Four local hospitals have launched a new patient portal, aptly named my health care, allowing patients to become more actively engaged in their own healthcare journey.
The portal is available to patients who receive care at Collingwood General and Marine Hospital, Georgian Bay General Hospital in Midland, Headwaters Health Care Centre in Orangeville and Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre in Barrie.
It provides direct access to hospital medical information, including test results, medication history and scheduled appointments.
The portal, which can be accessed at any time through any device, allows patients to easily share their information with family members, caregivers or other members of their care circle at their discretion. After being signed-off by the physician, most information is immediately available, though medical imaging and pathology reports will take 14 days to appear in the patient’s portal.
Patients can provide their email address to the hospital while registering for an appointment or procedure or by emailing portalsupport@myhealthcareportal.ca to view their health information obtained from all four hospitals from April 1, 2022, onward.
Visit history prior to April 1 is viewable, but health information regarding these visits is only accessible through the treating hospitals’ Health Records department.
A news release says the information is contained in a secure, electronic file that allows care teams to have immediate access to vital information while providing patients with access to their own health information.
The addition of the patient portal was made possible by a large-scale health information system transformation among the four hospitals in September 2021. The partner hospitals implemented MEDITECH Expanse, which has created one shared electronic medical record across all four organizations.