McKinley test results now online

By Lisa Chung

McKinley Health Center is now offering an online feature that allows students to readily access non-emergency test results.

MyMcKinley is an online service that requires students to log in using their NetID and Bluestem password, enabling them to access personal medical information, schedule medical appointments, request prescription refills and now to access lab results, said Dr. David Lawrance, McKinley’s medical director.

In order to obtain lab results online, students must either complete a Patient Test Result Account Manager form at the customer service desk in McKinley or complete the test results section before they check in for an appointment, according to the McKinley Web site.

After test results are completed and reviewed, an e-mail containing a specific code to obtain the results will be sent to the student, Lawrance said.

Prior to offering this online feature, McKinley patients could only access their results by a telephone dial-in system.

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“The vendor of (the dial-in system) had dropped that support, so we stopped using it,” Lawrance said. “We had some issues anyway and thought we could do better than that.”

Using the telephone system made it difficult for doctors to see if their patients actually received their test results, he added.

“The online system is faster because (students) can access it 24/7, rather than waiting and calling them the next day,” said Judy Rubenacker, the assistant director of Budget and Resource Planning at McKinley.

Although posting private information on the Internet may discourage some students from using this feature, the Bluestem service is maintained with very high security, said Michael Corn, director of Security Systems and Information Privacy at the Office of the Chief Information Officer.

“We feel Bluestem is a very secure service as long as users don’t make it insecure by giving out their password,” Corn said. “People can create a lot of trouble for themselves if they give their passwords out.”

The computers are in a highly secure area which only authorized people can access, Corn said.

Results can also be checked by calling the center, said Jan Phillips, assistant director for Health Information and Systems.

“We all want to access our information electronically,” Corn said. “McKinley is meeting a valuable need and does a very good job on security,” Corn said.