Call it Digital Age growing pains.
Recently, some patients of the Corewell Health System might have noticed updates to the technology used to track and keep their health records. For most, that has meant minor annoyances of re-entering information or delayed lab results.
According to Dr. Loren Hamel, President of Corewell Health South, the issues are temporary and required to bring multiple systems together.
“We across Corewell Health are trying to simplify our clinical digital platform. Most folks think of that as the electronic health record,” said Hamel. “Actually, we have simplified from about 346 applications down to about 190.”
The “applications” Hamel refers to are MyChart instances, powered by Epic Systems. Epic is the core software that stores a person’s health information. MyChart is a patient’s window into the information stored at Epic. Each healthcare system, e.g. Ascension Michigan, University of Michigan, or Corewell Health, has their own “instances” of MyChart and Epic. Even though they’re both made by the same company, no two health care systems organize the software connections the same way. The goal is to have all Corewell Health instances of Epic and MyChart be the same.
As Spectrum Health merged with Beaumont Health, and Lakeland (now Corewell Health South) became part of a larger organization, connecting those systems to one source of truth has been, as Hamel said, “a very complicated journey” involving about 2,000 people and thousands of hours of work.
“You may notice that it takes a little longer to register because we’re putting records together, kind of, as we’re registering folks (and) combining records,” Hamel said. “We expect that to last for a few weeks as we’re pulling all the pieces together into a single platform.”
The outcome, Hamel said, will be better access to healthcare information, better communication with doctors, and more convenient ways to schedule appointments, pay bills, and get health-related updates.
“We’re going to combine those MyCharts, in time, to make that experience more simple when we’ve done this across 22 hospitals and 300 outpatient sites across the state of Michigan. Also when we make an improvement anywhere, we can make it everywhere. We’re not having to do those one-offs each time with each hospital. So, I think you’re going to see enhancements (and) much, much faster (systems) in the future.”
Accessing health information anywhere you have an internet connection is just the beginning. Hamel said telehealth connections will be more prevalent and enable access to expertise from around the world.
“It’s going to get way better over time. Anticipate that. If you suffer little frustrations the next time you see a doctor, be patient. We’re building this to make it better for you and it will occur for sure. We certainly appreciate the privilege of taking care of our friends and neighbors. And of course, the whole goal behind all of this is just to do that better.”
If you have additional questions about MyChart and your account, you can contact Corewell Health MyChart Customer Support weekdays at 877.308.5083 or email them at: appsupport@corewellhealth.org.
The Corewell Health tech squad will be on-site over the coming weeks at their Center for Outpatient Services in St. Joseph and at Niles and Watervliet hospitals. You can also check the Corewell Health Lakeland Hospitals Facebook page for more information on the dates/times to get in-person help with MyChart.
