Patients in the Southwest Health System are now able to retrieve their health information in a secure online system, wherever they have access to a computer.
Jeanny Guillory, director of the electronic health records program at Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center, said access to the HealthyMe electronic portal insures that patients have private access to their own health records.
“If patients have been seen in any of the hospital system’s clinics or discharged from the hospital or emergency room, they should be able to see what their diagnosis is, along with prescribed medications, allergies, and lab and radiology results,” Guillory said.
Not every test result is now available, including reports like echocardiograms, “because of the way the data is structured and must flow from one system to another,” Guillory said. “Certain test results in different formats are not available to be sent to the patient portal.”
The access to electronic records is a mandate of the federal government’s Affordable Health Act.
“Right now, the government is requiring lab and radiology results be accessible,” Guillory said.
Registration is simple, she said. Upon discharge from the hospital or after a clinic visit, patients will be asked for their email address.
They’ll get an email invitation with a link to join the free HealthyMe service. Patients can then get an account set up and can log in and view their records whenever they’d like.
Sign-up so far has been slow, Guillory said.
In the Southwest coverage area, many patients don’t have access to the Internet.
She also said some people are not convinced of the online privacy of health information and others believe it’s a way for the hospital to contact patients for payments.
That’s not the case, Guillory said.
“HealthyMe won’t be used for anything other than patient records,” she said. “We won’t sell email addresses to any other parties. We will never use the patient’s HealthyMe information.”
The only way someone else can view a patient’s records is if the patient gives his or her online registration password to another person.
Under the Affordable Care Act, the hospital is required to have 5 percent of patients participate in the program and view their records after they’ve registered. A new measure started on Oct. 1, and the hospital has 12 months to get the percentage up, Guillory said. Hospitals that don’t comply will be charged a penalty.
She said patients who participate will be better informed about their health.
“They can share the results with other physicians outside our clinic or hospital system,” Guillory pointed out. “They can print out results and take them to doctors and specialists out of town, especially lab and X-Ray reports, and that could keep them from having to repeat tests.”
Anyone who has been seen since July 1 at the hospital or cardiovascular center, or after Nov. 15 from one of the Southwest clinics should have been asked to provide email addresses.
Participating HealthyMe patients may also use the online site to communicate with clinics to request prescription refills, learn about flu shots and health fairs, check on appointments and more.
Guillory stressed that there is no fee attached to the program.
“It’s a free service the hospital provides for clinics, for the Lawrence County Hospital (which Southwest owns), and the heart center,” Guillory said. “There are a lot of security procedures in place. We’ve always protected patient records and that will continue. The information is only for the patient — unless they give people access to their email.”
For more information or to sign up for the program, call Tina Brumfield at the hospital at 250-4284. She will guide patients through the process and help them get started.
