Patients will call for new appointments, but will have the option of using MyChart for follow up visits. They will have access to their medical information after encounters and can communicate securely with their healthcare team for prescription refills or discussions.
Follow up Phone Communications
Patient calls to can be managed using Navigation Wizards which access Cadence (scheduling), Resolute (billing) or EpicRx (prescription refills). The wizards can be customized for different staff, divisions, or disorders.
Patient Access to their Records and Participation in their Care Planning
With MyChart, patients can use the internet to access their medical information and communicate securely with their healthcare team. MyChart is discussed further in the Communications document.
Health Seekers: Data about the Marketplace
Many patients are sophistocated users of technology. The internet population has stabilized in the US at about 60% of the population. In healthcare, however, research is often done by an internet veteran for someone else. The Pew Internet and American Life Project published its sentinel report, Vital Decisions:
How Internet users decide what information to trust when they or their loved ones are sick in May 2002. This study coined the term "health seekers" and documented the importance of online information to consumers in the health care industry. This study addressed in internet as a source of information. The results were illuminating and, to some, suprising. Consumers were able to find credible information and be satified with their internet experience. There was no digital divide with health seekers, unlike the divide in other venues. The web traffic is very large: Over 6 million Americans are on the internet each day seeking health information!
A follow up Pew study, Internet Health Resources: Health searches and email have become more commonplace, but there is room for improvement in searches and overall Internet access was published in July 2003. This indicated greater use of the internet by health seeker, from 54% in 2002 to 64% of all internet users in 2003. Factors increasing use for health information quests were "veteran" status on the internet (80%) or access to a high speed broadband connection (89%). Veteran status in this study was defined as 3 years on the internet and indicates that there will continue to be a rapid rise in health seekers over the next few years. Fully 80% of internet users had visited a physician within a year and 84% of them had sought online health information. Pew observed that: "We saw two themes emerge from our e-patient surveys: First, people use the Internet to inform themselves about their relevant health care issues and then carry that information to their health care providers. And second, when they carry this information to doctors, they are met with mixed reviews from the doctors."
In the old days most patients received their diagnosis-specific medical information from their physicians and their offices. Today it is estimated that only 1/6th of the patient specific health information is received from physicians. With the continued pressures of managed care, with its reduced face time with physicians, and the promulgation of technology, it is estimated that this ratio will increase to over 20:1 within the decade. Physicians, at patient encounters, will play a minor role in transferring health care information!
Many health care institutions are permitting patient access to retrieve their laboratory results, schedule appointments and initiate communications. When such systems are introduced there is rapid enrollment of patients and an enhanced satisfaction.
