Will MyHealth Records Patient Portal Impact Your Healthcare Practice?

Posted on November 6, 2020 by Jean Eaton in Blog

Patient Portals Improves Access To Own Health Information

Residents of Alberta can now access their personal COVID-19 and other lab test results, immunization history, dispensed medication history and more in their own MyHealth Records – the patient portal view of Alberta Netcare.

In October 2020, parents can now access their children's COVID-19 test result lookup, too.

The sign-up process has recently been changed to permit rapid sign-up to access MyHealth Records.

Watch the short video above for my quick review of MyHealth Records.

MyHealth Records

The Alberta Netcare website says that MyHealth Records is a Personal Health Record for Albertans to access some of their health information, such as lab results, medications, and immunizations drawn from Alberta Netcare.

MyHealth Records also provides access to several health and wellness tools to help track and maintain overall health. (See the complete list of features here.)

Alberta Health has announced that the first step for patients to access thier own records is to request your MyAlberta Digital ID (MADI) which will eventually act as your login credentials to the ANP.

If you have not already registered for MADI access you may do so here: MyAlberta Digital ID.

You will see 2 options – one for a basic account and one for a verified account. Select the verified account.

You will receive a personal identification number (PIN) in the mail.

When you have a verified account, you can go to your MyAlberta Digital ID account and add a new MyHealth Records access.

You can do this now – no need to wait!

You will (probably) have access to medications dispensed by pharmacists and lab and diagnostic imaging tests results for the last 18 months. Remember, not all test results are available.

You can now also add your own journal entries for your weight, food diary, exercise diary and other tools to help you manage your health.

If your healthcare provider is also using the secure messaging system supported by MyHealth Records, you may be able to send a secure message to your healthcare provider, too.

This is a patient portal into your health information maintained by Alberta Health Services and Alberta Netcare.

The original or ‘source’ data continues to be securely managed in the service providers’ originating electronic systems. The originating systems and their custodians are required to keep the records for the entire records retention period; generally 10 years.

The information in the MyHealth Records portal may only be available to you for 18 months to 2 years. If you choose to add information to your account, I believe that information will be maintained for a limited time (for example, 2 years).

Patient portal

Patient Portals Can Reduce Barriers

The use of a patient portal can reduce barriers for patients to access their own records. Other benefits to patient portals may include:

Increased empowerment to patients who can access their own results in a timely fashion
Better communication with patients
Fewer access requests (and increased administration efficiencies)
Fewer missed appointments (and increased access to care)

How Will Patient Portals Affect Your Healthcare Practice?

Will you tell your patients that they can access some of their lab results themselves directly from MyHealth Records?

Let me know your experiences with patient portals and your questions. I really would like to know your thoughts on how portals may impact your healthcare practice.

⇓ ⇓ Click the >> arrow button to play the video!

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Patient Portals In Your Healthcare Practice

Patient portal

Patient Portals Can Reduce Barriers

The use of a patient portal can reduce barriers for patients to access their own records. Other benefits to patient portals may include:

Increased empowerment to patients who can access their own results in a timely fashion
Better communication with patients
Fewer access requests (and increased administration efficiencies)
Fewer missed appointments (and increased access to care)

How Will Patient Portals Affect Your Healthcare Practice?

Will you tell your patients that they can access some of their lab results themselves directly from MyHealth Records?

Let me know your experiences with patient portals and your questions. I really would like to know your thoughts on how portals may impact your healthcare practice.

#digitalhealth, Alberta Netcare Portal, ANP, benefits, health, healthcare, MyHealth Records, Netcare, patient portal, Patient portals

How To Capture Patient Satisfaction With CareSay

Posted on July 2, 2019 by Jean Eaton in Blog

‘This call may be recorded to ensure quality control.’

We’ve all heard the recorded message when we call our bank or service provider .

But, is this the best way to capture patient satisfaction with their healthcare visit experience?

Are you looking for options to capture patient satisfaction with their interactions with your office staff during phone calls and their entire visit?

There are other options that require less technology, easier to implement, respects privacy, provides a more meaning constructive, helpful, feedback for your clinic team and engages your patients to improve their satisfaction.

I reached out to Brian Lee from Custom Learning Systems about his suggestions on how to explore patient satisfaction.

Brian Lee is my guest expert on Practice Management Nuggets Podcast for Your Healthcare Practice. Brian Lee is one of North America’s leading experts in the field of World-Class patient experience, staff engagement and culture change.

In this 16 minute episode, Brian Lee, shares options for the healthcare provider and business owner to easily capture and measure the patient's experience and give them an opportunity for feedback so that you can improve patient satisfaction and patient care in your healthcare practice.

Brian Shares His Key Tips Including

Options to create a patient experience survey (including CGCAPS).
New tools that empowers the patient to provide clinics with feedback about their experience.

New tools empowers the patient to provide clinics with feedback about their experience.

My Favorite Takeaways From The Podcast

Ensure that we do constructive, positive education with our caregivers.
Measure the patient's experience.
Empower the patient to provide the clinic and the caregivers with feedback.

Be sure to tune in to my interview with Brian Lee on How To Capture Patient Satisfaction With CareSay | Episode #077

Then, click here to get the free CareSay Review app: the unique new app to help you Connecting service providers and patients in a whole new way!

If you are a member of Practice Management Success, login here and view the webinar replay.

#digitalhealth, #PatientCenteredClinic, #PatientEngagement, #PracticeManagementNuggets, Brian Lee, CareSay, CGCAP, clinic, Everyone's a Caregiver, healthcare, medical, patient centered clinic, patient satisfaction, podcast, review

Curiosity Is NOT Need-To-Know

Posted on February 18, 2019 by Jean Eaton in Blog

I am often asked if it is ‘OK’ to look up patients information on Netcare when the patient hasn’t been seen for some time and the care provider wants to know how they are doing.

Let me be clear: If you are not currently providing a health service to the patient in a current episode of care, you must not look up that patient’s information on Netcare or any other EMR or paper system.

The patient has a right to privacy – which means don’t look unless you have a need to know.

Curiosity is not a legitimate need to know. That is snooping!

You Can Use This Privacy Breach Example to Review and Improve Your Practices

Pro-active Auditing Reveals Snooping in Sask eHealth

What Happened

On April 6, 2018, a highway collision occurred involving the hockey team Humboldt Broncos which left 16 dead and 13 injured.

The trustee of the Saskatchewan Electronic Health Record Viewer, eHealth, pro-actively audited their electronic health record system to identify potential unauthorized use of the system by authorized users.

eHealth detected that two physicians and an administrator at the Humboldt Clinic Limited inappropriately accessed the personal health information of two individuals involved in a collision involving the Humboldt Broncos.

The auditing revealed that there were many instances where access was made between April 7 and April 10 to the records of two patients. The records belonged to two individuals who died in the crash on April 6.

The physicians had provided care to the individuals in January of 2018 but were not involved in providing care to them on or about April 6. The physicians’ access was prompted because of their ‘concern’ for the individuals.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”Curiosity is NOT need-to-know! The patient has a right to privacy – which means don’t look unless you have a need to know to provide a current health service to the patient. @InfomanLtd #PrivacyBreach #Privacy #PrivacyBreachNugget” quote=”Curiosity is NOT need-to-know! “]

Clearly, these users of the Viewer were not currently providing care and treatment to the patients.

The access of the Viewer in this example not a legitimate need-to-know under Saskatchewan’s The Health Information Protection Act (HIPA).

eHealth reported these privacy breaches to the Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) of Saskatchewan.

4 Step Response Plan

The trustee, eHealth, undertook the first step to respond to a privacy breach by spotting and stopping the breach. The audit identified the breach. Then eHealth contained the breach by suspending or terminating access to the Viewer.

Secondly, eHealth appropriately notified the individuals’ next of kin of the privacy breach.

The third step is to investigate the breach. eHealth notified the IPC of the breach. The clinic, however, did not investigate the cause of the privacy beach.

Preventing a similar breach is the fourth step. The clinic has privacy policies and a privacy training strategy. The eHealth Viewer also has online training for its users.

IPC Recommendations

Subsequent to its investigation, the Saskatchewan IPC observed that the training had not prevented this breach.

The IPA recommended that the clinic provide further training to its employees and contractors on the need-to-know principle. Additionally, the clinic is recommended to document the privacy breaches and the lessons learned to prevent a similar privacy breach.

Reference: Saskatchewan IPC Investigation Report 177-2018, January 29, 2019

Privacy Breach Nuggets You Need to Know

There are many privacy breaches in the news each day. The more you know about the breaches and how they can affect you allows you to be more proactive to prevent privacy breach pain.

Privacy education is more than just having policies and procedures. Demonstrating good practices, regular discussion about examples, and even gamification helps to ensure that all members of your healthcare team understand their roles and responsibilities.

If you need to start or update your privacy breach management program, check out the 4 Step Response Plan; Prevent Privacy Breach Pain.

“When we know better, we can do better”

I’ve helped hundreds of healthcare practices prevent privacy breach pain like this. If you would like to discuss how I can help your practice, just send me an email. I am here to help you.

Jean L. Eaton, Your Practical Privacy Coach

#digitalhealth, clinic, healthcare, HIPA, Humboldt, medical, privacy breach, privacy breach nugget

How to Turn Your Hectic Waiting Room Into a Reception Area!

Posted on November 22, 2017 by Jean Eaton in Blog, PMN Replay

Are you a clinic manager who dreads the Monday morning phone rush?

Are your walk-in patients pushy, impatient, and frustrated waiting for their turn to see the doctor?

Do your patients complain about how difficult it is to phone into the clinic just to make an appointment?

You can do better than that!

My guests on Practice Management Nuggets Webinars for Your Healthcare Practice will show you how!

Chris Naraine, National Sales Director and Robert Cove, Solutions Consultant of Bleen know how automated scheduling solutions can help your small to medium family medical practice

Reduce 40% to 60% of your incoming phone calls.
Reduce 75% of your no-show appointments.

If you are ready to change your hectic, stressful front office for an efficient, respectful front office and you are a

Clinic manager of a small to medium family healthcare practice or
Healthcare provider planning a new practice

Jump on this FREE Interview with automated scheduling solutions experts Chris Naraine and Robert Cove and discover how you can improve your patient flow management.

Make an appointment with your family physician on the first attempt, no waiting, when convenient for you.

Are you ready for

Timely access and less waiting
Canadian automated scheduling solution
On-line booking, appointment reminders
Reduce no shows and rapidly fill cancellations

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Check Out this Interview NOW to Get Started!

Do You Want to Turn Your Hectic Waiting Room Into a Reception Area?

with Chris Naraine, National Sales Director and

Robert Cove, Solutions Consultant of Bleen

Live Thursday November 23, 2017

Along with your registration for the event you'll also benefit from weekly email reminders of the next guest expert on Practice Management Nuggets Webinars for Your Healthcare Practice.

Practice Management Nuggets Webinars

The perfect lunch break for busy practice managers – only 30 minutes and it’s free!

Practice Management Nuggets Webinars is a regular interview series with practice managers, healthcare providers, or trusted vendors who support healthcare practices. Topics include things you need to know to help you start, grow, fix, or maintain your healthcare practice. The events will be short – about 30 minutes – with nuggets of information that you can use right away.

And best of all – this is a free, no cost opportunity for you and your staff to hear from experts on a variety of topics how they made their clinics and businesses a success! Register now to receive a weekly update of the Practice Management Nugget Webinar guest speaker. Even if you can’t attend register anyway and we will send you the replay. Replays will be available for only a limited time.

Practice Management Nuggets’© series is hosted by Jean L. Eaton, Your Practice Management Mentor of Information Managers Ltd.

#digitalhealth, #PracticeManagementNuggets, automated scheduling solution, Bleen, Canada, health care, healthcare, medical, on-line booking, practice management