Checking Out Your Online Health Record Could Help WCH

By Alex Haglund

From administrators to custodians, health care workers at all levels in the United States have been working hard to insure that the conditions imposed by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are met.

One big requirement for hospitals and providers is the establishment of electronic health records (EHR), which is part of the transparency initiatives under the ACA. While plenty of people are working hard to establish EHR and patient access to them, at Washington County Hospital this is an area where patients can help as well.

“Washington County Hospital has worked diligently over the past few years to implement an electronic health record and now must meet specific criteria to maintain ‘meaningful use’,” said WCH President and CEO Nancy Newby. “One of these criteria is that patient are not only registered for the patient portal, but that the individual patient sign into the portal and actually view their medical record. To meet this measure, we need the support of the patients that are being seen in our hospital.”

To help the patients with signing up for and access to the Patient Portal, WCH has registration staff working to help patients in the ER and on the hospital floor. For office visit patients, said Kim Larkin, WCH’s Chief Information Officer, the hospital is speaking with providers about how to integrate getting patients onto the portal into their office routines.

“The challenges we’re facing are no different than BJC and SSM and everyone else. I really want to be clear about that. The challenge we’ve got is that we don’t differentiate between the office and the hospital, and that patients don’t differentiate,” said Larkin.

For More, Please Read The Jan. 21 Edition Of The Nashville News