Skip to contents
In This Issue:
Patient Gateway helps reduce call volume and improve service to patients.
During the Town Meeting in December, Olabisi Animashaun of Ambulatory Registration raised a question about handling a high volume of patient calls while providing customer service to the patients in front of her. Patient Gateway is one way that BWH and Partners are reducing the volume of calls and improving service to patients.
Since the beginning of Patient Gateway’s rollout in 2002, the online portal has garnered praise from many of the more than 100,000 patients who are enrolled throughout the Partners network. In primary care and specialty practices, staff find that Patient Gateway increases efficiency and customer service, and patients appreciate the convenience of communicating with their physician electronically.
“Patient Gateway enables our practices to meet the demands of a growing number of patients who want to access information online,” said Michael Healey, MD, BWPO associate medical director.
Patient Gateway, which is similar to online banking accounts in security and usability, enables patients to exchange messages with their primary care and specialty care physicians. Patients can also set up appointments, request referrals and prescription refills and view test results with just a few clicks of the mouse. More than 90 percent of BWH primary care physicians now offer Patient Gateway, and the application has been implemented in more than 25 specialty practices.
“We’re continuing our rollout this year to add more care providers at BWH,” said Karen Whitman, corporate team leader for Information Systems.
In October alone, BWH patients requested 2,087 prescription refills, 995 appointments and 451 referrals via Patient Gateway. All of these requests were in lieu of phone calls to the practice, freeing up front desk staff to focus on patients checking in and out and other practice operations.
Patients also have access to parts of their longitudinal medical records, including medications, allergies, immunizations, lab and radiology results and results letters. This resource helps patients gain a more thorough understanding of their care.
“Often times, patients come away from appointments with a lot of new information to digest,” said Chief Information Officer Sue Schade. “Patient Gateway makes reviewing and understanding this information much easier for our patients.”