Volume 16, No.4, Fall 2008
Your Good Health Forum |
Cape Codders who want to communicate with their doctor in the Cape Cod Healthcare (CCHC) system, no longer will be forced to go through the usual “press one for…” series of telephone prompts to reach a real person. Just send an e-mail.
That’s because this summer CCHC is introducing a major new technology initiative to link physicians, patients and other health care providers.
The new technology uses the RelayHealth secure messaging platform to provide doctors’ offices with an efficient method for receiving and managing clinical and administrative communications including lab results and prescription renewals. It also will provide patients with higher levels of access through a patient portal–myCapeCodHealth.org.
The Cape Cod Healthcare Information Technology department is currently implementing the myCapeCodHealth services in several pilot locations with its employed MACC physician practices. While the pilot program is in progress, IT is working with the Medical Staff Leadership at Cape Cod and Falmouth hospitals to determine how the services will be offered to other physicians in the community.
“With myCapeCodHealth.org, we’ve taken a real consumer-centric approach,” said Sheryl Crowley, Cape Cod Healthcare’s Vice President of Information Systems & Chief Information officer. “This technology will help consumers stay in direct contact with their doctors from any Internet connection. At the same time, doctors will be able to increase administrative and clinical efficiency and enhance the time they spend with their patients.”
JML Care Center–the skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility on the Falmouth Hospital campus–had an overall short-term patient satisfaction rate for 2007 of 93 percent, representing a one-point improvement over the previous year and a higher rating than similar facilities in the region, according to an assessment done by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
A 2008 worker satisfaction survey showed 79 percent of JML employees are satisfied with their work, placing JML in the 97th percentile of results for similar facilities, according to the external surveying entity, Press Ganey, which administered and evaluated the study.