Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Using Technology to Engage Patients in Their Health Care

By Denise Purington, BSN RN
Vice President Information Technology and Services, Chief Information Officer, Elliot Health System

With all the talk of health care reform, the use of electronic medical records, and empowering patients to get more involved in health care decisions, it seems appropriate to share what health care providers around the country are doing to get patients more involved. The question I am hearing most often is, “why can I do my banking online, pay my bills online, make an appointment to get the oil changed in my car online, but when it comes to accessing my health care providers, I still must depend on the telephone or a face to face visit?”

At Elliot Health System we are working to bring those same conveniences to the health care experience through the use of our patient portal called MyEChart. With MyEChart, our patients can request online prescription refills to be sent directly to their pharmacy of choice. They can schedule an appointment with their physician allowing them the opportunity to select a time that is most convenient for them, and they can even receive test results as soon as they are reviewed and released by their physicians—avoiding telephone tag or waiting for the paper results to arrive in the mail. With the use of our MyEChart portal, patients are also viewing a listing of all their medications, allergies, medical diagnoses, and immunization records, as recorded by their physicians. Patients also have the ability to send messages to their providers or request referrals online.

An added benefit of the MyEChart patient portal is a feature which reminds patients when they are due for any preventive procedure and notifies patients when they are overdue for appointments. Our lives have become so busy that we often forget to schedule an annual physical or a tetanus shot. Some medical histories make it critical to stay current for colonoscopy, mammogram or prostate screenings.

Most recently, we have added a resource center to provide valuable health care information based on specific disease processes patients may have, such as diabetes. Our patients are also able to update their medical records from home, by recording their home blood sugar and blood pressure results—which are immediately available to their physicians to review. This can eliminate the need for special trips to the office. We are also working on functionality that will allow patients to pre-register online through their MyEChart patient portal and complete any necessary questionnaires to reduce paperwork when they arrive for their appointments. In the future, with this information already online, we can use kiosks at arrival to assist patients with checking in and finding the way to their appointments.

Patient portals also serve as a valuable tool in assisting with the management of family member’s health care. Parents can request access to their children’s portal, which allows them to schedule appointments for their children or request prescriptions refills. Through the MyEChart portal parents can print out immunization records or annual physical results to provide to schools or summer camps. When caring for elderly parents, adult children (with appropriate permissions) can access their parents portals to track medications that have been prescribed, upcoming appointment dates, or see results of recently performed tests. Caring for a loved one can be much easier with the use of a tool like MyEChart.

There is far more that we can achieve through a patient portal. Someday you will be able to visit your doctor online from the convenience of your home for minor issues. In today’s busy world, we are thrilled to offer a patient portal as a valuable tool in helping patients manage their health care. We believe it is time to empower our patients and allow them access to a more efficient means of meeting their health care needs.

Tags: Citizens Health Initiative, Electronic medical records, Health care, health Information Technology, healthcare, Patients

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 at 6:24 pm and is filed under Health Reform. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.