Archive for the ‘Patient Portal’ Category

Omedix Patient Portal Receives “Meaningful Use” Certification!

by on September 15th, 2011

Omedix is proud to announce that our patient portal – PortalPlus – has received its official “Meaningful Use” certification as an “EHR module. ”  We now have the federal government’s stamp of approval for our software!

Why is this important to our customers?

  1. Our software has passed a rigorous security and privacy review process that elevates our platform above non-certified vendors.
  2. We certified our ability to provide patients with “Timely Access” to their medical record – certification criteria 170.304(g).  This means patients can have online access to their clinical information, such as lab results, medications, problem list, and medication allergy list.
  3. For our customers seeking federal grant support for their EHR implementation, this certification officially deems the Omedix patient portal solution capable of enabling physicians to qualify for funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).*  Our patient portal technology tightly integrates with two EMR platforms – NextGen and GE Centricity.

Why “Timely Access”?

In order for providers to receive grant money, they have to use certified software.  A software vendor can either certify on all Meaningful Use measures and call themselves a certified “Complete EHR”, or on a select few criteria and call themselves a certified “EHR Module.”  Omedix is not in the business of developing EHR software, so why did we bother to certify?  The answer is that there are some criteria that are impossible to meet without some way for the patient to interface with the practice’s EMR system.

One of these criteria is the ability for patients to see their medical record online in real time – otherwise known as “Timely Access.”  PortalPlus is a solution to that problem – the patient registers online, passes a verification process, and can then securely see portions of their up-to-date medical record over the web.

This means the patient can log in and see all their medications (past and present) whenever they need to. They can see a list of the problems they were diagnosed with. They can even see their lab results and allergies.  Your patients will be thrilled.

So what’s next?

Release more features and certify for additional measures!  One of our next objectives is to focus on certifying for additional criteria that will help our customers meet Meaningful Use more efficiently.  These include providing the patient with an electronic copy of their entire medical record and their clinical summary in CCR or CCD format through the patient portal.  Stay tuned for an unveiling of our new personalized patient education platform as well.

PortalPlus is the next generation patient portal that’s moving patient engagement far beyond accessibility to records and results.  We’re creating a dynamic community health platform.

*To learn more about the certification requirements and Meaningful Use, the federal government’s ONC provides a wealth of information, click here.

Introducing Exciting New Patient Portal Features!

by on May 9th, 2011

Hello, this is Aaron Herres – one of the software engineers here at Omedix.  This past Friday, we issued a new patient portal release that adds some great new features I’d like to share with our current (and prospective!) clients.

Automatically Route Patient Requests

Many of our clients wanted the ability to have appointment requests for Dr. Jones routed to one staff member, and requests for Dr. Smith routed to another. But why stop there? In a real doctor’s office, the staff know who to notify about appointment requests based on a variety of real-world factors. At Omedix, we believe that the customer experience should be as close to the real-world as possible. As a result, we’re pleased to announce a sophisticated engine for routing online patient requests based on almost anything in the request — from requested location, to requested doctor or even appointment type.  It’s almost like a smart virtual receptionist, who always delivers patient request information to the people who need it most!

For our current clients, this feature is already live.  You’ll just need to work with your Omedix Support Rep to activate it.

Filter Providers by Location

Another popular request was the ability to allow patients to request an appointment only with those providers who are available at the location the patient selected. This feature is now live for all clients as well, and also needs to be activated with an Omedix Support Rep.

Integrated Online Bill Pay

Omedix clients can now enjoy an integrated online bill pay experience.  When your patients log into the patient portal, if you’ve ordered online bill pay, they will now see that feature available directly.

Various Goodies

Finally, we’ve improved some of the plumbing to make your day-to-day management easier.  Practice administrators now have ability to edit practice user information and deactivate users, the auto-logout time interval is now controllable directly by your organization and can be extended up to 45 minutes.

Summary

At Omedix, we pride ourselves in our ability to release innovative, exciting features on a regular schedule. As a result, something new is always right around the corner!

Please check back often for more feature announcements and other interesting information.

The Patient Portal and Meaningful Use: What You Need to Know

by on March 2nd, 2011

If you are a medical practice trying to meet meaningful use and are wondering how a patient portal fits in to the picture, this is the blog post you have been waiting for!

A Quick Overview of Meaningful Use

The 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act authorized the US government to spend billions of dollars to incentivize the adoption of electronic health record (EHR) software through the HITECH program. Any “Eligible Provider” at a medical practice can receive up to $44,000 over a 4-5 year period in exchange for using “Certified EHR technology” and meeting the “Meaningful Use” objectives.

The Role of a Patient Portal in Meeting Meaningful Use

The foundation of Meaningful Use is, of course, having a certified EHR system, but there are some objectives that are cumbersome or even impossible to achieve without a patient portal. These fall into two main categories – (1) providing patients with direct access to parts of their health record, and (2) providing patient education.

The specific Meaningful Use measures that a patient portal can help to meet are:

  • To provide patients with…
    • Timely electronic access to changes in health information (Menu Set)
    • Electronic copies of their health record (Core Set)
    • Clinical summaries after each office visit (Core Set)
    • Patient-specific education resources (Menu Set)

During Stage 1 of Meaningful Use (2011 – 2012), Providers have to meet all 15 core objectives and 5 out of the 10 menu objectives. During Stage 2 (2013 – 2014), it is likely that all the menu objectives will become mandatory and that additional requirements will be added.

Timely Access is the Most Important Measure for Patient Portals

In practice, many EHR companies have recognized that their clients want to purchase a patient portal from a third party (versus the EHR company themselves), so we have found that the EHR company will help the practice meet all the measures in Meaningful Use with the lone exception of the Timely Access measure.

One of the most interesting developments in Meaningful Use was when the Office of the National Coordinator clarified that while a practice only has to demonstrate 5 out of the 10 Menu Set measures, the practice must “possess technology” on all Menu Set measures. In other words, even if you don’t plan on demonstrating the Timely Access measure, you still need to purchase technology that is “certified” for it in order to qualify for Meaningful Use. You can learn more at http://questions.cms.hhs.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/10162.

Essentially, this means you must purchase a certified patient portal to meet Meaningful Use.

A Screenshot of the Omedix Patient Portal Demonstrating Timely Access

 

Looking in Depth at the Other Patient Portal Meaningful Use Requirements

Let’s examine these requirements one by one and see how a patient portal is either necessary or very helpful in meeting that measure.

Timely electronic access to changes in health information (Menu Set)
“More than 10% of all unique patients seen by the EP (eligible physician) are provided timely (available to the patient within four business days of being updated in the certified EHR technology) electronic access to their health information subject to the EP’s discretion to withhold certain information.”

This measure requires the practice to provide patients with real-time access to their electronic health record online. It is almost impossible to demonstrate this measure without a patient portal. The patient portal must integrate with your EHR system and have the capability to give patients a secure online account to view their medical record. The 10% usage requirement further necessitates that at least 10% of all unique patients coming through the practice’s doors sign up for the portal during the demonstration period.

 

Electronic copies of health records (Core Set)

“More than 50% of all patients of the eligible provider who request an electronic copy of their health information are provided it within 3 business days.”

For this measure, a patient portal is very helpful, but not indispensable. You can send patients a CD, DVD or a USB drive to satisfy the requirement. However, if your patient portal can allow the patient to view their medical record and download an e-copy ot their computer you can save on the costs and administrative burden of mailing and encrypting electronic media with that information.

Clinical summaries of office visits (Core Set)

“Clinical summaries provided to patients for more than 50% of all office visits within 3 business days.”

This measure gives you two non-portal options: 1) print out the summary right after the visit, 2) mail it immediately that evening or the next day, as you only have three business days. This can be a burdensome and expensive process if you have to do it for no less than 50% of all visits. If your patient portal connects to your EMR, it could automatically show the patient their clinical summary after it has been completed and approved! Again, mailing and administrative costs are reduced by using a patient portal to meet this measure.

Patient-specific education resources (Menu Set)
“More than 10% of all unique patients seen by the Eligible Provider are provided with patient0specific education resources.”

Practically speaking, this means that either a person or a computer program has to look into the patient’s record, see what condition they have, and provide a relevant article or video to the patient. Your office staff could manually print an article, mail an article, or let the patient watch a video while in the office. A patient portal that is integrated with an EMR and a patient education database could automatically read the ICD-9 (or soon ICD-10) code associated with the patient’s condition and send the patient the relevant articles.

Patient Portals and Meaningful Use – The Conclusion

To meet the Menu Set item “timely access to changes in health information” you must have a patient portal. For the remaining three measures, a patient portal with the right functionality can save you a tremendous amount of money on staff time, printing costs, and mailing costs, and alleviate general frustration.

If you a are a practice manager, physician, or journalist and want to learn more about how Omedix PortalPlus can help you meet meaningful use, please contact us.

Coming Next

In the next post in our Meaningful Use series, we will explore how to choose a patient portal vendor and how to know if that vendor is certified for meaningful use.

About Omedix PortalPlus

PortalPlus is a next-generation patient portal produced by Omedix. PortalPlus differentiates itself from the competition by offering a vastly superior user experience, fine-grained customizability, a unique focus on leveraging the patient portal for marketing, and a long-term view to how your patient portal will function in the broader community. Learn more at http://omedix.com/patient-portal.

Next Page »