Dear HCHC Patient,
Over the last two months, HCHC has made significant upgrades to our technological systems. These include our electronic health record and our phone system. These changes are necessary to ensure that HCHC is able to continue to provide high quality integrated care and improve our coordination of services. By using these sophisticated systems HCHC will be able to communicate more effectively with our patients, with specialists and hospitals, and within our organization.
These positive changes, however, have created new challenges; as the systems are implemented, we have had to learn the system and work out the challenges created by moving information from one system to another. This process takes time and can be frustrating to both patients and staff.
I know that some patients have recently had less than an acceptable experience accessing care at HCHC. I want to apologize for any inconvenience and concern that this has caused, and pledge to you our commitment to addressing these issues and ensuring that our patients have the best and safest access to the care they need.
Specifically:
- Our transition the new electronic health record system, Epic, and its patient portal, MyChart, has required a tremendous amount of staff time to ensure that all patient information has been moved into the new system in a timely manner. While we are confident that this new system will greatly increase quality of care for everyone, we are currently prioritizing moving patient information based on upcoming appointments. We understand that other patients, particularly those requiring a prescription refill, have discovered missing information in their portal.
- HCHC’s Response: HCHC has hired additional staff and support to work diligently on this issue. These individuals are working on ensuring that the information that is critical to safe and effective care is available to both our staff and patients, when they need it.
- For more information regarding MyChart, please click HERE.
- We replaced our phone system this fall in recognition of the need to have the best and most flexible technology available. Unfortunately, this system has proven to not be a nimble as needed by a growing organization of HCHC’s size. This has resulted in some patients experiencing longer than acceptable waits for someone to answer the phone, and/or delays in getting messages returned.
- HCHC’s Response: HCHC is working closely with outside IT consultants to both fix the immediate issues, and to determine how to fix the larger system issues that we have been experiencing. We are continually assessing our efforts, and working with our answering service provider to ensure that every patient that reaches out to one of our sites gets the service they expect and deserve.
As you can imagine, providing high-quality and integrated health care in this day and age requires the most up-to-date technological solutions. HCHC is proud of its commitment to having state-of-the-art systems, but we are very sorry that decisions that will benefit our patients in the long run have negatively affected some of our patients’ experience in the short term.
I ask for your forgiveness again, and your patience with us as we address the issues is appreciated. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to call 413-238-4117 or email me at info@hchcweb.org. – Hilltown Community Health Center (hchcweb.org)
Sincerely,
Eliza B. Lake, Chief Executive Officer