Baltimore hospital launches new patient portal

The time-honored way of meeting face-to-face with your physician is a marvelous thing for patients and it is required, but not for every case and every situation. There should be a way to have a communication other than face-to-face about follow-ups, minor medical issues, lab results and other simple things. There should also be a way other than by making a phone call to make an appointment. If we expect patients to better take charge of their health, they have to have easier access to their medical records.

Historically, patients have not had a way to interact with the health care system and their provider other than face-to-face or phone. But now, across the Greater Baltimore Medical Associates physician practices on the GBMC campus and in locations across the region, there is such a way—introducing “myGBMC”—our brand-new patient portal that went live Jan. 31. “myGBMC” gives patients the ability to take a more active role in managing their health care and offers instant, around-the-clock, password-protected access to their personal health information.

“myGBMC” is a free service available to current GBMC patients. It is a personalized, secure communication link between patients and their physician's office that provides convenient, 24-hour access as well as online tools to help manage care more effectively. A similar portal will soon be available to patients of private practice primary care physicians who are part of the Greater Baltimore Health Alliance (GBHA).

Our goal is to keep patients informed and involved in their health care every step of the way.

Through “myGBMC,” patients can confidentially and safely:

• Access their personal medical record.
• Communicate with their physician's office.
• View recent laboratory results, medication lists and health summaries.
• Request prescription refills and referral renewal.
• Update their personal information, and more!

Since its launch last week, our practices have web-enabled more than 2,350 patients on the “myGBMC” portal (not including more than 1,000 patients of the Hunt Valley practice which went live as the pilot site in mid-November 2011). It’s evident that our new tool is popular with patients.

If you’d like to see a video tour of “myGBMC,” click here.

This blog first appeared on A Healthy Dialogue.