Research Day
THE IMPORTANCE OF TARGETED INTERVENTIONS DURING THE DEPLOYMENT OF THE SPANISH MYCHART
Document Type
Abstract
Date
2021
Abstract
Introduction: Epic's Electronic Health Record (EHR) patient portal, MyChart, offers patients a way to actively participate in their care. Epic offers a Multilingual MyChart, including Spanish. As of November 2019, the Family Health Center (FHC) in Kalamazoo, Michigan had not implemented the Spanish translation of MyChart.
Objective: The objective was to observe changes in MyChart usage rates, throughout the deployment of the Spanish MyChart at the Family Health Center (FHC).
Methods: A three-phased approach was implemented to deploy the Spanish MyChart. In December 2019, Spanish MyChart was turned on. In phase two, a brochure campaign occurred at the FHC. In phase 3, we involved a Spanish community organization to advertise the change. Approximately one month lapsed between each phase of the project.
Results: Less than 15 patients utilized Spanish MyChart 6 months after it was deployed. One new patient created a new account in MyChart. The remaining utilizations had an existing English MyChart account and switched the language to Spanish.
Conclusion: We postulate the reasons for low Spanish MyChart utilization are multifactorial, including social determinants of health and the COVID-19 pandemic. We recommend targeted interventions including in-person engagement with the Spanish-speaking community to more effectively address their unique social determinants of health, such as language barriers and diminished access to preventative healthcare. We additionally postulate that the COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted the advertisement campaign for the Spanish MyChart, as in-person gatherings were limited. Our results highlight the importance of targeted interventions in improving health equity for the Spanish-primary population.