Most Kentuckians don’t communicate with doctors electronically; most are confident about access to pricing information for care
The poll, taken Oct.8-Nov.6, found that 73 percent of Kentuckians have not communicated with their doctor using text, email or a website during the last year. A national poll found similar results.
This finding was consistent in all age groups, but there was a difference among socioeconomic groups.
Research has found that patients who are better informed about their health and health care cost are more engaged with their health, according to the release.
Patients at UKHealthCare who have access to their “patient portals” seven days after discharge are an example of how few Kentuckians are engaging with their health care provider via electronics.
“About 8 to 10 percent of hospitalized patients look at their patient portals, of our inpatients,”Dr. Carol Steltenkamp, chief medical information officer at UKHealthCare, said in a phone interview “We would love for that to increase.”
Steltenkamp said that patients often don’t understand how to use their portals and that the hospital is working diligently to educate them.
The poll also found that most Kentuckians think they can find out what doctors charge for treatments and procedures if they need this information, finding 36 percent extremely or very confident that they could find out how much treatments and procedures cost; 34 percent moderately confident and 28 percent not too confident or not confident at all. These answers did not vary by income, age or region.