By Angela Borchert and Suzanne Hopkins, Vitals contributors

Notifications on our phones. Reminders via email. We all set up alerts to remind us where we and our loved ones need to be, the errands we need to complete and the meetings we need to attend.

However, do we set up reminders for annual wellness checks or other health maintenance? Probably not. No worries, Sutter Health is advancing its My Health Online (MHO) patient portal with innovative tools that make care more convenient and accessible while empowering patients to better manage their health in partnership with their care teams.

Some newly added features and tools include:

• Health Alerts and Reminders — These push notifications are automatically sent to patients via the MHO patient portal when important screenings, tests and checkups are due—from annual eye exams and hepatitis screenings to pap smears and testing for chronic care management.
• Convenient Appointment Scheduling — MHO’s user navigation was recently redesigned to simplify online scheduling choices and provide patients with new and easier ways to request primary and specialty care visits.
• Pregnancy Guidance at your Fingertips — Through Sutter’s new mobile-based Healthy Pregnancy app, patients are able to track key milestones, and automatically receive timely health reminders and maternal education developed by Sutter clinicians. Participants receive individually personalized information to their pregnancy on a weekly basis. Since its launch in early 2022, two out of three expectant mothers at Sutter Health have enrolled in the pregnancy app through MHO.

Sutter’s innovative approaches to care were recently recognized by Epic during its annual UGM (User Group Meeting) conference, where they highlighted Sutter’s achievements using its MyChart platform (aka MHO) to engage patients in their care and further enhance the patient experience. As an example, they noted Sutter’s use of digital reminders which helped boost patients’ A1C test completion by 33%.

The A1C test is a common blood test used to diagnose type 2 diabetes and prediabetes. Patients living with diabetes also use regular A1C testing to monitor how well they are managing blood sugar levels and help prevent the complications of diabetes.

“With more than 1.7 million active patients on MHO, we’re committed to continuously advancing our digital capabilities to improve care access and outcomes for the communities we serve,” said Guy Tennyson, director, Digital Health for Sutter Health. “We encourage all of our patients to enroll in MHO to help them stay connected with their providers and access important healthcare tools anytime, anywhere.”

Sutter stays at the cusp of the industry’s digital transformation through the integrated work of our dedicated teams in digital health, design and innovation and information services. This collaborative approach enables the organization to constantly look ahead, analyze and test emerging care models, with in-person and digitally enabled care seamlessly integrated to create better experiences for patients and clinicians.

“Digital Health is constantly evolving, and our strategy is to stay on top of these changes and give our patients, providers and care teams tools that keep them connected to their healthcare,” said Tennyson.

Click the link to learn more or enroll in My Health Online.