Clinic employees describe their experiences with My Marshfield Clinic
Convenient. Confidential. Quick. These are some of the words used by Clinic staff and other patients to describe the benefits of managing their personal health care through My Marshfield Clinic.
This free service is an efficient, secure way to enhance communication with your health care team and take care of personal business when it is convenient for you, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Need your latest cholesterol readings, your child's immunization records or a prescription refill? These are a sampling of the wide range of health information and tasks that can be accessed securely on My Marshfield Clinic.
To encourage patients to sign up for My Marshfield Clinic, staff in patient care departments can now print PIN letters for patients interested in registering. Patients can then complete the registration process at their convenience, and before the PIN expires in 14 days.
"Since we extended the expiration on the PIN letter, we've started to see 500-plus registrations a week from the My Marshfield Clinic onsite process, which is about five times our average prior to the PIN letter," said Aaron Kremin, Information Systems Cattails project manager. "With increased marketing and education materials around the Clinic, we've seen a dramatic increase from online registrations as well."
Clinic employees who've signed up for My Marshfield Clinic say that convenience is a key factor in using the site.
"I am very excited to have the ability to view my own health information online because we are not allowed to view this information directly in Clinical Applications," said Karrell Britz, Marshfield Clinic Minocqua Center appointment coordinator. She sees this as a valuable resource to check her own health history without keeping all the paperwork. "I appreciate being able to check when I'm due for preventive items like mammograms, since I have lots of family history of many concerns.
In her role as Family Medicine medical assistant, Mayna Her, Marshfield Clinic Stettin Center, listens to patient feedback on a variety of topics, including My Marshfield Clinic. "Patients are complimenting us on how great this is, some even saying we should have had this a long time ago." The only group that appears reluctant to sign up is the elderly, Her noted.
"I use it and love the functionality,” said Rachel Denning, Marshfield Clinic Chippewa Falls Center administrative secretary. “From requesting med refills, paying my bills and seeing what tests are due to graphing my weight and seeing my test results, it's awesome.”
Teri Wilczek, Clinic chief development officer, has been using My Marshfield Clinic since it began. "I love the convenience of being able to check on appointments for myself and my family," she said. "With three children, we have quite a few appointments." She also uses it to review test results and health histories, adding that "It's very helpful when filling out my Active Advantage Life Focus Assessment or to check on immunizations or other needed appointments."
The convenience factor should continue to be a key driver in patients' interest in My Marshfield Clinic. Now even more information is available online, including test results, health conditions, medications and allergies. As of January, after-visit summaries are available on My Marshfield Clinic, simplifying the process and expense of providing these summaries to patients.
"The Clinic's goal is to increase the number of patients who are registered to use My Marshfield Clinic - and that includes all physicians and employees," said Edna DeVries, M.D., FAAP, Central Division medical director and chair of the Personal Health Record Meaningful Use Operations Workgroup. "Encouraging patients to use My Marshfield Clinic is the easiest, most cost-effective way to provide after visit summaries to patients."
Some attractive features of My Marshfield Clinic include the ability to:
- Monitor your own health information. The site has several added features with more to come.
- Learn about My Marshfield Clinic, so you can better answer patients' questions.
- Meet key Meaningful use requirements to provide after visit summaries to patients.
- Provide better service to patients when they are at a Clinic location.
- Serve patients better by minimizing their need to call back for more information.
