Secure Patient Portal Technology Proves Successful for Award-Winning Virginia Women's Center

Richmond, Virginia's independent women's health practice and 2009 recipient of the Davies Award, Virginia Women's Center, continues to prove its commitment to technology through an online portal that allows for better patient care, faster test reporting and improved patient experience. End Quote

Richmond-Petersburg, VA (1888PressRelease) September 28, 2011 - While much of the health care industry has been slow to adopt electronic health records technology, Virginia Women's Center (VWC) has embraced its benefits, using it to fully enhance the patient's experience with their practice by adding a secure patient portal in 2010. The secure patient portal allows patients to schedule appointments, send secure messages to their VWC care team, request prescription refills, receive lab and test results via secure message and update, view and download their medical summaries. In addition, the practice hopes to keep patients engaged and informed about their health through their resource-rich Web site, www.VirginiaWomensCenter.com. In the first year following the launch of the patient portal, Virginia Women's Center has seen approximately 51 percent of their patients register on this new service.

"In this day and age, women are working, raising children and caring for their families, among many other things," said Virginia Women's Center Administrator, Brenda Burgess. "To put it plainly, women are busy. As their health care providers at Virginia Women's Center, we want to make every aspect of our services easily accessible to them. I think our patient portal has helped many of them communicate with our practice when it is convenient for them, ensuring that they still receive the care they need despite their hectic daily lives."

While the success of the secure patient portal is evident in the number of patients who have registered and utilize the free service, the anecdotal feedback from patients about the portal has been extremely positive.

"Personally, I have found that the most popular features on the portal are the abilities to receive lab and test results and to message the nurses to ask questions," said Dr. Kay Stout, practicing physician and Director of Clinical Informatics at Virginia Women's Center. "In addition, we've started sending 70% of our Pap smear results through the online portal versus the U.S. mail. This not only reduces the amount of time patients have to wait for their results, but also, it is one more way we've been able to diminish our environmental impact. Finally, this is a more efficient workflow, freeing up our staff to return to what they do best: caring for our patients."

Since its inception in the 1960s, Virginia Women's Center has dedicated its practice to serving the entire realm of women's health care, incorporating urology, high-risk obstetrics, obstetrical genetic counseling, ultrasound, mammography, bone health, psychology and clinical research to complement their traditional obstetrics and gynecological care. The independent practice has also since dedicated itself to utilizing medical technology to better serve its patients and was the 2009 recipient of the Davies Award for its implementation and use of electronic health records. Looking ahead to the future of the secure patient portal, Virginia Women's Center hopes to increase the number of appointments and prescriptions refills that are completed online. New features are continuously being added, the most recent being a "medical summary", where patients can view and download overviews of their medical records.

For more information about Virginia Women's Center and its use of an online portal to assist its patients, please contact Kate Mendez at 804-288-4084.

About Virginia Women's Center
Virginia Women's Center is a full-service women's health care provider specializing in obstetrics, gynecology, urology, high-risk obstetrics, obstetrical genetic counseling, ultrasound, mammography, bone health, psychology, nutrition and clinical research. The practice sees patients in four locations in the Richmond area and has an additional office in Kilmarnock. For more information, visit www.VirginiaWomensCenter.com, or find us on Facebook and Twitter.

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