Patient Gateway

Patient Gateway (PG) is a web-based portal for patients to communicate with MGH and MGPO clinicians. Visit the PG Enrollment Toolkit.

Practices are encouraged to enroll patients to increase patient-provider communication efficiency, which the PG accomplishes by:

• Facilitating direct communication between patients and medical staff
• Reducing “phone tag”
• Providing off-hours accessibility for patients and medical staff

Once enrolled in PG, patients have 24-hour access to tools that enable them to do the following online:

• View test results and medical records
• Request an appointment or schedule an appointment
• Request prescription refills
• View/pay bills

PG is the foundation for a variety of important scheduling initiatives, such as order-based scheduling/patient self-scheduling, FastPass, and Recalls. It also serves as a mechanism for sending pre-visit questionnaires.

Communication from patients through PG comes to practices via Epic In Basket.

• During scheduling and front desk interactions, always offer a patient the opportunity to enroll in PG unless the patient is already enrolled or has previously declined enrollment.
  • Sample check-in script: “I notice you are not currently enrolled in Mass General Brigham Patient Gateway. Patient Gateway allows you to renew prescriptions, view lab results, communicate with your care team, and access many other features online at your convenience. I can send you an email with the access code to register. If you have a smartphone, you can immediately enroll.”

• Actively manage In Basket requests by:
  • Checking the appropriate In Basket folders daily
  • Responding within a maximum of 2 business days

• Give parents or legal guardians Patient Care Representative (PCR) forms to complete so they can access their children’s health information, scheduling, and test results.
  • Adult children of elderly patients also benefit from PCR access to their parents’ health records and can help increase PG enrollment in practices serving elder populations.

• Provide PG and PCR training so employees are familiar with these tools, know how to enroll patients, and understand patients’ perceptions and attitudes about online communication with their care team.

• Display PG promotional and communication materials onsite:
  • Marketing materials (e.g., flyers, posters)
  • Patient instructions to activate PG
  • “Communicating with Your Doctor via PG” tip sheet
  • Benefits of PG

• Use staff meetings to:
  • Help clinicians shift to PG from other forms of patient communication
  • Discuss workflows that can leverage PG
  • Review/update best practices