The Patient Portal, also known as “MyUofMHealth,” officially reached an astounding 300,000 patient users last month.
The Patient Portal is a convenient and secure self-service tool that allows patients to take an active role in their care by viewing their health history and test results, making online payments, scheduling and canceling appointments, and much more. The popularity of this tool is echoed not only by the amount of users, but by the features provided to patients in a single month:
- 28,618 medical advice requests submitted
- 15,000 history questionnaires submitted
- 9,718 Medication refill requests submitted
- 7,800 general questionnaires submitted
- 5,056 medications and allergy problems updated
- $10,833,511 worth of bills paid online since the beginning of 2017
“Since the implementation of the Patient Portal at the time of the Ambulatory and ED MiChart Go-Live in 2012, we have continued to expand on available functionality to provide patients and providers with a more modern, electronic means of sharing health information,” said Margaret Punch, M.D., associate medical director for FGP Ambulatory Care Services and professor of obstetics and gynecology. “Secure, private communication without playing telephone tag, rapid sharing of test results and other functionalities are now taken for granted. The ambulatory, inpatient, and revenue cycle teams continue to watch for and implement new functionality as it becomes available — when it fits the organization’s goals of transparent and patient-centric care.”
To continue empowering and encouraging patient stewardship, the Executive Committee on Clinical Affairs (ECCA) endorsed the implementation of a new feature in MiChart called “OpenNotes,” which will go live on June 14.
OpenNotes allows clinicians to automatically share certain note types with patients via the Patient Portal. Notes created/filed after June 14 by physicians, residents, nurses, MAs, mid-level providers, and other note creators in MiChart will be shared in the Patient Portal by default for all visits accessible through the portal, with the following exceptions:
- Notes considered “sensitive” or “restricted” will not be included.
- When creating a note, clinicians will have the ability to decide not to share that note, when appropriate.
- Social work notes will not be shared automatically, however, Social workers will have the ability to share notes at their discretion.
For more information, including training resources, please visit the Patient Portal page of the HIM website.
