Department of Biomedical Informatics, College of Medicine, The Ohio State University, United States.
Department of Family Medicine, College of Medicine, The Ohio State University, United States.
Int J Med Inform. 2018 Feb;110:10-18. doi: 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2017.11.007. Epub 2017 Nov 13.
Patient portals designed for inpatients have potential to increase patient engagement. However, little is known about how patients use inpatient portals. To address this gap, we aimed to understand how users 1) interact with, 2) learn to use, and 3) communicate with their providers through an inpatient portal.
We conducted a usability evaluation using think-aloud protocol to study user interactions with a commercially available inpatient portal - MyChart Bedside (MCB). Study participants (n=19) were given a tablet that had MCB installed. They explored MCB and completed eight assigned tasks. Each session's recordings were coded and analyzed. We analyzed task completion, errors, and user feedback. We categorized errors into operational errors, system errors, and tablet-related errors, and indicated their violations of Nielsen's ten heuristic principles.
Participants frequently made operational errors with most in navigation and assuming non-existent functionalities. We also noted that participants' learning styles varied, with age as a potential factor that influenced how they learned MCB. Also, participants preferred to individually message providers and wanted feedback on status.
The design of inpatient portals can greatly impact how patients navigate and comprehend information in inpatient portals; poor design can result in a frustrating user experience. For inpatient portals to be effective in promoting patient engagement, it remains critical for technology developers and hospital administrators to understand how users interact with this technology and the resources that may be necessary to support its use.
专为住院患者设计的患者门户有可能提高患者的参与度。然而，对于患者如何使用住院患者门户，我们知之甚少。为了弥补这一空白，我们旨在了解用户如何：1）与住院患者门户互动，2）学习使用，以及 3）与他们的提供者进行沟通。
我们使用出声思维协议进行了可用性评估，以研究用户与一款商业上可用的住院患者门户 MyChart Bedside（MCB）的交互方式。研究参与者（n=19）获得了一台安装有 MCB 的平板电脑。他们探索了 MCB 并完成了八项指定任务。对每个会话的记录进行了编码和分析。我们分析了任务完成情况、错误和用户反馈。我们将错误分为操作错误、系统错误和与平板电脑相关的错误，并指出它们违反了尼尔森的十大启发式原则。
参与者在导航和假设不存在的功能时经常犯操作错误。我们还注意到，参与者的学习风格各不相同，年龄可能是影响他们学习 MCB 的因素之一。此外，参与者更喜欢单独向提供者发送消息，并希望得到有关状态的反馈。
住院患者门户的设计极大地影响了患者在住院患者门户中导航和理解信息的方式；设计不佳可能导致用户体验不佳。为了使住院患者门户有效地促进患者参与，技术开发人员和医院管理人员仍然需要了解用户如何与这项技术交互，以及可能需要支持其使用的资源。
