Tomah Health is offering patients the opportunity to access personal health care information using a secure, online website that is available 24 hours a day.
“We think it’s key to a person’s well-being and how a person takes care of their health to have access to their health care information when they want it and need it,” hospital Information Services Director LaVonne Smith said of the new feature called MyChart.
Smith said MyChart is an electronic version of a patient’s health care record that provides such things as lab results, diagnostic imaging records, plus individual patient information on recent hospital visits, discharge summaries, and medication lists.
“We recognize as being leaders in our community for health care services how important it is to keep patients informed,” Smith said. “It’s an online record of your care provided at Tomah Health that you can access any time of day and makes accessing your personal health care information easy, secure and convenient.”
MyChart also allows patients to pay bills online and request appointments. Smith said the new system is perfect for parents with young children, adults with aging parents or anyone looking for a proactive approach to health care. She also said to meet the demands of patients on the go; MyChart is available using an app for iPhones and other mobile devices.
Hospital officials introduced the new service after converting the facilities’ electronic health record to the widely known Epic system last fall.
“Access to patient information is key in how well we take care of you, so knowing your lab results, knowing your radiology results or what was that ED (emergency dept.) visit outcome from last month is how we assist you in taking care of your health,” Smith said.
To be part of the new program, Smith said patients can sign up online. (Register using the link below)
“The easiest way to register for MyChart is to get online and go to www.tomahhosital.org and select the patient portal and from that point as long as the person has been a patient at Tomah Health since Oct. 1, 2017, choose MyChart and complete the enrollment process,” Smith explained.
Smith said patients treated at Tomah Health before Sept. 30, 2017, have access to another online option available from a prior company that worked with the hospital and its medical records.
Despite growing threats related to online services, Smith said security of a patient’s health care information is one of the hospital’s highest priorities. “We have partnered with this nationally known vendor; Epic and their application and security have been one of the nation’s leaders.
So we are highly confident that we have the environment that protects a patients’ health care information,” she said of the MyChart system.
While the system has officially been online for a short amount of time, Smith said officials are pleased with the community response to MyChart.
“We have had a very positive community response to our initial roll-out and building the information that is available to our patients. So it seems that our community is finding it very easy to use; easy to navigate and find information they need along with the aspect of having it available either at a home computer or smartphone.”
In the near future, Smith said MyChart would also provide additional features.
“This is our starting point with MyChart, and I think that we will evolve to incorporate some future items, like making it easier for patients to share information with other facilities,” Smith said. “Epic is continually evolving and we will make this product (MyChart) even better for our future health care needs.”
Register for MyChart HERE