Meaningful use of the electronic patient portal - Virginia Mason's journey to create the perfect online patient experience

(Implementation lessons)We present a case study of Virginia Mason Medical Center's successful implementation of the online patient portal. The organization exceeded its Meaningful Use 2 View/Download/Transmit targets and national benchmarks, with over 70% of unique patient encounters being provided timely online access to their health information, over 50% viewing, downloading, and transmitting health information electronically, and potential cost savings to the institution. Key lessons learned in our implementation process were:1.Patient portals can enhance timely patient centered care, but require a robust information flow ecosystem for successful implementation and use.2.Patient portal implementation should first focus on establishing a system for information flow, and then integration of online patient portals into this system.3.Organizational commitment and process improvement from the ground up is key to successful implementation.