The Miami Beach Community Health Center (MBHC) has a mission to be the leader in health care and education delivery, offering quality services with compassion and without discrimination. In addition to serving immigrants and refugees, who are disproportionately affected by public health issues, MBHC also offers a comprehensive range of comprehensive sexual health services as well as support for those dealing with domestic violence. To best serve the community and our patients’ needs, MBHC strives to make all services accessible. The clinic does not discriminate on the basis of gender identity or expression, age, race/ethnicity, language barriers, or socioeconomic status when providing care for its patients.
This philosophy, along with the mission statement, which is shaped by MBHC’s commitment to a diverse community and evidence-based care, shapes everything the clinic does. By providing effective, accessible care and education, MBHC was able to become accredited by the most rigorous national association of providers of reproductive health care. This accreditation process gave us an opportunity to reflect on our services and evaluate how we could best improve our quality of patient care. Through this process and with the help of a federal T-VHP grant, we were able to implement a new patient portal that allows patients to book appointments online and view lab test results and other medical records.
How does the patient portal improve our quality of care?
A patient portal is a tool that helps improve health care access and quality. It extends patients’ reach beyond our walls and provides them with more opportunities for education about their health. Patients can view their lab results easily and can request refills for medications or schedule test appointments. In addition, the portal serves as an educational tool, providing an easy way for patients to understand their health conditions.
How did the patient portal help us better serve the community?
The patient portal has helped us better serve our diverse community by extending our reach beyond our clinic walls. With a simple log-in, patients can easily access lab results or request prescription refills online, even if they are not currently in treatment. This is particularly useful for newly arrived immigrants and refugees who may not have easy access to these things after leaving their country of origin. The portal also gives patients an opportunity to learn about their health conditions through self-reflection and education on interactive quizzes or tools provided by their care team (i.e., nutritionists, and case managers).
What else is on the horizon for the patient portal?
We are currently working closely with our university partners to plan a curriculum for how to use our new “Know Your Health” website. During the planning process, we learned that many of our patients do not have access to computers. For example, in Jamaica, 60% of people do not have internet access at home, yet 50% of all web searches are done on mobile phones. It is important that we provide the right tools for both sides of this equation, which will unlock knowledge and improve health outcomes.
What are the main challenges we face in providing high-quality health care, education, and social services?
Since MBHC is a small clinic that does not have many tools to create efficiencies and increase efficiency, the challenges we face in providing quality care and education are much more complex than for other clinics. Our patient portal, for instance, was primarily developed by a web developer with no formal technical training. This means that there are some kinks to work out…we’re still finding ways to improve and test things to make sure our patients get the best experience possible. But as tech-savvy people and a client of technology ourselves, we have found that there is much more you can do with your current resources than you think.
Conclusion
The patient portal will allow us to better serve our community. It allows us to extend our outreach beyond our walls and to provide services online and through mobile devices. This will be especially beneficial for newly arrived immigrants and refugees who have had limited access to resources before coming here, or those who may not have easy access to computers at home or in their rural communities.
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