Patients of SIU HealthCare can now manage their health records online.
SIU Healthcare has started a secure online portal for healthcare access that will allow everything from managing health records to refilling prescriptions, according to Doctor David Graham, Chief Clinical Information Officer.
“We’re moving, thankfully, away from an era where information in a doctor’s chart is private and held in their constraints, and it’s their determination,” says Graham. “In my belief, it’s about the patient. It’s the patient’s information. It’s just recorded in [a doctor’s] chart.”
It’s more than just a convenient way for accessing medical records, says Graham. It’s the law.
“They are now also a requirement for use from the federal government, in a program called ‘The Meaningful Use of Electronic Health Records,'” says Graham. “Physicians’ offices and hospitals are being required to implement these now; whereas they were originally seen as an extra benefit above and beyond what your doctor’s office provides for you.”
While you have to sign up for access by going online or calling your physician, Graham says the records can then easily be communicated to any SIU health care facility, Memorial Medical Center, or the Springfield Clinic.
