Secure messaging for patients

  • Published
  • By 75th Medical Group
HILL AIR FORCE BASE --  The 75th Medical Group began patient registrations for MiCare, the military's online confidential secure messaging service at Hill AFB on March 5. This system is already deployed at 28 military treatment facilities (MTFs) throughout the country and has been shown to significantly reduce the number of phone calls between patients and providers, increase patient satisfaction, and save time for both patients and medical office staff. The Air Force Medical Service (AFMS) aims to enroll as many patients as possible into MiCare and use secure messaging as the primary form of communication between patients and their healthcare teams.

Patients currently enrolled in MiCare are already talking about the ease, accessibility and benefits of this Internet based service. One MiCare enrollee said, "It is always empowering to be able to communicate via the Internet about routine health issues -- and it prevents visits to the clinic ..." Another enrolled patient said MiCare "answers lots of questions and saves so much time for both doctors and patients."

On MiCare, patients can request appointments with healthcare providers, get test results, request prescription refills or ask their healthcare team medical questions via a secure electronic message that bypasses phone-trees, voicemail and phone tag. MiCare is currently set for secure messaging and will be adapted to include Personal Health Records at a later date.

This only works for your benefit once you register. To register, patients should visit their MTF to initiate the face-to-face registration process. Patients will need to show their military ID and provide basic information such as name, Social Security number, birthday and email address. An email will be sent for patients to finish enrollment and confidential messages may start immediately.

MiCare has been designed to support patients and healthcare teams and will be implemented Air Force-wide, so once registered, a patient will remain in the system --no matter where the Air Force takes them.

For more information, visit www.afms.af.mil/micare or call Maj. Christopher Cabana at 801-586-9807.