The CX Blog

I’m not much of a fan of the medical industry, but I am a fan of the smart things they’ve got going at Group Health Coop in Seattle–and I’m not the only one, it seems.

Setting up my annual physical a couple of weekends ago, I used Group Health Coop’s online appt schedule. I was interested to see that they had all my history there from even before things were online–like all the way back to 1993.

The appt set up was a snap, and afterwards, I was given the option to do my profile online before actually going in. I think the profile could have been a bit more user friendly, but all in all, it was great…and when they nurses and doctors actually used it upon my visit, and when it actually linked up to my actual in-person physical, I was doubly, triply impressed.

I got the results to all my tests online, they were easy to find and easy to understand. But here’s where things could have gotten interesting indeed (and I’ve given GHC feedback on this): the results were flat, they didn’t link to anything and they included a lot of lab jargon that I didn’t fully understand. While the results were all good, I could have used more info on some issues–a little translation or deeper level of explanation. Because I was interested, I went to their online KB and looked up the subject I was interested in and voila! The first article I pulled up was the one I needed.

Sweet.

My question is: why don’t you embed a link to the appropriate branch of the KB that relates to the test result, for example, Cholesterol. This does two things well: it drives the patient to the KB and trains them to use the system, and it helps the patient learn more about her/his own health.

Then, the potential to share that information within or outside the firewall of the GHC home, say to family members or friends–now that would be truly useful.

They’re definitely going in the right direction and I was an appreciative patient. Thanks GHC!