July 13, 2021

Fueled by the work of a multidisciplinary team, Texas Children’s has officially passed the exciting milestone of 1 million online patient appointments scheduled through MyChart.

Since launching Direct Scheduling in 2018, Texas Children’s has continued to make strides towards ensuring that patients and their families have convenient, easy access to our high-quality services.

Over the past year, under the scope of the Ambulatory Redesign Project, a team including dedicated members from operations and Information Services has worked to enable enhanced online scheduling functionality for our patients and their families.

“Online scheduling is an important part of our ‘customer obsession’ journey,” said Carrie Rys, assistant vice president for the Department of Pediatrics. “This is just one of the exciting ways that we are offering patients greater self-service options through MyChart that they have come to expect.”

The Online Scheduling Redesign Team has implemented all-inclusive online scheduling in 31 specialties across the hospital system, which includes scheduling functionality for new patients, return patients, telemedicine appointments, panel appointments and ticket scheduling.

“It’s so easy now, for instance, for a family to finish up a telehealth visit, then immediately schedule their follow-up visit from their MyChart app on their phone that allows them to see different day and time options that work for them,” said Curtis Yee, practice administrator for Diabetes & Endocrinology and Dermatology. “Without stopping at a check-out desk, we may have missed an opportunity to get that follow up scheduled.”

Texas Children’s section leaders are hearing firsthand about how these optimized functionalities have enhanced the patient experience.

“Online scheduling has helped Neurology improve our engagement with families with establishing new and follow-up care,” said Michael LaRose, practice administrator for Neurology. “We noticed that when patients have more autonomy to select their appointments we see fewer late cancellations and no shows to clinic, improving access for all patients as a result.”

Texas Children’s is in the top 10 percent of pediatric Epic clients for online scheduling utilization, which speaks to the success of countless team members working to educate and support our patients and their families in its use.

The online scheduling journey has been a true success for the organization thus far, and team members expect even greater gains in future months.

“Kudos to our teams activating MyChart, and (for) sharing these tools with families over the years that has put these tools in the hands of so many,” said Sara Montenegro, assistant vice president for Texas Children’s Pediatrics. “I love that this journey has been incremental, and has taught us so much directly from our patients and families.”

September 14, 2020

We can do just about anything these days with our smartphones. We can send and receive emails, make online purchases, connect with family and friends on social media, schedule doctors appointments and even access our medical health records, thanks to smartphones and modern software applications.

In our IT driven world, patient and provider communication should be conducted quickly, securely and conveniently, especially when it comes to accessing and exchanging electronic health information.

In 2016, The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology passed federal legislation called the 21st Century Cures Act Final Rule that puts patients in charge of their health care by allowing them to access their electronic health information more easily through the use of smart phone applications of their choice. The interoperability, information blocking, and patient access to data and electronic health record certification requirements outlined in the 21st Century Cures Act will go into effect in multiple phases and will impact our patients, health care providers and health IT software developers.

Information blocking provision

The Information Blocking provision under the 21st Century Cures Act is the first phase that will go into effect on November 1, and will impact access, exchange or use of electronic health information. The Information Blocking rule will apply to patient portals and applications – like MyChart, Care Everywhere and EpicCare Link – where a patient can easily access their medical records online. However, the rule does not apply to Texas Children’s traditional medical record information release process, where a patient has to go through the Medical Records Office to request copies of their personal health information.

Some of the core data elements that will require autorelease through our patient portals include allergies, assessment and plan of treatment, clinical notes, clinical care teams, health concerns, immunizations, lab results, medication, demographics, procedures, unique device identifiers for implants, and vitals data.

“Under the new rule, health care providers could be liable for information blocking if they do not release this data through these patient portals,” said Brian Stanford, Director of Health Information Management. “Right now, most of this data is not automatically released. Starting in November, we will be required to release this data via MyChart and other patient portals to make it more accessible so patients don’t have to go through the traditional medical record release process to obtain a copy of their health information.”

While there are a few exceptions to the information blocking rule – for instance, psychotherapy clinical notes are exempt from being automatically released into a patient’s electronic health record – this new process of information sharing will be a culture change for our health care providers and our patients.

“Our providers are used to reviewing health reports first before contacting their patient to discuss the results and plan of care,” said Maggie Weimer, Practice Administrator for Transition Medicine. “Now that this health information will be released automatically into the patient portal, a patient could access this information before their provider has had the chance to reach out to them to discuss their results. This change can come as a shock to the patient, especially if there is a particularly sensitive diagnosis.”

Preparing the organization

To prepare and educate the organization about the Cures Act, a workgroup has been assembled to carefully review the regulation, review our policies, procedures and business practices, and develop a systemwide communication plan to ensure our providers are compliant with this new federal regulation.

“With regard to information blocking exceptions, we are working with our legal department to carefully review certain situations where we could block the autorelease of information if the provider feels that releasing this information could potentially cause reasonable harm to the patient,” said Stanford. “We are collaborating with our IS team, senior executive leadership, and our MyChart and patient information exchange workgroups to help us evaluate and determine what our obligations are around the Cures Act.”

Several other changes on the horizon

In addition to the ONC Final Rule, The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Final Rule includes additional requirements primarily for payers, that are also intended to increase interoperability.

  • CMS Event Notifications – Starting May 2021, providers will be required by law to notify the patient’s primary care physician whenever a patient is admitted, discharged or transferred. For example, a notification that a patient has left a hospital can prompt a physician to take steps to provide appropriate follow-up care. These notifications have been shown to significantly reduce how often patients return to emergency departments after discharge from the hospital.
  • Patient Access API: Beginning July 1, 2021, CMS-regulated payers (including Medicaid MCOs) are required to implement a secure, standards based application programming interface (API) that allows patients to access their claims, encounter information as well as certain clinical data.
  • CMS Payer-to-Payer Data Exchange – This provision will require CMS-regulated payers to share certain clinical data with each other and other payers. This allows the patient to take their information with them as they move from payer to payer over time to help create a cumulative health record with their current payer. Having a patient’s health information in one place will facilitate informed decision-making, efficient care, and lead to better health outcomes. CMS-regulated payers must implement processes for this data exchange beginning January 2022.

“As more provisions go into effect in the upcoming year, our Cures Act workgroup team will continue to meet regularly to ensure the organization is informed, prepared and compliant,” said Weimer. “We are working with our internal partners and Marketing to help us facilitate timely communications as needed.”

Stay tuned to Connect for more updates on the Cures Act and the organization’s implementation efforts.

March 18, 2019

 

As part of Texas Children’s Care Coordination Initiative – and in an effort to ensure better care and communication between providers and their patients – MyChart is now available in Spanish.

“By having our patient portal available in Spanish, we want to ensure that we are providing information to families in a language they understand,” said Dr. Heidi Schwarzwald, executive sponsor of MyChart Spanish and Chief Medical Officer Pediatrics of Texas Children’s Health Plan. “Patients and providers can now use the same great functionality in MyChart to transmit messages and health information faster and more efficiently in whichever language our patient families are most comfortable with.”

Before or after patients log on to MyChart at mychart.texaschildrens.org, they can click on the “En Español” button and the MyChart patient portal switches to Spanish. From there, patient families can obtain their after visit summaries and immunization records electronically, reducing phone calls and delays. They can also request medication refills and other services. All of the main features from MyChart English are now in Spanish except for certain titles or sections, such as medication names.

Within MyChart, patient and families can also send and receive open messages. Care team members have three tools to translate Spanish messages from MyChart. Messages can be translated by Spanish-speaking staff who have been validated by Language Services or through a translation software, Systran. Staff can also send MyChart messages for translation to the Language Services team via Epic Inbasket. Each clinic has established their workflow on who and how incoming messages will be translated and can then respond to the concern or request using the current workflow for English messages.

“While over 60 percent of Texas Children’s patients use MyChart, only 27 percent of Spanish-speaking patients had accessed the MyChart patient portal which meant providers had to use different modalities to contact these families,” Schwarzwald said. “Now with the launch of MyChart Spanish, we hope this new communication tool will encourage more Spanish-speaking families to engage with us via MyChart.”

From Texas Children’s operations teams that provided the guidance for needed features to the technical teams that helped implement the new functionality to the Language Services department that provided translations for content, the MyChart Spanish rollout has been a huge team effort across the board.

Language Services provided all of the content and document translations that populated the server files for the Spanish MyChart implementation. This included everything from minor phrases and alert messages to full multi-page, terms of service and important FAQ translations. All of the patient-facing files and content needed to be translated and included in the Spanish MyChart build on the web servers.

“We provided knowledge and expertise to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the translation software and we’ve been working to create and build the software’s dictionary, which establishes the benchmark for accurate translation,” said Alma Sanchez, manager of Language Services. “Our team will continue to enhance the dictionary and translation memory to enable quick and complete responses to our patients.”

The soft launch of MyChart Spanish will give staff the opportunity to test the system and workflow processes before actively marketing this new service to our Spanish-speaking patients and families.

“We’re excited to roll out MyChart Spanish for our multilingual patients, families and staff that interact with Texas Children’s for their patient experiences,” said Colleen Julien, Epic Patient Engagement manager for Texas Children’s Information Services. “We are appreciative of the Care Coordination initiative and Dr. Schwarzwald’s leadership. This project has been on our road map for many years and the project took off when Care Coordination made it an operational priority to offer MyChart in Spanish.”

Click here to read the MyChart Spanish FAQs. For more information about MyChart, visit texaschildrens.org/mychart.

September 10, 2018

What happens when 32 specialties at Wallace Tower, 16 specialties at Texas Children’s Hospital The Woodlands, and 51 Texas Children’s Pediatrics practices take part in their own “Shoot for the Stars” MyChart challenge? It means more patients and their families are signing up for My Chart, the hospital’s online patient portal.

Due to the tremendous success of the 5-week MyChart Madness Challenge in March – which generated close to 2,000 same-day MyChart activations across the hospital system – clinical staff launched a second competition to add to these successes, while engaging their teams around Texas Children’s Patient Access Initiative.

MyChart Instant Activation is one component of the Patient Access Initiative, which essentially pushes a text or email notification to patient families that allows them to sign up for a MyChart account via phone instead of having to use a computer to sign up. Patients are then able to access their personal health information, communicate directly with their care team at any time, and schedule their clinic appointments online.

The Shoot for the Stars My Chart Challenge began on July 23 and ended on August 31. The competition generated impressive results across the organization which has helped to improve access for our patients and their families.

Wallace Tower and The Woodlands

Over the course of five weeks, Wallace Tower generated a total of 979 same-day MyChart activations. Of the 32 participating clinics at Wallace Tower, the neurology team won with 204 same-day activations. Over the course of four weeks, The Woodlands campus generated 100 same-day activations with Dermatology winning the challenge.

Texas Children’s Pediatrics

Texas Children’s Pediatrics (TCP) conducted their own competition which began on July 23 and ended on September 2. TCP generated a total of 11,206 My Chart activations. Several practices won weekly and overall raffles including TCP Baytown, Cy-Fair, Lakewood, Pasadena, PMG and Sterling Ridge.

Texas Children’s Pediatrics also conducted a creative competition where each TCP practice designed a creative campaign to display the benefits of MyChart and encourage MyChart activation.

Here are the top three creative campaign winners:

  • TCP Pasadena – “MyChart is Out of this World”
  • TCP Heights – “Be Incredible…Sign Up for MyChart
  • TCP Rayford – “MyChart-Land”

Click here to view all of the MyChart campaign posters.

Patient access: Opening the door at Texas Children’s

Since launching this initiative in March, Texas Children’s has seen significant improvements in patient access across the hospital system. Several enhancements were implemented in waves across specialties which included:

  • Standard clinic sessions: After evaluating 944 provider templates, extra slots were found where physicians could see patients for a duration of four hours. By standardizing clinic sessions for all specialties across Texas Children’s, over 53,000 new appointments have been added to the system.
  • MyChart activation: In October 2017, the organization had less than 8,000 monthly MyChart activations. To date, we have now exceeded over 60 percent activation for MyChart throughout the system.
  • Direct scheduling: More than 100 patients have used this online feature that allows current patients to quickly and easily schedule appointments online on MyChart.
  • Electronic waitlist: This MyChart feature automatically offers up available appointments to patients desiring a sooner appointment. Since its implementation, over 300 patients have accepted an appointment on average 52 days earlier than their prior appointment.

Click here to watch this video that highlights our patient access journey and our recent accomplishments.

May 8, 2018

From our three hospital campuses to our health centers, urgent care and pediatric practices, Texas Children’s continues to focus its efforts on enhancing patient access. Since implementing solutions for the first two waves of specialties over the last two months, patient families are noticing a positive difference.

For Christina Williams, being able to schedule her 13-year-old son’s clinical appointment 21 days sooner than the originally scheduled appointment has been nothing but a game changer for her.

“I scheduled my son for an appointment in April to see an allergist at Texas Children’s Health Center in Sugar Land,” Williams said. “When I logged on to MyChart, I received an instant notification about an available opening in the Wallace Tower clinic and I quickly accepted it. This process is quick, easy and convenient, and it’s great knowing that I can be notified on MyChart as soon as an opening becomes available.”

First launched on March 19 with two subspecialties – Allergy and Immunology, and Baylor College of Medicine OB/GYN – MyChart’s electronic waitlist feature automatically offers patients and their families on the waitlist earlier appointments once their MyChart account has been activated.

Since the new feature went live for these two subspecialties in mid-March, there have been multiple offers accepted to help families get earlier clinical appointments. Below are the results as of April 30:

  • Combined acceptance rate of 8.2 percent for Allergy and Immunology, and Baylor OB/GYN with average day improvement of 56 days
  • Acceptance rate of 7.4 percent for Allergy and Immunology with average day improvement of 54 days
  • Acceptance rate of 10.7 percent for Baylor OB/GYN with average day improvement of 64 days.

The remaining Wave 1 specialties along with Wave 2 will go live with this new feature on May 21. These subspecialties are Orthopedics, Rheumatology, Nephrology, Neurology, Adolescent/Sports Medicine, Dermatology, Gastroenterology, Pediatric Gynecology, Ophthalmology, Orthodontics, Plastic Surgery, Urology and Cardiology.

MyChart Instant Activation

While the nation was glued to the NCAA’s March Madness college basketball tournament, Texas Children’s remained focused on scoring patient access points during MyChart Madness.

On March 19, clinic staff at Mark Wallace Tower participated in a collaborative, 5-week MyChart Madness competition to increase MyChart activation rates across the hospital system, resulting in more patients and their families taking advantage of the benefits of this online patient portal.

MyChart Instant Activation essentially pushes a text or email notification to patient families that allows them to sign up for a MyChart account via phone instead of having to use a computer to sign up.

“Out of the 32 participating clinics at Wallace Tower, a total of 1,096 same-day activations were generated as a result of MyChart Madness,” said Rachel Norman Brock, manager of Ambulatory Clinics at Texas Children’s. “The Urology team was the winner of the MyChart Madness competition with 118 same-day activations.”

During the first week of instant activation across the Texas Children’s hospital system, there were 3,492 same-day activations, almost half of which resulted from instant activation. To date, Texas Children’s has a total of 6,974 same-day activations thanks to our collaborative team efforts to enhance patient access.

Other strategies to improve patient access

Championed by administrative and physician leaders from medical, surgical, and women’s service lines, the Improved Capacity & Improved Utilization workgroup has been focused on ensuring that providers have appointments in their schedules for our patients when it is most convenient for them to be seen.

By first evaluating appointment templates and aligning provider schedules to a standard four-hour clinic session definition to ensure patients receive the service and availability they need, the organization was able to add over 36,000 new patient appointments annually into the system through Waves 1, 2 and 3 of the project. The team looks forward to additional slots as Wave 4 goes live on June 1.

“To date, the workgroup has partnered with 28 specialties and over 600+ providers to create increased appointment availability, particularly for new patients that are currently facing long waits to be seen in our clinics,” said Grace Karon, project manager for Ambulatory Services at Texas Children’s. “With these new appointment slots, the team is proud to be helping our patients access the care that they need.”

March 29, 2018

While the nation is glued to their TVs watching the NCAA’s “March Madness” college basketball tournament, Texas Children’s is focused on scoring patient access points during MyChart Madness.

On March 19, Texas Children’s launched MyChart Instant Activation and Fast Pass as part of the hospital’s system-wide initiative to improve patient access. MyChart is an online patient portal where patient families can schedule clinic appointments, communicate with their health care providers and access their health records at any time.

“When we implemented MyChart in 2010, one of our goals was to enable parents to become active participants in their child’s health care,” said Julie McGuire, director, Enterprise Systems Clinical, at Texas Children’s. “Through these recent enhancements to MyChart, we are continuing to cultivate a positive experience for our patients, children and women, and their families, while delivering the highest level of care possible.”

MyChart Instant Activation

MyChart Instant Activation essentially pushes out a text or email notification to Texas Children’s patient families that allows them to sign up for a MyChart account. Instead of having to use a computer to sign up, families who receive the invitation can now use a smart phone to activate their MyChart account and download the MyChart mobile app. Clinic staff at Texas Children’s Pediatrics (TCP) and Mark Wallace Tower have seized on the excitement of this new notification tool – and the current excitement around the college basketball tournament – by joining in a collaborative MyChart Madness competition. Other campuses like Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus have been successful in implementing MyChart Mondays where patients and their families can register on the spot.

“Our employees and staff have embraced this friendly and collaborative competition which has had a positive impact on patient access,” said Rachel Norman Brock, manager of Ambulatory Clinics at Texas Children’s. “Instant Activation provides the organization with another way to increase MyChart activation rates across the hospital system, resulting in more patients and their families taking advantage of the benefits of this online patient portal.”

The MyChart Madness teams are grouped in regions – Midwest, West, East and South – and the winner of the entire bracket receives a prize. MyChart Madness originated with TCP. TCP staff and employees launched the push to increase activations on March 1, and within just three weeks, the practices activated 9,003 new MyChart accounts. TCP’s success in promoting MyChart activations across its 51 practices inspired leaders across the organization.

During the first week of instant activation across the Texas Children’s hospital system, we had 3,492 same-day activations, almost half of which resulted from instant activation. This was a significant increase considering that a month ago, prior to the launch of MyChart instant activation, we had only 1,972 same-day activations.

Currently, several of our Texas Children’s Health Centers are doing an outstanding job of increasing MyChart activations. Cy-Fair Health Center achieved 100 percent same-day activations the week of March 11.

Fast Pass

Once families have activated a MyChart account, they have access to features like Fast Pass, which also recently launched with two subspecialties on March 19. Fast Pass creates an electronic waitlist, and automatically offers patients and their families on the waitlist sooner appointments. Patients also have the ability to add themselves to the waitlist via MyChart.

Just last week, a patient who had an April 12 appointment with Allergy/Immunology at the Sugar Land Health Center was seen 21 days sooner than originally scheduled when an opening became available at the Wallace Tower.

“Since Fast Pass went live, there have been seven Fast Pass offers accepted to help families get earlier appointments,” said Julie Barrett, director of Outpatient and Clinical Support Services at Texas Children’s. “We are so proud of our teams and their diligent work in helping us achieve these recent success stories on patient access.”

MyChart Instant Activation and Fast Pass are both tactics in Texas Children’s strategy to improve patient access. In just three short weeks since Texas Children’s launched the patient access initiative on March 1, the hospital has added 10,000 new patient appointments annually into the system. After evaluating appointment templates for over 200 providers, additional slots were found where physicians could see patients in four hour blocks.

“We must ensure that all patients have access to the amazing clinical programs offered at Texas Children’s,” said Texas Children’s Assistant Vice President Carrie Rys. “Our Patient Access Committee has identified many system-wide solutions that will enhance patient experience across the system. These will be implemented in phases over the next several months. Improving patient access at Texas Children’s is our focus and priority.”

January 20, 2015

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MyChart, the online patient portal that allows patients or their parents to access health information from Epic, recently underwent significant improvements and enhancements.

Now, patient families can:

  • Sign up for MyChart in their doctors’ offices and receive access the same day (with a few exceptions
  • Request, confirm and cancel appointments online
  • Review appointment history, chronic illnesses, medical and surgical history, allergies, medications and after-visit summaries
  • Email non-urgent medical questions to providers
  • Request prescription renewals online
  • Complete medical questionnaires prior to appointments

The increased use of MyChart by Texas Children’s patient families will help providers stay connected to their patients, improve patient care and save time.
Here’s how:

  • MyChart is an effective tool for patient engagement, leading to better outcomes. The more patient families are involved in their care, the better their outcomes.
  • MyChart allows easy login – whether on a computer or a smart phone – so patient families can see their health information and review comments from their physicians.
  • MyChart enhances how physicians communicate directly with their patients, by allowing conversations to occur online and at times that are convenient for the physician and the patient. This direct communication helps patient families feel connected to their care providers.
  • MyChart improves the patient experience by allowing easier access to their health information, such as after visit summaries, immunization histories and more.
  • MyChart promotes efficiency by decreasing the need for printing, mailing and faxing patient information.

“We are excited about the changes that have been made to MyChart during the last six months,” said Dr. Joan Shook, Texas Children’s chief clinical information officer. “Now it’s time for us to enlist all the Texas Children’s medical staff and employees to help us encourage our patient families to sign up and use MyChart.”

If you want to watch the MyChart video outside of the organization on our YouTube channel, click here.

For more information about MyChart, visit the links below:
My Chart Overview
Clinical MyChart Workflows
Workflow and Instructions for Responding to Patient Emails
Details about Outpatient After Visit Summary (AVS)
Results Release

Results Release Tip Sheet
eLearning Results Release Tutorial
PowerPoint Results Release Tutorial

Details about Blocked Lab Results and Sharing Letters

Details about History Questionnaires

Functionality for the Teen Patient and Teen Proxy