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