Improving Patient Access to the My Health e Vet Electronic Patient Portal for Veterans

Corinne Roberto; Melanie Keiffer; Melanie Black; Carol Williams-Suich; Karen Grunewald

doi:10.17288/fp.0331

Improving Patient Access to the My Health e Vet Electronic Patient Portal for Veterans

Fed Pract. 2022 Dec;39(12):476-481. doi: 10.17288/fp.0331. Epub 2022 Dec 13.

Authors

Corinne Roberto¹, Melanie Keiffer^{2

3}, Melanie Black⁴, Carol Williams-Suich^{2

4}, Karen Grunewald^{2

5}

Affiliations

¹ Veterans Health Administration Community-Based Outpatient Clinic, Bend, Oregon.
² University of Vermont College of Nursing and Health Sciences Burlingoton.
³ Veterans Health Administration, Burlington, Vermont.
⁴ White River Junction Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Vermont.
⁵ Veterans Health Administration Community-Based Outpatient Clinic, Burlington, Vermont.

Abstract

Background: The US Department of Veterans Affairs My HealtheVet (MHV) patient portal is a secure online tool that provides patients access to personal health information. Although facilitators exist to encourage veteran registration, barriers to both adoption and use among veterans persist. This quality improvement project sought to improve veteran access to MHV.

Observations: Using Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) methodology, we identified barriers to registration, evaluated processes for enrollment, and integrated a process improvement champion into a rural primary care clinic workflow. After 3 PDSA cycles, the integration of new processes resulted in increased enrollment and engagement with MHV. Fourteen veterans registered for MHV at the point-of-care in a 3-month time frame.

Conclusions: Use of a connected electronic health record platform and implementation of an MHV champion in the outpatient primary care setting improved rural veteran access to personal health information. Audit and feedback on processes that provide access to health information is an important strategy to narrow the gap between veterans who access patient portals and those who do not.