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Waiting for test results can be a nerve-wracking experience for patients, and many are accessing results in a portal before their clinician even gets a look. In a nationally representative survey of 4,982 U.S. adults, 68.6% of respondents said they viewed their test results through a patient portal before hearing from their healthcare practitioner. Among those who viewed results first, 6.6% reported poor understanding of what the results showed and what they meant for their care. Meanwhile, 26.8% understood the results fairly well, 31.7% understood well, and 34.9% understood very well. The survey findings were presented in JAMA Network Open, and respondents included patients who had been offered online medical-record access and had undergone testing within the previous year. Patients were more likely to view results before clinician contact if they were older, female, had higher income, more chronic conditions, greater digital literacy, or more health-related social media use. Poor understanding was associated with living in the Midwest or South and experiencing medical care discrimination.
Fast turnaround: The 21st Century Cures Act mandates that medical test results must be released to patients through patient portals as soon as they are available. Read more about urgent care in-house testing from the JUCM archive: Diagnostic Lab Test Utilization in Urgent Care