Press Releases: Georgia
September 5, 2006
Virtual Medical Records a Reality at KP.org
Members can access their medical records online, e-mail their doctor and more
ATLANTA — Virtual medical records have become a reality at Kaiser Permanente of Georgia. The health care provider will offer all metro area members fast and immediate online access to medical records at kp.org by Friday, Sept. 8.
Members of Kaiser Permanente Georgia that sign up for the service can e-mail their doctor’s office with questions, view lab test results and review past office visit information online at their convenience. They also can view or cancel future appointments.
Kaiser Permanente, the first Georgia HMO to offer such a service, rolled out online access to 47,000 patients at its medical center on Steve Reynolds Blvd. in Duluth in early August. Kaiser Permanente will implement the service this month at 11 metro area medical facilities in Alpharetta, Atlanta, Tucker, Cumming, McDonough, Lithonia, Jonesboro and Kennesaw (see complete list below).
- 1735 Peachtree Road, Atlanta
- 3550 Preston Ridge Road, Alpharetta
- 1175 Cascade Parkway, Atlanta
- 200 Crescent Centre Parkway, Tucker
- 2525 Cumberland Parkway, Atlanta
- 1400 Northside Forsyth Drive, Suite 350, Cumming
- 20 Glenlake Parkway, Atlanta
- 1125 Towne Centre Village Drive, McDonough
- 5440 Hillandale Drive, Lithonia
- 2400 Mt. Zion Parkway, Jonesboro
- 750 TownPark Lane, Kennesaw
"Our members requested the service," said Luke Webster, MD, physician lead for Kaiser Permanente’s member online access project team. "Kaiser Permanente is ahead of the curve since the government mandated that all patients must have online access to their records by 2010. It’s one more benefit of being a Kaiser Permanente member."
In a recent study conducted by Chicago-based market research firm Synovate, for Kaiser Permanente, most Americans said their top healthcare preferences were accessing their medical records and scheduling medical appointments online.
Kaiser Permanente has an aggressive online strategy and plans to add future services online such as scheduling appointments, viewing immunization and allergy records. Members can also set up reminders for preventive care screenings (mammograms, annual physical, etc.).
"Online services are a part of our commitment to offering the best possible customer service to our members," Dr. Webster said. "We think the addition of these services helps us remain an industry leader in health care."
Georgia was the seventh state to install EHR within Kaiser Permanente’s healthcare system. Kaiser Permanente was one of the first in the Unites States to implement EHR in 2003. It’s in the final stages of rolling out the program to its more than 8.5 million members nationwide.
With EHR, Kaiser Permanente doctors can instantly get critical health information about their members. In addition to saving time and money, it can save lives. The EHR system automatically flags abnormal test results and dangerous drug interactions, since member records are all in one online space at kp.org.
Because of EHR, Kaiser Permanente was first to discover the Vioxx problem, which helped Merck voluntarily pull the drug from store shelves while it researched the situation.
Kaiser Permanente members already can refill prescriptions online, get medical information on more than 40,000 health topics, use health calculators to determine things such as pregnancy due dates and talk to and receive support from other members about common health concerns in chat rooms and on message boards.
Kaiser Permanente is the state of Georgia's largest nonprofit health plan, serving the health care needs of Atlanta metro area residents for 22 years. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Georgia, Inc. currently provides comprehensive health care services to approximately 275,000 members through 15 medical facilities in a 28-county service, and a network of affiliated hospitals and physicians. The Health Plan provided more than $5 million in community benefit programs and services.