What is a Patient Portal and How Does It Help Medical Practices?

A patient portal is a secure online website that gives patients convenient 24-hour access to personal health information from anywhere with an Internet connection. Using a secure username and password, patients can view health information.

Following the introduction of electronic health records (EHR) software, patient portals have become increasingly popular in healthcare organizations of all sizes and specialties. Did you know  68% of patients in America say they’re more likely to choose a medical provider that offers the ability to book, change, or cancel appointments online?

Patient Portals improve the quality of care provided while enabling greater communication between physicians and their patients. It helps encourage better physician-patient relationships and give patients more control over their treatment. For example, they can check lab results, request prescription refills, update insurance and other contact information, manage unpaid balances, and more.

60% of healthcare professionals in America say online appointment booking platforms encourage patients to keep their appointments. This is aided by online booking systems sending out automatic reminders to the patient. Those automated appointment reminders reduce no-shows by over 29%. That means generating more revenue for your practice!

Criterions Patient Portal Key Capabilities Include:

• Schedule Appointments Online

• Easy Access to Health Information 

• View Bills and Make Payments Online

• Update Patient Medical History

• Check Refills and Prescription Requests 

• Fill Out Pre-Vsit Questionnaires and Consent Forms

• Patients Can Send Message to Healthcare Provider 

Click here for more information on how Criterions Patient Portal not only benefits your patients, but also can lessen the workload for your staff. If you have any questions or would like a demo of the Patient Portal,  please fill out the form below and we will be in touch shortly!

How Criterions helps the New York Firefighter Heart & Lung Institute care for 9/11 First Responders

Background

Robert Brown started his career as a New York Firefighter in 1996 and worked his way up as Lieutenant at the New York Fire Department, dedicating his life to helping others. He was amongst the First Responders after the horrific 9/11 event and saw firsthand how the hazardous toxic dust and chemicals effected the rescue and volunteer teams. They suffered tremendous damage to their physical and mental health during that time.

Mr. Brown wanted to give back to his firefighter community and founded the New York Firefighters Heart & Lung Institute in 2002. At that time, he was working for North Shore Cardiac Imaging as a Physician Assistant, and his newly founded institute was a part of the North Shore organization. New York Firefighters Heart & Lung is a medical center “designed by firefighters for firefighters” that offers the best healthcare experience for firefighter professionals and are dedicated to serving their needs and family’s needs every day. They specialize in cardiac and pulmonary testing, cancer screenings, orthopedics and much more.

Criterions Electronic Health Record and Practice Management solutions have been apart of their journey since 2014, making it possible for Mr. Brown to treat thousands of firefighters since. Mr. Brown separated New York Firefighters Heart & Lung from North Shore Cardiac Imaging in late 2022 and is now the sole provider at his institute, bringing the Criterions integrated EHR and PM solutions with him.

“Going into this and separating, I thought it was going to be really hard to get on board with an EMR and meeting all requirements we needed, but Criterions made it seamless and implementation got us up and running in no time.”

Long-Term Success

The costs to start a healthcare practice, large or small, are enormous. Affordability is a very important consideration when choosing the various software you need to run your office efficiently, especially when you are a sole provider like Mr. Brown who offers his services at minimal out of pocket expenses for his firemen and firewomen patients.

“It’s very affordable we think, even including features like bulk emailing and text messaging.”

For any practice to be successful in the long run, growth is essential. Expanding your services, hiring more office employees, or moving to a bigger office location, like Mr. Brown just did, are all crucial tactics for progressing your medical practice. When it comes to training new hires on EHR or PM systems, Criterions takes pride in providing an inclusive training program to our customers. Our training and education programs offer a variety of instructor-led training events and online resources to accommodate your needs, ensuring office staff members get the most out of utilizing our products.

“We like Criterions because it’s very easy to use and to train new hires on the software because it’s not as complex as other EHR systems. A lot of features and modules are easy to understand and make sense of in the Criterions system.”

Since implementing Criterions EHR & PM software, NY Firefighters Heart & Lung has been able to increase communication with their patients by utilizing the bulk email feature, email appointment reminders, and the patient portal. Their patients use the Criterions Patient Portal to view their medical records and results, schedule, and change their appointments online which has helped increase office workflow and patient engagement.

They’ve also seen a decrease of no-shows due to the flexibility of online scheduling capabilities for their firefighter patients, who are sometimes on duty in the firehouse for long shifts with limited time to call the practice during office hours if needing to reschedule or cancel their existing appointments.

“Overall, it’s been a good experience with Criterions. We almost never have any issues using the software. Support gets back to us in no time. Training department is always really helpful, and I would recommend their product.”

NY Firefighter Heart & Lung has helped thousands of firefighter professionals throughout their years and will continue to provide the best possible healthcare experiences for years to come. Together, Criterions will support their services as Mr. Brown grows his practice and takes on more patients by helping to improve patient engagement and experience, as well as increasing workflow efficiency for their office staff.

Fore more information on Mr. Brown's mission at The New York Firefighter Heart & Lung Institute, please visit their website at: https://www.fdnyheart.com/

Interested in learning how Criterions software can benefit your practice? Fill out the form below:

What is Practice Management Software?

Practice management involves the decisions, actions and resources that ensure the day-to-day operations of your medical practice. Managing a healthcare practice can be arduous and time-consuming. In a single day, physicians and office staff may deal with administrative, regulatory, financial and technological tasks — on top of making sure patients get the best care possible. Practice Management Software helps manage your practice, patients, and is important with increasing workflow and patient engagement, but most importantly will help your office get paid.

Criterions cloud-based electronic health record comes fully integrated with practice management software you need to keep your office running efficiently. Whether you use a billing service or manage billing in-house, our EHR helps you receive payment faster.

Billing is streamlined with our electronic superbill, and our billing partners offer the best cloud-based billing solutions that can integrate directly with your EHR workflows. Intuitive charting, connections to labs and imaging centers, referrals, prescribing, document management, reporting, communication, and eligibility checks- Criterions does all this and more.

A few benefits of a cloud-based Practice Management Software includes:

 Help patients find your services and book appointments online

• Patients can search for and book appointments online from your Criterions Patient Portal.
• Once a patient books an appointment, automatic email or text reminders are sent to them to help reduce missed appointments and reduce the time your staff has to spend on the phone.

Check insurance eligibility for patients directly from your EHR

• Get paid for the appointments you schedule with patient health insurance verification that includes real-time connections to over 300 payers, and automated eligibility checks before a scheduled appointment.

Certified for PQRS and Meaningful Use to help you avoid penalties

• The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) offer EHR incentive payments for those who can attest to improving patient care with their Meaningful Use and PQRS programs — and payment penalties to those who cannot — if you are an eligible provider but haven't started participating in those programs.
• To manage and report on criteria performance, Criterions has developed certified PQRS and Meaningful Use dashboards and reports.

Simplify your billing and increase revenue

• Medical billing management and increasing revenue can be a challenge for any practice, but our cloud-based EHR and PM streamlines all these tasks so you can get paid faster and grow your practice.

Click here for more information on how Criterions Medical Practice Management Software makes delivering patient care easier for you and your staff, or please fill out the form below and a team member will be in touch shortly.