I have no concerns using patient portals. The only people who can use my medical information to harm me is my insurance company and unless I pay out if pocket, they are in the exam and consulting rooms with me,

Yes, and I use it all the time to communicate with my doctor and get renewals for meds. My doctor's office was recently bought out by Baptist Health so I had to sign up for their's but it's pretty easy to use like the last one. And no, not concerned about security.

We use ours. I can look at the lab results before the doctor calls us with the results. We also use it to order med refills. I'm not worried if someone hacks into it. Very boring stuff. Just the routine ailments for people our age, arthritis, cholesterol, etc.

My providers are all within the practice of a medical school and I use the portal almost exclusively. I rarely if ever call. For setting appointments, getting chart notes, asking questions, follow-ups (in both directions). It's useful and efficient. The docs and admin staffs monitor traffic closely and respond promptly. Just a few months ago, I got pinged there was a test result on the afternoon of the same day the test was given.

I'm sure the software is a standard commercial product (called My Health) and there's an app available that makes use completely mobile.

I have zero concern about privacy. Both because I think there's little at stake and I don't care. What's at risk? A stranger learning that I gained a few pounds over the past year?

Not too many years ago, my primary care doc was an old-fashioned guy for whom everything was on paper and papers always got lost. His staff lost his notes, misplaced test results, and no information was ever available although the dunderheads answered the phone promptly. No thanks, I'm not going back.

Yes, I do use one for my PCP, and another for my hospital and specialists in the hospital's network. I don't worry about it being hacked, and there isn't much privacy left in this world.

Yes, I like it. I have a virtual appt. set up for November. The University hospital is two hours away and the weather could be bad or covid still around. It's a good service for me anyway.

I love using it. My system is called "My Chart." It makes communicating with my health care providers much easier. As for privacy, my insurance already knows everything about me. I don't care if someone knows the boring, expected-for-my age health things about me. What would they do with that information? I suppose if it's privacy you're concerned about, pay cash for everything.

Yes, I use mine to check blood results before I see my doctor. I also can communicate directly with him if I want to. If anyone hacked mine they might be interested in the seven vitamins I take but I doubt it.

I use the UCLA health portal, and I have found it to be very efficient, especially compared to the other options. I have no concerns about anyone stealing my information - I am more concerned that the right people have access to it, and I do not want to create stumbling blocks.

I am more concerned about having a crowd of university students in the hospital room with me.

I have to use mine because the doctor's office that I currently use for my annual checkup will not email me the lab results. The printouts of most of the information is not formatted to produce anything other than each result on an individual page. I asked about this and was told it people liked it that way and it was not being changed.

Now if the soon to be past doctor would actually put notes about what was discussed so I could see them rather than putting them in doctor's notes where I cannot I would be happier.

What foodonastump said. Your information is in the system, whether you have signed up for the portal or not. If that main electronic medical records system is hacked, your info is vulnerable portal or not. The portals are merely extensions of the main systems and are equally secure.

I enabled the 2 factor verification for my portal, and recommend that everyone does if that is available.

I have used some of mine, but unfortunately I see several specialists and they are all part of different patient portal systems. It's getting very irritating to sign in and out of more than one.

I do use the patient portal almost exclusively. While I appreciate the convenience, I do have some concern regarding privacy. One note is that whether you use the patient portal or not, your provider(s) may use 3rd party cloud storage. In 2021 the 3rd party cloud storage used by my oncologist had a ransomware attack and my name, DOB, address and SS# were exposed. This can happen with your bank, credit cards or numerous other things in our digital world. I’ve accepted this as a risk of living in a digital world. More concerning to me were pictures included in the oncology files of a very personal nature that I would be devastated to find on the web (and in fact I may have found them).

yes. i use for PCP, she uses Follow my health. hospital uses My Chart, both communicate as ii understand it. which is great and frankly the way it should be.

just signed into Jefferson's system to pay my bill. so much easier than writing a check and mailing it.

i have concerns but not enough not to use it.

I can't imagine not using it.

It's pretty much common practice these days.

I use mine all the time and like getting the results of tests and reading what the doctor said about me. My mother-in-law wouldn't use hers or her banks because she was afraid someone would get her information and I told her it was all online she just wasn't using it.

I understand that certain parts of a patient’s medical record are ”online” if they are entered into the information offered on the ”patient portal.” But, unless, one’s logs onto and connects to the patient portal, the medical site or technical managers do noy have your particular ISP identifier. No big deal if they do. But as you can see just from participating on these forums, what one says or intends can be misinterpreted. Like the game telephone.

After the Boston Marathon bombings, a lot of people were curious about “pipe bombs.” Holy cow, could it really be that easy for someone to learn how to make one ’online?’ I wanted to know, out of curiosity.

One of my friends told me that thdy looked it up because they were curious, just curious.

Then that friend got anxious and deleted all of their cookies and search history, less their intentions be misunderstood ….

Would it bother anyone here is everyplace they went online, every note, text, email or photo; every news article or blog read could be woven together and ”read?”

Just curious.

Having done what at the time was called "Skip Tracing" I already know how easy it is to find out the smallest bit of information about a person, Even the neighborhood you live in tells a lot about a person.

My tracing was done back in the 1980s and methods have improved since then. Nothing is private.

I use it to go over lab results.

I have used it, but they never reply to my messages. It's a waste of time!

Yes, like using the patient portal. I can't remember the last time I had to make a phone call, so much easier to communicate digitally. Oh...I remember, I do call to make mammo appts.

"they never reply to my messages. It's a waste of time!"

That's akin to not answering phone calls these days. You need better, more patient care-focused doctors. Time to change. Good luck.

"Would it bother anyone here is everyplace they went online, every note, text, email or photo; every news article or blog read could be woven together and ”read?”"

#1) Unless you're being investigated by law enforcement, assume nothing of the sort is ever done for you simply because someone is curious. Your "info" is hidden in plain sight among similar info of hundreds of millions of daily internet users.

#2) Would it bother me? No. Why would I care?

Your friend is uninformed and needlessly paranoid.

^^^ thanks.

Joann, if your electronic querries go unanswered, I would take that as a proxie for a very poorly run office, overseen by a very careless doctor. It seems like a potentially dangerous situation to me.

I may post my LE story. I live in a place w some ethical challenges.

"I am more concerned about having a crowd of university students in the hospital room with me."

Why? Assuming their med students, what does it matter? Doctors in training need to learn somehow and what better than real patients? They're beholden to privacy laws so I don't understand the concern. I've had this experience and I didn't pay attention to them. My surgeon asked if I minded, explained who they were - med students, and the three of them all stood back. I didn't notice their presence at all.

For me, one of the major plusses of using med school faculty clinics/practices is that those in training keep the older ones honest. Unless one is being seen by a prominent and uber-accomplished specialist, the residents and fellows keep the faculty preceptors and attendings on their toes. Two for the price of one.

I do not go to the doctor enough to utilize it. But I would.

Elmer, I’ve had mixed experiences, but generally much prefer a teaching hospital. And, even within those establishments, there can be differences within departments.

Just as with medical schools but sometimes to a greater degree at the lower end, "teaching hospitals" run the spectrum from excellent to poor. And programs at both do vary from department to department, as you suggest. Some teaching hospitals are rather below average - their reputations are known and, as a result, they tend to get less competitive prospective med school graduates as applicants and thus less accomplished new graduates in their resident ranks.

Just because a hospital has residents and can be called a "teaching hospital" is not the equivalent of a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. Hospitals sponsor resident training programs because they provide cheap labor. They have to adopt programs that meet specifically required training guidelines, and compliance is monitored. In return, such hospitals get funding from the Medicare agency for the major portion of salary and benefit costs of the residents and also supplemental reimbursements for care provided.

Smaller hospitals in smaller communities often have reputations of being at the lower end of the quality range as places to do residencies.

Thanks. The ones I go to are connected with medical schools. I’m most comfortable in that sort of situaton, My last experiences have been very good. One a few years back was disappointing. And, yet, some while later, i encountered a woman, very ill, who thought “Dr. Bean” (not real name) was fantastic. But that woman had a very unusually neurological disease that Dr. Bean was an expert in. I had just a ho hum situation (by comparison) and that same doctor was rushed, dismissive, sloppy with me. I felt bad for the resident that she had with her.

That resident later phoned me. Maybe the resident felt awkward about the manner in which I was treated. I have no idea. I later learned a bit more about the resident — a very kind doctor who reaches out, volunteers. Unusual, especially with such a demanding field.

I had a very disturbing (to me) incident many years ago when giving birth to my daughter. We all know what position you are in while pushing and really are not paying attention to what is going on around you.

I was not sedated and had spent hours trying to deliver her. At some point while pushing, I looked up and saw about 10 residents or med students watching what was happening. They were right behind the OB who was...you know where!

I got angry and demanded they get out! My OB was surprised and explained they were residents, and I said I didn't care who they were they had to get the hell out of the room and shut the door behind them.

This took place at a large well-known hospital in NYC.

Jane

I got to the hospital super late with DS2. Incredibly grateful to the resident who delivered. She was so apologetic. I was super grateful she was there to catch the baby and put in a few stitches since I misjudged how far along I was. If residents don't get to do their jobs with patients, how will they learn? They are indeed full MDs. Seems like a bad deal for patients in the end.

Love "mychart" and use it for everything. I don't mind residents. I like to faciliate learning.

Yes, I use the portal and learned the downside of it.

I went to dr on a Friday, got blood work. Late Friday night I got my test results back and it showed I had at least 25% of my blood cells with serious malformations. I spent the entire weekend in a panic that I had myeloma or some other serious disease. Called dr twice on Monday and finally heard back on Mon pm and she said she thought it was nothing. A repeated blood test showed it was in fact normal and just a screwy test result. But that was one weekend of unnecessary stress. No more dr visits on Fridays!

I too had an audience of residents for the birth of my daughter, but I was asked if it was ok and was happy to oblige. I was one of the few women having a non-medicated birth that day, and my OB wanted his residents to see someone going through labor without an epidural.

And yes, I use the patient portal and am very appreciative of how efficient it is.

A well-ranked medical school does not always translate to excellent care of patients in the associated hospital. It all depends on the particular culture of the school/facility partnership.

I use the patient portals and find it convenient. One downside is that 2 of my doctors use the same portal service. I have to have a different email to access each one. I have to remember the email associated with each.

Jane_ny, I empathize. Giving birth is a very intimate, and after hours of struggling, you must have been exhausted and emotionally vulnerable. Maybe nearing transition wasn’t helping your impatience.

Teaching hospitals are great, but the patient isn’t always up for the intrusion of learners. They all get this and don’t take it personally. Maybe you gave the gang a reminder of a patient’s need for privacy at certain moments. Fortunately, there are plenty of patients.

A well-ranked medical school does not always translate to excellent care of patients in the associated hospital.

Amen to this. My mother spent a lot of time over the years in a major NYC teaching hospital (Weill Cornell, for those who are familiar). The quality of the doctors was excellent, but the nursing care was abysmal. This was in the '90s and early '00s, so perhaps things have changed since then.

When you walked in the front door, one of the first offices on the left was for private duty nursing, where you could pay enormous sums to have your loved one attended to by a nurse at all times. Otherwise, pressing the call button might eventually produce someone at your bedside, but then again it might not.

In our local hospital, which is of good quality but has nowhere near the reputation of Weill Cornell, the nursing staff is superb and very responsive - it was a very pleasant surprise to me when we first moved here.

Ah yes, I used a teaching hospital moment to get some action for my father. He was insulin dependent diabetic, had had major surgery and his blood sugar kept going up. I told Mom to tell the dr, but being an elderly woman, she was dismissed as the elderly often are. I was lucky enough to be visiting when the dr came through with his entourage and discussed my father's case, so I told him -- and his whole class -- how his blood sugar is rising to dangerous levels and he is not being adequately treated for it. I embarrassed him enough in front of his underlings that they finally addressed the problem. I was really ticked off as they had taken him off his diuretics too, unbeknownst to me, and it took an episode of him being in respiratory distress before they decided that he did need them and put him back on!!

While I miss him terribly, I certainly don't miss all the stress and strain and extra hoops of medical bureaucracy you have to go through when caring for your elderly parents.

Annie, I understand. Good thing you were there.

Couple of doctors prior to my current one I was asked if I would allow a resident doctor to examine me. Until then I was not aware residents examined people at doctor's offices. I allowed it and it was one of the best examinations I have had. Too bad the doctor at that time did not listen to what he was saying.

Yes I use it as much as possible. Ironically, I see the test results before my physician finds me.

Further, one of the annual training issues is to verify we understand that if anyone EVER accesses someone's medical record without using it for direct medical care, it's grounds for automatic termination. They know every keystroke. They know every logon. They see it all and watch it every moment of every day. It's probably more protected than your banking information.

Using the patient portals for all of my doctors has been a wonderful convenience. I also use the portal at BCBS insurance, which is fantastic. Very convenient and they are all updated so quickly.

Thanks so much for your thoughtful feedback, everyone. Sounds good. I’ll probably hook up to one next time I need info or to make an appt or ask a question.

I'm lucky that I have a cousin who is an internal medicine physician. If I ever get odd test results after hours and I'm concerned, I just read her the results and she lets me know what the results mean.