An online service offered by Kaiser Permanente allows patients to manage their health care electronically while maintaining contact with their physicians, and other health care systems are beginning to follow suit with similar programs, the Sacramento Business Journal reports.
The program, called KP HealthConnect, allows patients to:
- Schedule appointments;
- Refill prescriptions;
- View lab results; and
- E-mail physicians.
Edward Cohen, lead physician for Kaiser's Northern California HealthConnect program, said the program increases convenience and flexibility, adding that patients enjoy not having to visit a physician office for basic questions and prescription refills.
Use of messaging has more than doubled in the last year, with 250,000 unique messages sent in October 2007, Cohen said.
Lisa Liu, a Kaiser physician, said one of the biggest benefits of KP HealthConnect is a reduction in paperwork and administrative workload, which allows more time for analysis of results and direct communications with patients.
Efforts by Other Health Systems
Sutter Health in Northern California plans to launch a similar online program this year, called MySutterOnline, at all of its facilities.
MySutterOnline is currently being used by about 335,000 patients in two California counties. Sundeep Desai, chief of medical information for the Sacramento region of Sutter, said the goal is to have all Sutter physicians using the system within two years.
The system's features include medication refills, test results and test reminders, as well as visit summaries, medication directions and an area where patients can take notes.
Meanwhile, the University of California-Davis's health system offers a program, called MD Online, which allows patients to schedule or cancel appointments, refill prescriptions, request referrals and send a note to their physician.
In addition, Adventist Health -- which has facilities in California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington -- is beginning to make electronic health records available to patients (Jimenez, Sacramento Business Journal, 1/14).