'NMCSD Online' Secure Messaging Enrolls 10,000 Patients

By Sonja L. Hanson, Naval Medical Center San Diego Public Affairs

SAN DIEGO, Calif. (NNS) -- Naval Medical Center San Diego (NMCSD) received its 10,000th enrollee in its 'NMCSD Online' program, April 15.

NMCSD Online is a secure messaging service for beneficiaries enrolled in Medical Home Port.

The medical center implemented Medical Home Port (MHP) in 2010, which introduced a new model of patient and family-centered care for all enrolled beneficiaries. MHP is designed to meet the complete primary care health and wellness needs of NMCSD's patients. All NMCSD beneficiaries are assigned to a Medical Home Port team, consisting of a provider, nurses, medical support staff, medical assistants, hospital corpsmen, nurse educators, and others, fostering a team-based, comprehensive approach to healthcare.

"There are multiple benefits to the Medical Home Port model," said Cmdr. (Dr.) Joe Aquilina, NMCSD Medical Home Port Champion. "The collaborative healthcare team allows us to provide more integrated and personalized healthcare care to our patients. Our goal is to increase familiarity with your provider and your entire team, and empower patients to live healthier and happier lives.

"The NMCSD Online technology is a really great tool for convenient patient-provider communication through secure messaging. It's as easy as most people's home e-mail account but is secure and safe. We hope this really helps us build a familiar bond with our patients and makes us more accessible for routine healthcare needs," said Aquilina.

Primary care, including family physicians, internists, and most recently pediatricians, has already transitioned to the MHP model.

MHP empowers patients to take a proactive role as a member of their health and wellness, preventive medicine, or chronic disease management team.

"I used NMCSD Online and was able to communicate directly with my primary care physician regarding test results," said Kimberly Harris, NMCSD beneficiary and command ombudsman. "It was extremely convenient. I keep a very busy schedule juggling work, school, kids, and volunteer activities. NMCSD Online saved me a trip to the hospital."

Both Medical Home Port and NMCSD Online improves patient care through clinical integration and improves overall productivity. Medical Home Port provides each beneficiary with a team of medical experts they can easily access to address their medical needs, with the hope of improved health for the NMCSD patient population through preventive identification, diagnosis, and treatment before advancing to tertiary care state. Coupled with NMCSD Online, NMCSD hopes to foster healthier patients through virtual access, which allows patients and providers to quickly communicate in order to provide proactive intervention, health promotion and disease management.

More than 94,000 NMCSD beneficiaries have already enrolled in MHP.

NMCSD was one of eight initial sites selected to participate in the MHP pilot program. Navy Medicine's goal is to implement the MHP model throughout Navy Medicine by 2012.