Just about everything is online these days, from buying movie tickets to buying groceries and more. Even your Arizona family practice doctor is going online in some ways, and as a patient, it helps to know what components of your doctor’s office is online so you know what information you have access to before, during and after your visit.
Your visit will still take place in person, as this is the best way for you to talk to your doctor about the current state of your health as well as any symptoms you may be experiencing between visits. This is also the time to talk about changes that may need to be made in terms of lifestyle in order to ensure that you are becoming as healthy as possible. Your Arizona family practice doctor may also order tests and other screenings during your appointment and this is where the switch to online access has become most prevalent.
Many Arizona family practice doctors now offer an online portal in which to ask questions between appointments, gain access to test results and schedule or change future appointments. Some doctor’s office even offer the option to manage financial accounts online and give patients a way to update contact information as it changes. This might include info like address changes, insurance updates and any other pertinent information that shortens your time at the front desk when you come in for your appointment. This gives you more time with the doctor and the nurse to go over health-related questions, advice and information.
Some Arizona family practice doctors even offer a way to download medical records online, so that if you are going to a specialist or a new doctor, you don’t have to rely on the doctor’s office to send over your records. The online access makes it much easier to manage your health, in terms of access to information and accessing your personal records. Your Arizona family practice doctor may or may not do this, but many consider this kind of health-related technology to be the future of the industry as a whole. Therefore, it helps to learn more about managing patient portals and navigating through them in order to find out ways to download – and subsequently safeguard – sensitive information relating to your health, your history with your doctor’s office and financial information related to your healthcare.