News Feature | November 2, 2016

Vanderbilt Bone And Joint Enhances Patient Access

Christine Kern

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

Patient

A partnership with MyHealthDirect gives patients the ability to schedule online.

While the Affordable Care Act has clearly enhanced access to healthcare insurance, the U.S. continues to trail other comparable socioeconomic countries in regards to access to care itself — particularly when it comes to obtaining same or next day visits.

Addressing this problem together, Vanderbilt is leveraging MyHealthDirect's access solutions that integrate with Epic and enable patients to search, locate, and book online directly with their physicians through a self-scheduling platform. The partnership guides patients to the best physician match based on their condition and the physician's availability and enable digital self-scheduling 24/7.

Patients can see real-time appointment availability as well as info on physician qualifications, photos, directions, and more. The aim is to not only improve flexibility and convenience, but provide quicker access to care. MyHealthDirect's data working with some of the nation's largest health systems, payors, and providers shows that, when self-scheduling is available, 20 percent of patients can find same or next day appointments and 50 percent can be seen within a week.

The partnership between Vanderbilt Bone and Joint, a full service orthopedic clinic that is part of Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), and MyHealthDirect, a provider in patient access solutions, means MyHealthDirect will integrate with VUMC's Epic platform to enable self-scheduling for patients.

“Patients are seeking convenience, flexibility, and value more than ever when it comes to accessing care,” explained Tom Cox, CEO of MyHealthDirect. “Vanderbilt University Medical Center is long known for its high quality patient care and recognizes the importance of providing quicker access to care and the freedom for patients to schedule their own appointments. We support their vision and are excited to be partnering with them to make it a reality.”