Education, information at fingertips for children’s hospital families thanks to MyChart Bedside

Published on Monday, August 15, 2022

By: Annie Oeth, aoeth@umc.edu

All Ella Spinks’ medical information is next to Hulu, Angry Birds and Candy Crush.

The app MyChart Bedside is available to patients or family members in pediatric intensive care in the Kathy and Joe Sanderson Tower and in inpatient medical-surgical units inside the Batson Tower at Children’s of Mississippi. MyChart Bedside was tested on the fourth floor of the Batson Tower, getting positive reviews from families.

Each of the rooms have a tablet where patients and parents can view medical information through MyChart, see the day’s schedule, watch informational videos or play games. Patients who have streaming services at home such as Hulu, Netflix, or Disney+ can access movies through the tablets, too.

Also included are names and photos of patients’ care team members, which can be helpful for children and parents who may be meeting a lot of health care professionals in a short amount of time.

“It’s pretty neat,” said Ella’s mom, Keyla Spinks of Collinsville. “We got to use this when we were on the fourth floor and loved it, so we’re glad it’s available where we are now. When we first used it, my reaction was, ‘Oh, wow! I can see everything!’”

While MyChart Bedside is an app for hospital inpatients, their information migrates to the patient’s MyChart account. Once a patient is discharged, their information and use are wiped from the tablet, protecting private health information.

“MyChart Bedside is a great example of how Children’s of Mississippi is embracing technology and family-centered care,” said Children’s of Mississippi CEO Guy Giesecke. “Parents have their children’s health information at their fingertips, and our patients have educational and entertaining videos and activities they can enjoy as they heal.”

The technology was made available through generous donations from The Toy Foundation and the Children’s Hospital Association’s Child’s Play: Grants for Play Projects!, the Children’s Heart Center, Mississippi Miracles Radiothon and Friends of Children’s Hospital funding and the strong collaboration between the Division of Information Systems and clinical and education teams.

“We now offer state-of-the-art technology that connects our patients and families to individualized information in the hospital and when they return home,” said Ellen Hansen, Children’s of Mississippi’s chief nursing and clinical services officer. “This is one of the many ways Children’s of Mississippi is ensuring Mississippi’s children and families have access to the same great care and technology found in other states across our nation.”

Launching MyChart Bedside, a tablet-based feature of the medical records software company Epic, comes after a year of planning, development and content creation, said Timothy Henry, principal Epic trainer at UMMC.

"This gives parents and patients the health information they need so they can ask informed questions of their health care team and make better decisions,” he said.

Children’s of Mississippi is among about 20 percent of U.S. hospitals that offer medical information through tablet-based apps, said Barry Runyon, an analyst with Gartner, an international information-technology consulting firm, in a report from the Washington Post.

Nurse educator Lee Harbour has seen the impact of MyChart Bedside since it was tested in his unit.

“MyChart Bedside has been a huge success,” he said. “Parents feel so much more up to date on their children’s plan of care and love being able to look at pictures of their child’s entire care team. It is so helpful for them to know which consults have come to see them and what their doctors’ and nurses’ names are. And, of course, they love the entertainment options available for downtime and distraction during procedures. MyChart Bedside is a game-changer for Children’s of Mississippi patients and their families.”