Showing posts with label Patient Portal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Patient Portal. Show all posts

Update - Patient Portal Messages for Mixed-Context Prescribers

Enhancement updates provide short alerts to new, fixed or improved Connect Care functions...
  • Patient portal messages no longer forwarded to mixed-context prescribers
A physician working in a mixed context (i.e., working in an AHS facility as well as at a private clinic/office in the community) may be added to a patient’s care team in Connect Care as a Primary Care Provider (PCP) for a patient receiving services with AHS; however, their role as PCP is related to the community clinic. Patient messages sent via MyChart to their PCP in this case would not be related to their care with AHS nor to the work the physician does in AHS. As there are no pools or structure to support these messages, the messages are routed to an IT team error pool instead of to the intended physician.

When IT receives a message sent by a patient via MyChart that is intended for a mixed-context PCP, IT confirms that it was intended to go to a physician who does not have a department that schedules appointments in Connect Care and therefore does not have a clinical support advice request pool to support message management. IT then responds to the patient, letting them know their physician cannot be reached via MyChart, and to instead contact the community clinic directly.

IT will no longer forward these messages to the physician. Connect Care is also working on a technical solution to prevent patients from being able to send messages to physicians on their care team who do not have an associated pool structure to support them.

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Patient-Entered Flowsheet - POC Blood Glucose

Enhancement updates provide short alerts to new, fixed or improved Connect Care functions...
  • Patient-Reported POC Blood Glucose
The MyChart patient portal includes tools that clinicians can use to improve chronic disease management, functional status assessment and health maintenance. Some involve direct patient data capture (e.g., answers to questionnaires or entries to flowsheets) while others involve indirect data capture via interfaces to patients' medical devices (e.g., glucometers). A few questionnaires and flowsheets are provided to patients by default, while others are explicitly "ordered" for activation within a particular patient's MyChart experience.

As of January 20, 2022, a patient-entered flowsheet will be available for patients to self-report their point-of-care (POC) blood glucose levels via their MyChart account. To activate this flowsheet, (1) the patient must have an active MyChart account and (2) prescribers must place an order for the flowsheet.
  • Use "flowsheet" as a search term within the order search tool, in the "Facility List" or "Database" tab.
  • Select "MYCHART GLUCOSE FLOWSHEET", click the "Accept" button, and sign the order.
  • The patient will receive a message in their MyChart account about the newly available flowsheet.
Patient-entered clinical data can appear in a few places in the Connect Care chart, including the "Glucose Management" inpatient activity, "MYCHART" glucose flowsheets in the "Flowsheets" activity and in the "Episodes of Care" activity. For more information, see the tip sheet.
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After Visit Summary Enhancement - Video Viewing Instructions

Enhancement updates provide short alerts to new, fixed or improved Connect Care functions...
  • Adding Video Viewing Instructions to an AVS
As of January 20, 2022, prescribers can incorporate patient education video viewing instructions within patients' After Visit Summaries (AVS). Previously, only text instructions could be included. This enhancement gives prescribers the ability to leverage a broader range of health education supports for patients as part of their AVS.

Similar to the workflow for finding text handouts, there are three ways (tabs) to discover and select video viewing instructions. All use the "Go to Clinical References" link in the Patient Instructions section found in "Wrap-Up" (ambulatory encounters), "Discharge Navigator" (inpatient encounters) or "Disposition" activities (emergency encounters) in an opened patient chart.
  • Relevant Documents
    Selectable video viewing instructions, automatically offered based on the patient's problem list or diagnosis, can be selected before clicking "Add to Patient Instructions".
  • Additional Search
    Both patient and video viewing instructions can be sought (look for "Video" at the end of the titles in search results) and optionally selected by clicking "Add to Patient Instructions".
  • Master Index
    Search alphabetically or by category, or click on the "Videos" link under "Content Types" to see all available video viewing instructions.
After selecting one or more text or video patient education resources, clinicians can optionally add further comment that will appear when the AVS is printed. Frequently used comments can be saved as a SmartPhrase.
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Managing Virtual Visits Without MyChart

Problem: Volume-related delays in access to the MyHealth Alberta login portal can affect access to the Connect Care patient portal (MyChart), preventing patients from using MyChart to initiate telehealth visits by that means.

Context: Connect Care supports secure virtual visits for patients through its patient portal (MyChart) where patients select an appointment and activate the associated video visit from within the appointment encounter. If patients are unable to log in to MyChart, they may have difficulty joining a virtual visit. Connect Care Hyperspace tools for clinician participation in virtual visits are not affected.

Solution: Clinic staff (and prescribers) can call patients directly to provide an alternate means of accessing their upcoming Connect Care video visit if MyChart access is compromised. 

Connect Care automatically generates a Zoom link that can be sent to the patient outside of MyChart. Email can be used as follows:
  1. Within an outpatient encounter "Pre-Charting" activity, use the "Start the Visit" button to make the "Rooming" activity available.
  2. Within the Rooming activity, find the "Connect" section and use the "Email Link to..." button to generate an email with the needed Zoom link to send to the patient.
  3. If the "Email Link to..." button is not available, use the "Demographics" activity (chart search) to add the patient's email to the chart.
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Patient Messages going to Clinic In-Basket Pools

Problem: Some patient communications appear to be inappropriately copied to clinic messaging pools when the patient and/or physician assumed that the exchange was exclusive to provider and patient.

Context: Some physicians already take advantage of Connect Care secure messaging to communicate with their patients. When patients use MyChart (patient portal), they are able to report outcomes and seek guidance from their clinician between visits; helpful in chronic disease management. Although many interactions may be okay for copying to a clinic messaging pool, where support staff can screen messages for urgent issues and ensure timely connections with the right providers, the physician and/or physician may want to keep the communication loop closed.

Solution: Clinic-level incoming messaging pools are important for ensuring that patient communications are appropriately screened, triaged and directed to the right provider. Previously, the "Send patient reply to me" checkbox, appearing on all message composition screens for physician-to-patient communications, was not selected by default. Clinicians may not have noticed and may not have appreciated that the patient reply would copy to a clinic message pool. As of this week, this option is now selected by default.

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Automated Appointment Reminders - Are they Working?

Problem: An automated telephone appointment reminder system has been integrated with the Connect Care clinical information system and deployed at the end of January 2020. There will be growing pains. Physicians experiencing a no-show may wonder whether the patient received an appointment reminder but do not know how to do this within the Connect Care outpatient chart.

Context: Automated reminders can free up clinic support staff for other important patient support activities. However, they do not work for all situations. Clinics managers can submit a request to opt-out, some areas have customized reminder scripts (coming soon), and some outpatient venues (e.g. procedures) will not be enabled until more experience accrues.

Solution: There is a way to get the patient appointment reminder status but it involves using the Department Appointments Report (DAR) functionality and editing the display columns to include one or more appointment status-related columns (e.g., "Patient Communication Preference", "Patient MyChart Status", "Confirmed Appointment", "Appointment Reminder Sent", "ES Phone Reminder Status"). Instructions for doing this are included in the tip linked below.


Easier is to open the “Appt” activity within a chart. This has a appointment reminder letter audit trail for each apt. We are looking for simpler ways to know of reminder status and are seeking addition of this information to the Appt chart activity.
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