DuBOIS — Penn Highlands Healthcare has unveiled its new My eHealth portals on its website, which is available to Penn Highlands patients who use Penn Highlands Elk hospital and physicians.
My eHealth portals are doorways on the Internet to provide patients easy, secure access to their health information and online communication with the doctors’ offices that comprise the Penn Highlands Healthcare system. “These web portals will empower patients and their families to take a more active role in their care,” according to Tom Johnson, chief information officer at Penn Highlands Healthcare.
The portal is an option other than the telephone to request physician office visits and track all appointments. The appointment request allows for comments and contact preferences. Patients will then receive an email confirmation once an appointment is scheduled. Patients can also save time by starting their paperwork for appointments on-line before their visits, such as updating contact information.
Patients can use My eHealth portal to communicate with their physicians’ offices. They can submit questions through a secure messaging center and receive the physicians’ responses. Prescription refills can also be requested this way.
For those who use Penn Highlands Elk, the My eHealth portals give patients access to hospital records including laboratory results and radiology reports, medications, allergies, demographic information, visit history and discharge/aftercare information. Patients can also access billing statements and outstanding balances.
In addition to handling their own care, parents can access children’s records, and patients who have given authorization to others to help them will also be able to access records. “For those who live far away and are trying to help a loved one, this will certainly be a great tool,” Johnson said.
The portals can be accessed at www.phhealthcare.org. User names and passwords must be obtained before using the portal. If a patient uses more than one hospital for healthcare needs, separate user names and passwords are needed for each hospital.
To enroll at PH Elk, patients can enroll when they are at the hospital for services for both their hospital and physician records. Outside of that, a patient would need his or her medical record number to enroll from home. Medical record numbers are available by stopping in person only at the Penn Highlands Elk front desk or from one’s physician’s office.
