Hospital Boosts Patient Data Access with Epic MyChart Patient Portal

Orlando Health St. Cloud Hospital has announced an EHR integration with the Epic MyChart patient portal that aims to enhance patient data access. 

The Orlando Health MyChart patient portal allows patients to view test results, send and receive secure messages from their provider, manage appointments, pay bills, and request prescription refills online.

According to Novlet Mattis, Orlando Health CIO, the MyChart feature is part of the organization-wide efforts to streamline health data and care delivery across the healthcare system. The transformation began earlier this year with the implementation of Orlando Health’s Epic EHR.

“There was an increasing need for efficiency and simplicity in our operations,” Mattis explained in a public statement.

Mattis noted that the MyChart patient portal EHR integration will advance the hospital’s data sharing capabilities, empowering clinicians and patients alike through access to data.

“We are very excited to have this feature available for patients at Orlando Health St. Cloud Hospital,” Ohme Entin, president of Orlando Health St. Cloud Hospital, said. “I encourage all of our patients, who are able to do so, to utilize the MyChart patient portal as it gives patients the information needed to better manage their healthcare, which leads to improved outcomes.”

The patient portal aims to promote patient data access to encourage patients to play an active part in their care. If needed, an approved loved one can also gain access the portal to help manage the patient’s care.

Patients who visit with a provider at Orlando Health St. Cloud will receive an after-visit summary with information regarding their visit and a MyChart activation code. Patients can then use that code to create an account with their own username and password on the Orlando Health MyChart website. Patients can also sign up at www.orlandohealth.com/mychart if they do not have an activation code.

In addition to the website, patients can download the MyChart App from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store onto their computer, tablet, or smartphone for mobile access.

Patient portals have a variety of use cases. In some instances, they can also provide patients with a secure location to voice their end-of-life care wishes.

Vanderbilt Health integrated its End of Life Care Plan into its EHR patient portal late last year as the COVID-19 death toll neared 300,000 individuals.

“Every patient’s decision regarding end of life is very personal, and the clinical care plan needs to be tailored, keeping the patient’s goals front and center,” said Shubhada Jagasia, MD, chief of staff at Vanderbilt University Adult Hospital and Clinics, in a statement at the time of the announcement.

“These decisions need to be made at the right time during the care of the patient and documented in the electronic medical record,” Jagasia continued. “This need has been accentuated during the COVID pandemic, as limited hospital visitation policies and lack of consistent family presence at the patient’s bedside makes reliable knowledge of the patient’s end-of-life wishes even more important.”

Like Orlando Health’s MyChart patient portal, Vanderbilt patients can designate an individual to make the patient’s healthcare decisions if the patient is not fit to make those decisions. Additionally, patients can input customized healthcare interventions in the portal.

“We are currently refining several aspects of the End of Life Care Plan feature, including making it even easier for patients to find,” Trent Rosenbloom, MD, associate professor of Biomedical Informatics at Vanderbilt and director of My Health, explained.

“We are also making the materials we have that guide patients through what they need to consider when developing an End of Life Care Plan easier to understand and more personalized to our community,” he added.