Patients at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center can now access their health information and educational tips from their hospital bed.
Cheyenne Regional Medical Center (CRMC) in Wyoming now provides MyChart Bedside to its patients which provides instant access to health information and educational benefits about their condition on a tablet or mobile application.
Patients who want to utilize MyChart Bedside are provided with a tablet to view their lab results, vital signs, medications, prescription refill requests, and upcoming hospital schedule and appointments.
From an educational standpoint, patients may learn about their medical condition and medications, record important information, send messages to their nurses and doctors, and learn more about the hospitals’ medical team.
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All clinical information or notes obtained during the hospital stay on MyChart Bedside are stored on the patients’ personal electronic health record for further use.
“Even though CRMC employees are readily available to answer questions, our patients have appreciated the app’s added convenience,” Erin McKinney, clinical director of CRMC’s Women & Children’s Services, said in a statement. “MyChart Bedside is a great educational and communication tool that allows patients and authorized family members to be more directly involved in the patient’s care.”
Once the patient is discharged from the hospital, the health information is deleted and not stored on the tablet. Patients who do not want to use the hospital’s tablet can also use their own mobile device to access the same information once the app is downloaded.
An added feature to the app that was in a pilot period over the summer focused on mother/baby, pediatric, and oncology units. For example, a mother can navigate her newborn child’s information on the app.
“One of the biggest concerns of patients is the fear of the unknown,” Tracy Garcia, CRMC’s chief nursing officer, in a statement. “MyChart Bedside allows us to more quickly offer information to alleviate some of their fears and augment our direct communications to them.”
The staff at CRMC has expressed positivity regarding the app’s features.
“Our staff has liked the simplicity of showing patients where they can find additional information about their condition and treatment and how they can offer individualized education for their patients through the app,” McKinney said.
Patients can also access their social media pages, watch television, and can watch other forms of entertainment on the app.
UCHealth in Colorado, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, and American Family Children’s Hospital in Wisconsin also have access to the MyChart Bedside app.
“MyChart Bedside is another step in providing enhanced information and communication for our patients,” McKinney concluded.
Having implemented Epic EHR in 2013 and more recently connected to the Sequoia Project’s eHealth Exchange, the largest secure health data sharing network in the country, CRMC is continuing to keep up with technology advancements.
Using the eHealth Exchange, the hospital has been able to exchange data with healthcare organizations, along with the Department of Veteran’s Affairs, the Department of Defense, the Social Security Administration, and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
“Once we had Epic on board, we could connect to the many other organizations nationwide and worldwide that had Epic, but not to organizations with other electronic medical records,” said CRMC Director of Information Technology Jody Siltzer at the time. “Having Epic has allowed us to greatly enhance our ability to access vital medical information securely and quickly, which can make a significant difference to a patient’s care and outcome.”
“By connecting to the eHealth Exchange, CRMC can now securely share vital information with organizations that have different electronic medical records systems,” she added.
Source: EHR Intelligence