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Giving Cantabrians a patient portal
June 18, 2015
Giving Cantabrians a say in how they access their own health information
Canterbury Health System is seeking feedback on its plans to develop a patient portal to engage and involve people in managing their own health.
Patient portals have been in use in some countries for more than a decade. Patients can use the portal to check lab results for example, to make appointments, order repeat prescriptions, and send secure messages to their care providers.
Stella Ward, Canterbury DHB Executive Director Innovation, says a key part of our sustainable future health system involves enabling people to take a more active role in their own care, and people need high quality information in order to do that.
“We want feedback on how they might use a patient portal and what people want that portal to do. A simple survey has been created to give people the opportunity of making sure a patient portal works for them.”
Stella says implementing a patient portal is yet another important step towards a fully integrated health system where the whole system works together for the best patient outcomes.
“A patient portal allows people to securely access their own health information through a computer, tablet or smartphone, and so engage more closely with health professionals and make better informed decisions about their own health,” she says.
“Last year, we tested our own pilot version of a patient portal in order to find out what a relatively small but highly engaged group of people wanted from a portal, and to learn more about the way it is likely to be used here in Canterbury. This survey is about giving everyone an opportunity for input.”
The survey which has just four questions, all multiple choice with an option to make comments:
1 How important is it to you to be able to access your own health information?
2. Would you use a patient portal and if so, how often?
3. If you would not use a patient portal, please help us understand your reasons.
4. If you would use a patient portal, tell us which features would be important to you.
“Please take a few minutes to complete the survey – what better way to ensure the patient portal works for you than to tell us what will. Help us get it right,” Stella says.
To take the survey, click on this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NY2VJZC or copy it into your browser bar.
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