Frequency Of Office Visits Unchanged By Patient Access To Electronic Messaging

Patient use of electronic messaging through patient portals does not significantly affect the frequency of in-person visits. A review of portal use and office visit patterns by 2,357 adult primary care patients found no significant difference in the number of in-person visits before and after the patient used the portal to send at least one electronic message. There were no significant changes to in-person visit patterns among patients who used electronic messaging more frequently or among those who had been using the messenging feature for a longer period of time. Patients did use electronic messaging more . . .