Hospital unveils new web portal for patients

Tribune Staff Report

Sisters of Mercy Health System recently announced a new online patient portal called MyMercy that allows patients to schedule doctor appointments, view lab results and send messages to their physician from a personal computer or Smartphone.

MyMercy was launched publicly across Mercy's four-state service area -- including Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma -- on Thursday, Mercy Health Center, officials said in a news release.

The free online service is largely unprecedented across the nation, the release said.

For people like Lorraine Helms of Fort Scott, MyMercy allows her to monitor the health care of her 83-year-old father without having to leave her desk at work. Doctors recently discovered a tumor in her father's brain, and that has left Helms feeling nervous and anxious.

MyMercy provides Helms, 61, with easy-to-access knowledge.

"Instead of waiting to get a call from the doctor's office, I can see the lab results on my computer," Helms said. "The convenience is amazing. I even get messages that remind me about his upcoming appointments. It has relieved me of a lot of stress."

The news release said MyMercy is a technology that is raising health care to a new level, and by all accounts, patients feel empowered by the service.

In Fort Scott, MyMercy is available to patients of Mercy Physician Group's family practice doctors including John Fox, P.K. Gugnani, Randy Nichols, David Parris, Amy Sachau, and Maxwell Self. Fellow Mercy physicians have shared the new technology with their patients, from Independence, Kan., to Rogers, Ark., to Springfield, Mo.

Patients of Mercy's Medical Clinic of Linn County also have access to MyMercy. In Pleasanton, physician Jay Allen is accepting patients on MyMercy.

Across the four-state Mercy service area, more than 16,000 patients already have signed up for the free service, and locally, about 50 patients are online with MyMercy, according to the release.

According to representatives from the EPIC company, maker of the software that powers MyMercy, the Mercy physician practices in Fort Scott and Independence are currently the only health care providers in Kansas offering this level of interactive online service for patients.

Registration and a demonstration of MyMercy are available by visiting the new Mercy website at http://www.mercy.net.

For more information or assistance with registration, contact the MyMercy customer service line at (888) 986-3729.