“Just log into your patient portal to see your blood test results in a few days” said the front desk lady, answering my question, as she hurried me out the door. I looked back down the hall and said bye to my doc as he hurriedly typed on his little laptop. I wondered what else he could be inputting at such a furious pace...Is he still typing about my appointment? Another patient? Billing? Perscriptions? Perhaps writing a blog.

I logged into my patient portal. I didn’t know what to expect really, but I was surprised at how bad the experience was. I felt like I was on a site from the beginning of the internet. The right-hand side of the text was cut off. The navigation spun me in circles. In general, it was not intuitive at all to use. I could only imagine the frustration the older patients experienced.

This interface didn’t seem to be designed with the patient in mind. It didn’t even include my weight or blood pressure, measured during my visit. I thought this would be a statistic that would be interesting to review over the years. Maybe it is in there somewhere and I just haven’t found it yet.

One positive thing I noticed. The billing page is really easy to read.