Patient-provider communication: Does electronic messaging reduce incoming telephone calls?

Purpose: internet-based patient portals are increasingly being implemented throughout health care organizations to enhance health and optimize communication between patients and health professionals. the decision to adopt a patient portal requires careful examination of the advantages and disadvantages of implementation. this study aims to investigate 1 proposed advantage of implementation: alleviating some of the clinical workload faced by employees. methods: a retrospective time-series analysis of the correlation between the rate of electronic patient- to-provider messages-a common attribute of internet-based patient portals-and incoming telephone calls. the rate of electronic messages and incoming telephone calls were monitored from february 2009 to june 2014 at 4 economically diverse clinics (a federally qualified health center,a rural health clinic,a community-based clinic,and a university-based clinic) related to 1 university hospital. results: all 4 clinics showed an increase in the rate of portal use as measured by electronic patientto- provider messaging during the study period. electronic patient-to-provider messaging was significantly positively correlated with incoming telephone calls at 2 of the clinics (r = 0.546,p < .001 and r = 0.543,p < .001). the remaining clinics were not significantly correlated but demonstrated a weak positive correlation (r = 0.098,p = .560 and r = 0.069,p = .671). conclusions: implementation and increased use of electronic patient-to-provider messaging was associated with increased use of telephone calls in 2 of the study clinics. while practices are increasingly making the decision of whether to implement a patient portal as part of their system of care,it is important that the motivation behind such a change not be based on the idea that it will alleviate clinical workload.