Patient Portals: Access Your Health Information

By Josh Maxwell, Director of IT and Telecommunications

As more and more physicians’ offices and other providers begin to take the first step in setting up a patient portal, I thought it would be interesting to tell our story about how our group implemented a portal and how it’s used.

A patient portal is a secure online website that gives patients convenient 24-hour access to personal health information from anywhere with an Internet connection. Using a secure username and password, patients can view and download medical records, read provider visit summaries, access lab results, view current medications, request a medication refill, update contact information, and more.

The use of a Patient Portal satisfies one of the objectives of Meaningful Use (part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009), which is using certified electronic health record (EHR) technology to do the following:

• improve quality, safety, and efficiency;
• improve care coordination; and
• engage patients and family.

Trinity Hospital Twin City has actually implemented two separate portals, one for the Hospital itself, and another for Trinity Medical Group patients. Both of our implementations went very smoothly, as the portals are hosted on the secure servers of our Electronic Health Record vendors. We customized the portals by choosing which features we wanted to offer. We added our logos, and we were up and running.

Patients can register in person for our Patient Portals during the Registration process. Our trained Registrars will ask for an email address, and this is necessary to set up a portal account. Patients will receive an email with the URL (link) to the portal site, along with their username and password. Don't wait. Sign up for patient portal access with our hospital and Trinity Medical Group registrars today.

Click Here For an Informative Video About How Our Hospital's Patient Portal Works!