to more easily collect smaller payments that are not significant enough for the billing office to pursue.
“When information is aggregated for them, people are more willing to pay,” Ahmad said. “People have been requesting payment plans online” through the portal.
To help customers navigate the financial end of their healthcare, the Duke portal provides account management help, enabling patients to view detailed bills, account balances and payment histories and view their insurance information, such as co-payments and deductibles.
Duke achieves this deep view into their information by connecting the portal to its information systems, Ahmad said. Duke is working with Websphere, a brand of products from IBM Corp., to develop the portal.
Ahmad said Duke plans to roll out other features that make it easier for patients to interact with the system and its clinicians. For example, it plans to offer express check-in for patients and will test the use of kiosks to facilitate the check-in process.
Ahmad cited a recent survey by the Gartner Group, which found that very few hospitals are advancing portal technology. For the most part, hospital are aiming initiatives at physicians, and only a handful are designing portals that could bring value to patients, he contends.
“The strongest drivers for deploying portals are improved competitiveness, and staff efficiency and productivity,” he said. “They’re not doing it from a patient-centric point of view.”