Hello Shanno1.docx

Hello Shannon, you brought up some great points in your discussion board. I completely agree that without proper healthcare knowledge the person accessing the patient portal has no way of understanding the information presented. Without the skills you mentioned patients can get confused, and often can accept certain medications or procedures because of confusion. I had not thought about the correlation between increased hospitalizations, and poor health. But this makes sense because of not understanding the risks, and benefits of certain procedures, and medications. For example, a patient may avoid vaccinations because they do not fully comprehend the numerous benefits which result from vaccinations. I found an interesting article about diseases which may have been forgotten due to vaccinations and how they protect against certain diseases. Without this knowledge certain diseases have started to emerge again, because of people like that are against vaccinations. I believe that in large part people against vaccinations lack the healthcare knowledge required to understand the benefits of vaccinations. To me the patient portal can be a barrier to some patients. I think that the patient should have the choice to opt-out of patient portals. This could be done either when the medications are told to the patient or upon the first appointment with a new physician or healthcare facility. Great discussion board posting!

Source:

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/parents/diseases/child/14-diseases.html