Push to Promote Patient Portals
On Wednesday, 29 March, Te Whatu Ora for Te Tai Tokerau is promoting the benefits of online consumer portals as a convenient way for people to access their personal health information and interact with health providers.
Portals provide many benefits to consumers, primarily the convenience of accessing their health information 24/7, wherever they are, and free of data charges.
Te Whatu Ora for Te Tai Tokerau has partnered with Manage My Health, the largest portal provider in Northland and New Zealand. From April, any Northland consumer can register to receive and view their hospital information, such as clinic letters, discharge summaries and referral updates, via the Manage My Health portal.
This aligns closely with one of five system shifts in travel for Te Whatu Ora – that ‘digital technology will be used in more and better ways’.
Currently, over 68 thousand Northlanders have a Manage My Health account. In the coming months, all of these consumers will receive an email and text notification that they can now also view their hospital information from the time of the notification.
Transitioning away from mailing information and letters also avoids the risks of adverse letterbox security, patients not updating their current address with healthcare providers, or transient people not living in one location for the long or medium term.
Portals can give information control to consumers and empower them and their whānau to manage their own health conditions. For example, requesting repeat prescriptions, and receiving reminders and recalls.
At present, Māori consumers are under-represented in portal use. Te Whatu Ora project aims to address this by supporting General Practices to remove barriers for Māori and working directly with the Māori community to inform and support registration and use.
Read more about consumer portals on the Ministry of Health website: Patient portals | Ministry of Health NZ(external link)
Kaumātau Te Ihi Tito joined the Manage My Health team and blessed the new service where consumers can register to receive and view their hospital information, such as clinic letters on the Manage My Health portal.
Left to right - Karteek Rayakota (Te Whatu Ora enrolment), Gavin Lamb (Consumer Council), Cameron Hirst ( Manage My Health Sales Manager), Kaumātau Te Ihi Tito (Te Whatu Ora) and Tyson Somerville (Manage My Health Customer Success Manager)
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