Three in 10 Hospitals Offer Patient Portal Access in English Only

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 22, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Nearly three in 10 U.S. hospitals do not offer access to a patient portal in a language other than English, according to a study published online Oct. 16 in JAMA Network Open.

Debbie W. Chen, M.D., from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and colleagues assessed whether hospitals offer patient portals with multilingual accessibility. The analysis included 514 hospitals across 51 U.S. counties in 17 states.

The researchers found that 99.4 percent offered patient portals, and of these, 29.4 percent provided access only in English, 59.7 percent provided access in English and Spanish only, 10.9 percent provided access in three or more languages, and only 4.7 percent offered portal access in the most common non-English, non-Spanish language of their respective counties. Teaching hospitals had higher odds of offering portals with multilingual accessibility (odds ratio [OR], 2.21) versus nonteaching hospitals. Lower odds were seen among hospitals that used vendors other than Epic MyChart or Cerner (OR, 0.34 versus Epic).

“This study raises an important question: If a patient cannot log in to the patient portal, what health care services, such as virtual visits and secure messaging with their doctor, are they missing out on and how might that impact their health?” Chen said in a statement.

Abstract/Full Text