“It is something that is being used by Catholic Health Partners throughout the Midwest, and Springfield is in the early adoption phase,” said Paul Hiltz, CEO of the Springfield Network of Community Mercy Health Partners. “We’re excited about the possibilities, and the ease that patients can access and manage their health.
“Patients have an easier time communicating with their doctors, and it lessens the waiting time to hear back from them,” he continued. “So it is a great improvement in the patient-doctor relationship.”
MyChart is a part of Epic’s Care Path network, which Community Mercy began using when it opened Springfield Regional Medical Center in November of 2011. Currently, 13 primary care physicians and 15 specialists are on the local MyChart network.
“We would envision that over time, there would be the development of a clinically related group of doctors, who do not necessarily have to be employed with us, who would commit to share information to improve patient service overall,” said Hiltz. “We think that is exciting for the future of health care in Springfield.”
Dr. Denise Rodney, who has been a family practitioner in Clark County for about 15 years and in Springfield since 2004, has made it a point to redirect her patients to MyChart. As of Dec. 1, 35 percent her patients are on MyChart.
“We’ve been really pushing for it in my office,” said Rodney. “We’ve had a 10 percent increase from August.
“If I walk into the room and I have a patient playing with their smartphone, I’m pretty sure I can get them signed up,” she continued. “Other patients may not be as comfortable, so it may take a couple more conversations.
“I think overall, anything we can do to help our patients feel a little bit more comfortable with us is good. If they feel I’m responding to their needs, that helps the level of trust.”
Rodney says it adds speed to her ability to treat patients.
“What’s really nice about MyChart is I can release test results almost immediately after receiving them,” she said. “If there is anything that’s terribly abnormal, I call them directly.
“I can input any comments at any time,” she continued. “I can do MyChart from home, so if there is a snow day, I can still use it. And patients can put comments on there or ask questions.”
Her patients’ response is what really sold her.
“They really like it. It helps reinforce their medical history,” she said. “MyChart will even tell them what tests they are due for … A lot of the time, it’s the patients who are keeping me on the ball. It helps us to be on top of a lot of our preventive medicine and helps patients become more proactive.”
Bill Ray, 62, of Springfield is not a patient of Dr. Rodney’s, but he is sold on the MyChart experience nonetheless.
“I think it is great that patients have easy access to all of their medical records,” said Ray. “I’ve used it to go back and look at test results, and how that stacks up to the normal range.
“Last week, my wife and I were having a conversation and it came up that low potassium levels might lead to arthritis, and I thought, ‘I don’t know what my potassium levels are.’ So I went to MyChart and found out. I can see when I got my last flu shot. Just about anything you can think of is somewhere on the MyChart.”
Another less-visible advantage of establishing the MyChart program is recruiting doctors, said Hiltz.
“We do think that it is an important piece when doctors come out of medical school and are considering where they might start to practice,” he said. “We had a doctor in town Friday who was very interested that we had electronic records for doctors and patients when he was considering where to practice.”
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