Four Directions of Wellness - Personal Health Record

Y't'h and welcome to Four
Directions of Wellness.
I'm Roberta Diswood. (Introducing clans) Your personal health record is
one of the most important
records you have. It contains most of your
medical information over the
course of your healthcare.

Many of us may have a need to
access our health record. The Indian Health Service is
making it easier for you,
the patient, to access your
health record, which will allow you to manage
your health better. To explain the new personal
health record system is
Gary Russell-King, Director of Medical Records and
Navajo Area Health Information
Management Consultant. Thanks for being here, Gary.


Go ahead and tell us about
yourself. Hi. I'm Gary Russell-King. I am born for the Red Running
Into the Water People clan and the Zuni People clan.

Well, thank you again. So what is the personal health
record, and what will it allow
me to do as a patient? The personal health record is
actually part of the original
initiative  of the electronic health record
mandate that President Obama
put in place back in 2006. The Indian Health Service has
moved forward with the Health
Information Exchange, which now allows our patients
to access any of their IHS
medical records nationwide through this new personal
health record system. So our patients will now be
able to view those health
records online on their
computer or a mobile device, and they'll also be able to
print it up.

And so what exactly will we
be able to see? Some of the key components that
patients will be able to see
right now are... Their laboratory results, radiology results, immunizations, last visit information and
any admission history. All those components will
display and be able to print up
on their personal health record. So will this allow me to be
able to go in and see when my
next appointment will be? Yes.

The system will capture
appointment information, so the patient will be able to
go in and see when their next
and future appointments are
going to be. Okay. That's really good
information. And will this allow me to
contact my doctor? Yes.

The personal health record
system has an electronic
encrypted email system that
will allow our patients  to click the button and send a
secure message to their
healthcare provider. So for example if they had a
medical question
about their care that they may have forgotten to
ask the doctor while they were
in the examining room, they can go into that system
and email that doctor a message. Or maybe they want a refill. Or they want to know when their
next appointment is.

So the system does allow that
communication back and forth
between the healthcare provider
and the patient. Okay. So who will have access
to my personal health record? It will be strictly the patient. However, the system will allow
the patient to designate an
alternate individual if they
wish to choose to do so.

When they do that, the patient
can select whether they have
total access to their record or
limited access. So it's really up to the
patient, but it can be set up
that way. So Gary you mentioned
limited access. What do you mean by that? The patient can go into their
personal health record and set
the parameters  where it could restrict that
person from seeing maybe their
visit information Or maybe restrict them from
seeing their medication listing.

Or restrict them from seeing
anything else that has to do
with their admission. So that's what the patient can
do is pick and choose what they
want that individual to access. And from that, how do we know
that our personal health record
is secure and protected? The personal health record
system is actually a separate
medical record system  under the system of records
for the privacy act. So this record system abstracts
data from the electronic
medical records system, and it's kept on a separate
server which is maintained in
our Rockville, Maryland office.

So It's actually a separate
records system that has all the security
measures in place in order to
make sure that it's safeguarded. How do I obtain access to my
personal health record? Okay. The steps are very simple. The patient will have to go to
the web portal, establish an
account name, a password.

Once they successfully do that,
there's three security
questions that are asked. You know, with any online
applications,  they always ask you to set your
security codes in case you
forget your password. Once that individual enrolls
online, one requirement is that they
use their legal name, because that's how the health
information exchange goes and
finds all the health
information  at all the IHS sites. So they must use their legal
name when they register.

Once they successfully do that,
they can go to patient
registration at anyone of our
sites, IHS wide, and patient registration will
link their account to their
personal health record. So once that's done, then the
individual will have immediate
access to their
personal health record. Okay. And is there any special
equipment they may need for it? They should have Mozella Fire
Fox or Chrome software
installed on their personal
computer in order to access this
personal health record system.

Okay. And where can I go to
enroll? You can go to any Indian Health
Service site. Most of our sites do have
dedicated offices for their
personal health record
enrollment. They could also stop by patient
registration and pick-up a
brochure, a pamphlet.

And lastly, they could also go
to the IHS website and learn
more about the personal health
record there. And Gary, is there anything
else you want to add before we
leave the show? Yes. We would like to encourage
all of our Indian Health
Service patients to enroll into the personal
health record to have better access and
manage their healthcare. Well, Gary, I want to thank you
for being here today.

This has been Four Directions
of Wellness. Hgonee'. .