Page 4 - Desert Lightning News 11-6-15

4 November 6, 2015 Desert Lightning News
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MiCARE provides faster care

Kevin M. Hymel reply quickly. (Courtesy photo)
Varney also encourages her patients to use MiCARE.
Air Force Surgeon General Public Affairs “We have brochures (from the Air Force Med- Capt. Jennifer Varney, a family nurse practitioner and family
health flight commander, checks MiCARE for patient requests
FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AFNS) -- Capt. Jen- ical Service),” she said. “I tell them, ‘for conve- at the Family Health Clinic at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.
nifer Varney likes to come to work early. nience, it’s the way to go.’”
diabetes or diet plans. They don’t even have to
As a family nurse practitioner and family Before MiCARE, patients would have to talk to a doctor or nurse to learn about their
health flight commander at Maxwell Air Force phone into the clinic and responses could take own health.
Base, Alabama, she arrives at the base’s Family up to three duty days. With MiCARE, patients
Health Clinic around 5 a.m. and checks the Mi- can receive a response within one duty day. “A big part of medicine is education and reas-
CARE site for any overnight patient emails. surance,” Varney said. “The library is an empow-
So far, 9,300 people have enrolled in MiCARE erment tool for patients.”
If a patient requested a refill on their medi- at Maxwell, which is 62 percent of total patients.
cations, swwhe can fill it and let them know. If The patients are active duty, retirees and depen-
someone’s results have come back from the lab, dents in and around the area. Varney also uses
she can email them the results. If someone re- MiCARE to help college students that are two
quested an appointment, she can forward it to a hours away and save them a long ride for some-
technician to schedule a time. thing as simple as a prescription renewal.

Varney likes the convenience of MiCARE, To make enrollment easier, the clinic now has a
both for her and her patients. free-standing computer kiosk in the lobby where
people can sign up and receive instant access to
“I can get my work done and still contact my pa- MiCARE. Patients are prompted to answer a series
tients,” she said, adding that it is better than calling of security questions that only they would know.
them before sunrise. “I’m happy, they’re happy.”
To improve patient access to care, by mid-No-
MiCARE, a secure online messaging service vember, Maxwell AFB will implement patient-ini-
between patients and their health care team, al- tiated web visits. Patients will be able to answer a
lows patients to renew subscriptions, request checklist of symptoms in different categories, like
appointments, receive test and lab results, com- mild colds or injuries, and send their answers to
municate online with healthcare professionals their provider. Nurses like Varney will then de-
about non-urgent symptoms, request a copy of cide what course of action to take.
their immunization records, and access a large
digital library of patient education materials. “I can look at it and decide if they need a face-to-face
visit or if I should prescribe medications,” she said.
Varney’s use of MiCARE does not end in the
morning. While she sees patients during the day, According to Varney, her patients love Mi-
her technicians continually check the site and ei- CARE’s education library, where they can re-
ther respond to patient’s inquiries, or seek Var- quest information on topics like knee pain,
ney’s assistance if an online patient needs her to

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