Memorial Health System (Marietta, Ohio) recently launched a key phase of its patient engagement strategy, the robust app, MemorialCareNow. Initially, the application provided free access to virtual urgent care for existing patients and those without a primary care provider. As the needs of their population evolved, leadership recognized an opportunity to build off their existing app and address a more extensive list of concerns.
MEDITECH’s Greenfield Workspace presented the ideal environment to innovate and enhance the app’s features, all while integrating it with Expanse.
The team at MHS used MEDITECH’s Greenfield Workspace as a development platform, testing patient authentication, token introspection, and retrieval of patient demographics. Memorial’s multi-phase plan for the app outlined telehealth capabilities, secure access to patient data, and self-scheduling, with MEDITECH’s APIs aiding the last two phases.
“The MEDITECH Greenfield Workspace staff have been stellar partners to work with. Our goals align perfectly to improve patient care using an innovative approach, and they’ve gone the extra mile to help meet our goals,” says Jennifer Brooker, Memorial Health System’s IT Director of Enterprise Applications. “They are knowledgeable, attentive, and easy to work with, which had a huge impact on the success of the project for the health system.”
A rural hospital, MHS addresses its geographic challenges by utilizing technology as a communication and service solution. Recognizing that not all urgent care visits require a trip to the Emergency Department (ED), they deployed on-demand virtual care through the app to provide patients convenient access to providers from the comfort of their own home. Not only does this benefit patient satisfaction rates, but it benefits the organization by improving ED throughput.
The app also helps them narrow down demographics, so the hospital becomes more familiar with who they’re serving. “We have found the patients who struggle with transportation means or physical challenges as well as families with multiple children benefit significantly from receiving care in the comfort of their homes,” Brooker adds.
The application supports their specific patient population through usability across all mobile devices, 24/7 access, and telehealth features, then supplemented by MEDITECH’s secure patient data APIs.
Memorial Health System staff have already received positive feedback on the intuitive design and functionality of MemorialCareNow since its initial release, debuting the urgent telehealth feature. Since the follow-up launch in April 2023, which unveiled secure patient data capabilities, MHS has reported a more than 16x increase in application utilization.
“The MemorialCareNow application is easy to access from the Apple App store. Login was automated with my Memorial Health System portal authentication, connecting me directly with my current lab results and appointment history,” reports one user. “Love the presentation of icons to connect to different features in the app along with the ease of usability. Can't wait to see the continued innovation and future updates.”
Through Memorial Health System’s app, patients can enjoy the convenience of viewing their complete health records on mobile devices and reviewing vital data such as current medications or real-time results.
“We are releasing updates to the app in phases and are about halfway into the plan and the feedback from the community has been encouraging and extremely positive,” shares Brooker. “Next steps include delivering patient self-scheduling through our MemorialCareNow app. The options for future innovation are expanding rapidly through more write-capable APIs and MEDITECH’s Greenfield Workspace.”
The patient engagement app is progressing on schedule and MHS staff aim to implement the final phase in the summer of 2023. Utilizing the FHIR scheduling APIs, the app will allow patients to access state of the art features to help them accurately and quickly address their healthcare needs.
