SANTA CRUZ >> Some patients of Palo Alto Medical Foundation Santa Cruz say they are having difficulties accessing Sutter Health’s My Health Online to make an appointment, get lab results and contact a doctor in wake of security updates to the portal.
A week ago, Sutter Health posted a tweet about the website redesign coming soon.
Sutter’s My Health Online connects 1 million patients to their doctors and health records, according to its website.
It’s not clear how many patients are having problems getting access.
“We recognize that some patients have experienced difficulties accessing their My health Online portal (Wednesday),” said Sutter Health Communications Manager Liz Madison. “We apologize for the inconvenience and are working to help resolve the situation quickly.”
The changes in the online portal implement higher security standards to help protect patient accounts against identity theft or other misuse of their personal health information, according to Madison.
Last year, when Sutter Health was honored as a leader in using technology to benefit patients, the company said patients had exchanged 4 million secure messages, booked 1 million appointments and viewed 25 million lab results, with 23 percent of its patient payments via My Health Online.
In September, Sutter Health notified 2,600 patients in the Sacramento region of a security breach in 2013 involving billing documents.
Pamela Fugitt-Hetrick of DCD Financial & Insurance Service in Santa Cruz observed Sutter Health has yet to sign a contract with Blue Shield for 2017.
Most of her clients are moving to the Blue Shield Health Maintenance Organization or Kaiser Permanente, she said.
