Patient Portal (MyAHS Connect, MAC)

The "MyAHS Connect" (myahsconnect.ahs.ca) patient portal launched with the Connect Care clinical information system (CIS). MyAHS Connect allows patients and designated members of their decision-making unit to participate more fully in health maintenance and care.

MyAHS Connect (MAC) is powered by MyChart® licensed from Epic Systems Corporation, © 1999-2024.

Features

Gaining Access

As of October 2024, MyAHS Connect is available to all Albertans with an Alberta Health MyHealth Records account, regardless of their status in Connect Care. Previously, Connect Care prescribers and staff initiated the sign-up process for patients. Instructions for patients on how to access MyHealth Records appear in "After Visit Summaries" (AVS), which may be printed by staff at hospital or clinic discharge, or at any time by physicians. Instructions can also be emailed to patients via the patient Storyboard (top of leftmost column in an opened chart) by clicking on the MyAHS Connect icon to the right of the patient’s name. The MyAHS Connect icon will indicate an inactive/pending status if the patient does not yet have a MyHealth Records account; the icon will indicate an active status if the patient has logged in to their MyHealth Records account, whether they opened MyAHS Connect or not.

When patients are active MyAHS Connect users, it becomes possible to manage information sharing within Connect Care, as described in this section. 

Promoting Uptake

The considerable benefits of MyAHS Connect are not available to patients unless their providers promote the service and help patients use it effectively. Prescribers can help by asking patients about portal use at all encounters. In addition, all clinics and emergency departments should build communication on MyAHS Connect access into after-visit summary workflows.

Prescriber Access

Prescribers may be more inclined to promote portal use by their patients if they are able to use MyAHS Connect themselves. They can directly experience patient portal capabilities. As of October 2024, the self sign-up workflow is no longer required for prescribers and staff to get access to their own MyAHS Connect account. Prescribers who would like to access their MyAHS Connect account can do so by logging in to their MyHealth Records account.

Inpatient Uses

Hospitalizations offer an opportunity to introduce MyAHS Connect to patients and to promote its use as a post-discharge aid to follow-up. Ward staff (inpatient) can build communication on MyAHS Connect access into patient education activities, discharge planning and after-visit summary workflows.

Active MyAHS Connect users are automatically presented with a "Day at a Glance" display when admitted to a healthcare facility using Connect Care as its record of care. This includes information about the patient's:

Effective use of MyAHS Connect during hospitalizations can engage patients and their families as active members of the healthcare team. Research and experience shows that timely patient information access actually decreases clinician information burdens, as patients and families ask more focused questions and have independent access to many answers. Families can do better scheduling visits to fit with inpatient activities.

Chart Access

MyAHS Connect provides patients with access to key content within their health record used where Connect Care is the record of care. This includes their health problems, medical and family history, medications, adverse reactions, immunizations, health goals, care plans, referrals, and other information categories. Some information types are automatically shared. Other types, including notes and letters, can be optionally shared by clinicians.

Proxy Access

Prescribers may be asked to facilitate things like proxy access, where patients share their MyAHS Connect information with family members or persons formally designated to assist with healthcare decision-making. 

Specific processes apply to youths. Parental or authorized representative proxy access automatically expires when a youth turns 12 years old. If proxy access is re-enabled, it again automatically expires when the youth turns 18 years old. At that point, youths can themselves elect to provide proxy access to others.

The decision to grant, deny or remove proxy access can be facilitated only by a regulated healthcare provider who works at an AHS location that has Connect Care. Due to the requirement to determine special healthcare needs, proxy requests for youth accounts can only be completed by physicians, psychologists, and nurse practitioners.

The following resources provide details about how prescribers can help patients navigate proxy access processes:

Communications

MyAHS Connect provides a secure communication channel that patients and their providers can use to share information about appointments, pre-visit and post-visit assessments, chart content, appointment requests, care path progress and other functions. The supports work best when clinical groups (e.g., clinics) configure and adapt workflows to ensure screening of incoming messages, assignment of disease management tools to patients, etc.

Data Capture

MyAHS Connect offers a number of tools that clinicians can use to improve chronic disease management, functional status assessment and health maintenance. Some involve direct patient data capture (e.g., answers to questionnaires or entries to flowsheets) while others involve indirect data capture via interfaces to patients' medical devices (e.g., glucometers, oxygen saturation monitors). A few questionnaires and flowsheets are provided to patients by default. Others are explicitly "ordered" for activation within a particular patient's patient portal configuration.

Results Release

Connect Care has adopted a hybrid approach to laboratory result and test report release to patients via the MyAHS Connect portal. Most information is released as soon as it is reported and available to clinicians, while some tests are released after a 5-working-day delay:

A Tip explains how test and reports can be ordered, and then how any associated patient results release and messaging can be managed. It is possible to see which results are scheduled for release, which have been viewed, which auto-release results can be blocked and how to attach comments to results destined for MyAHS Connect.

Documents Release

Most chart documents (e.g., progress notes, discharge summaries, consults) are not automatically shared with patients via MyAHS Connect. However, Clinicians are free to share any documentation items they author, preferably via MyAHS Connect as an approved and secure patient communications platform. Documents can be printed for patients who are not active on the patient portal.

Options for document release through MyAHS Connect may vary with different document (Note) types. Accordingly, when a new note is generated but a note type is not yet selected, the "Share w/ Patient" button may appear as if sharing will occur by default. This is not the case. As soon as a note type is selected (e.g., Progress Note), the "Share w/ Patient button defaults to the "off" state and the authoring clinician must make an explicit choice (clicking the button) to activate sharing.

After Visit Summary (AVS)

Encounter overviews (emergency, inpatient and outpatient) are routinely shared with patients as "After Visit Summaries" (AVS). These include information about key events, educational materials, medications, appointments and discharge instructions. The AVS is automatically sent to MyAHS Connect. Additionally, patients are provided with a printed AVS at discharge and at the close of most outpatient visits.

Prescribers can use the discharge navigator (inpatient encounters) or wrap-up navigator (outpatient encounters) to add instructions and/or educational handouts before the AVS is printed or sent to MyAHS Connect.

MyAHS Connect Utilization

A "MyAHS Connect Department Utilization" dashboard summarizes use of the patient portal. It allows operational managers, supervisors and physicians to view how staff and patients are leveraging the tool for their clinic(s). 

Patient Resources

Physician Resources

More Information

eLearning Resources (all via MyLearningLink course lookup for course code)