387 - Improving Patient Portal Activation Rates for Newborns in the Well-baby Nursery

Poster Number: 387
Publication Number: 387.243

Sheetal Sriraman, SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, Brooklyn, NY, United States; Saema Khandakar, SUNY Downstate College of Medicine, Albertson, NY, United States; Reem Saadoon, State University of New York Downstate Medical Center College of Medicine, Brooklyn, NY, United States; Sana I. Khan, SUNY downstate Health Science University, New York, NY, United States

Background: Patient portal access has been shown to improve patient outcomes, increase medication adherence and improve primary care follow-up. Increasing patient portal activation would facilitate parents’ access to appointments, lab results, notes, as well as allow for communication with providers.

Objective: Our quality improvement (QI) project aimed to increase patient portal (EPIC's MyChart) activation rates from less than 25% to 75% for newborns in the well-baby nursery in a New York hospital.

Design/Methods: Using the model for QI improvement methodology, we implemented the plan-do-study-act (PDSA) problem-solving approach to address low patient portal activation rates in the well-baby nursery. We used stakeholder interviews, monthly rounds with an interdisciplinary team of nurses and physicians, and resident and faculty feedback sessions to guide improvement efforts. Interventions included implementing a standardized workflow and algorithm for patient portal activation prior to hospital discharge, structured scripts for physicians to discuss patient portal activation with mothers of newborns, flyers in various languages for parent education, and QR code links for information on how to use MyChart (Figure 1). Data were tracked continuously using run charts. Our outcome measure was patient portal activation rates for newborns by 6 months of age. Our process measure was activation rates on discharge from the well-baby nursery.

Results: We observed a shift in our median patient portal activation rates from 5% prior to our QI initiative to 80.5% after the implementation of our interventions over four months (Figure 2). Rates of patient portal activation in the months immediately preceding our interventions were 0%, 5%, and 29%. This then increased to 89%, 91%, 72%, and 65% four months after our interventions (Table 1). The overall activation rate of patient portals within 6 months of birth increased from as low as 22% before to as high as 92% after our interventions. The most common reasons for not activating the newborn’s patient portal were parental refusal and plans to seek care at an outside institution.Conclusion(s): By using QI methodology we were able to effectively increase patient portal activation in the well-baby nursery and overall patient portal activation for all newborns within 6 months. The well-baby nursery is an opportune setting for patient portal activation as it provides proxy access to mothers of newborns from birth. Further studies are needed to ascertain how the activation of patient portals has affected families including adherence to primary care follow-up and patient satisfaction.
Key Driver Diagram
Run Chart of Patient Portal Activation Rates