Characteristics of Patient Portal Usage by Pediatric Emergency Patients

Objectives: We aimed to describe patient and encounter characteristics of patient portal users and nonusers and to evaluate usage of specific portal functions in a pediatric emergency department (PED). Methods: A single-center retrospective analysis of patients up to 21 years of age at an urban, tertiary care pediatric emergency department was conducted. Portal registration status of patients was analyzed. Relations between variables and usage were evaluated using logistic regression. Portal functions were analyzed for prevalence and timing of usage with respect to the PED encounter. Results: Portal users made up 48.4% of 29,881 patients. Variables associated with portal usage included multiple prior PED visits (aOR 2.19, CI: 2.04-2.35), multiple admissions (aOR 2.61, CI: 2.00-3.46), PED length of stay greater than 6 hours (aOR 1.30, CI: 1.17-1.5,) and patient Hispanic ethnicity (aOR 1.24, CI: 1.13-1.36). Non-English primary language (aOR 0.64, CI: 0.60-0.70) and patient male sex (aOR 0.90, CI: 0.84-0.96) were associated with lower likelihood of usage. About 17% of users viewed laboratory and imaging results during the PED visit, and 67% within 7 days after visit. Conclusions: Between portal users and nonusers, there are differences with respect to patient sex, ethnicity, primary language, number of prior emergency visits and admissions, and length of stay in the pediatric emergency department. Portals are not commonly accessed during visits but are commonly used to view laboratory and imaging data after the emergency visit.