Maggie McKay (Host): Wouldn't it be great if there was an app for your hospital or doctor's office that offered everything from making an appointment to paying your bill? There is, and here to tell us about it is Amy Stevens, Vice President at Tidelands Health.

 Welcome to the Better Health Podcast from Tidelands Health. I'm your host, Maggie McKay. So good to have you here today, Amy. Would you please tell us what you do at Tidelands? I know you're Vice President, but what does that entail?

Amy Stevens: Sure, Maggie. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Happy to be here talking today. My name is Amy Stevens, and I'm Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Tidelands Health. And so that means that I am really responsible for shaping the ways that we interact with our consumers and patients and making sure that we help our consumers and patients have the best experience possible when they engage with us.

Host: So let's talk about the app. Who was the brainchild?

Amy Stevens: Well, you know, it's interesting. We have the My Tidelands Health app. We're very excited about it. It's been a long time coming and this is something that we know is so important to consumers because we use our phones for everything these days. It's our video camera. It's our email. It's our shopping portal. It's everything. And so we know that's where our consumers and patients want to engage with us. And so that's really the reasoning behind the My Tidelands Health app, is giving you that convenience to easily and quickly engage with Tidelands Health and do the things that you need to do to be active manager of your health and wellness.

Host: Is it free?

Amy Stevens: It is. It's free and no username or password is required. You just download it and start using it.

Host: That's awesome. I just can't stand another login and password, right? Where do you find it for starters?

Amy Stevens: The app in the app store that you use for your device. So it's available in the Apple App Store and in the Google Play Store. So you can just search for My Tidelands Health or Tidelands Health and it should come right up for you.

Host: It does because I have to tell you Amy I am not tech savvy at all and I did that very thing through Apple and it came right up. It could not be simpler. So I was very appreciative of that.

How does the app help patients and how does it help physicians?

Amy Stevens: Well, you know, there are many ways that app can help patients. One I want to talk about, two different groups of people. One being our existing patients, folks who are already, interacting with Tidelands Health. This app just gives you a convenient way to connect with your doctor's office to do the things that you need to do on a frequent basis. Hopefully, eliminate the need have to pick up the phone and call. And, you know, now you can do some things through the app. So you can schedule an appointment or you can request a refill. All sorts of features in there. And then, another important group for us, you know, our community is the fastest growing area in the country, as everyone who lives here can attest.

So we have lots of people moving into our region who haven't chosen a doctor yet. And so we wanted to make it really easy for those individuals to go in, learn about doctors and providers in our area. You can watch videos about them, read their bios, see ratings and reviews from other patients, see star ratings. All of that information is right there in the app so you can make an informed decision about the doctor that you want to take care of you and your family.

Host: How does it help physicians?

Amy Stevens: Well, you know, I think our physicians, I never want to put words in their mouth, but I think what they would tell you is that when patients are more engaged in their health care, that that makes this better partnership all the way around because that's what the relationship between a patient and a doctor is. It's very much a partnership. And so when a patient is taking an active role and staying connected, then that just enables the doctor to more easily engage with that patient. So again, through the app, you can request a medication refill. You can send a message to your provider.

There are numerous things that you can do so that you and your doctor are staying in contact and having that connection even when you're not in the office for a visit.

Host: That's brilliant. So we talked about some of the features of the app, let's talk about some more in depth. You can schedule an appointment. You have your own chart in there. I love this one, maps and locations. Tell us about that.

Amy Stevens: Yes, well one of things that's really exciting is that Tidelands Health has converted to EPIC. And so EPIC is one of the major electronic medical record platforms. And so many consumers are familiar with EPIC. They've probably used it at other health systems if they've lived in other parts of the country.

And so a big piece of EPIC is MyChart. And so MyChart is your patient portal that lets you do all of these great things. You can schedule appointments. You can pay your bill online. You can send messages to your doctor. And so the My Tidelands Health app is your front door into MyChart. It's a great way of thinking about it. And it's much more than that too.

So you can go into the My Tidelands Health app. You can access all of that functionality we talked about with MyChart. So see your medical records. Schedule appointments online at your convenience, and then you can also, as you mentioned, a great tool in this area is locations and wayfinding. And so, we have dozens and dozens of locations.

And so it's very easy to go into the app, search for the location where you may have an appointment or where you need to visit and the app will bring up wayfinding directions using the wayfinding tool that you have on your phone; whether that's Google maps or Apple maps or Ways whichever one you'd prefer to use the app is going to open that and will drive you right where you need to go. There's also all sorts of health content in the app from our My Carolina Life platform.

And so that's where we share news you can use, where we have our doctors and our providers who share patient stories and health tips. And so all of that is there. It's searchable. Just a million things you can do. You can go in and search for the kind of care that you need.

So, if you, for instance, say you know what, I'm, not feeling well, and I need to see someone today, then you're able to look at options for same day care. But if you just need, to schedule something, then you just are able to look at options to schedule care in the near future.

So you're really able to find care solutions that are custom to what your need and your schedule is. You know, maybe it's time for that screening mammogram and you never remember to call and suddenly it's after business hours. Well, it's okay, now you can just go in the app and schedule your screening mammogram at your convenience.

Yeah, just trying to make it easy. We know that people have so many things on their plate. We all have so many things on our plate and so anything that we can do to make it just a little bit easier to engage with your health care so that you don't put off those things. You know, we don't want you to put off your health. Your health is your most important resource. So if we can make it easier for you to engage and get the care that you need then, that's what we want to do.

Host: That's awesome. Yeah. And I love that you, like we mentioned earlier, you can pay your bill, you can find a physician, you can make a donation, all of those things. You have got every possible thing covered. You guys have thought of everything in this app. I think it's a win win for everybody. Very easy to use.

I tried it out myself and I loved it. I think it really takes the stress out of being sick or needing help, because the last thing you want to do is be frustrated with your technology. So is there anything else you'd like to add?

Amy Stevens: Well, you know, I think one thing that's really important for people to know and that is just a great convenience as most people know Tidelands Health is our region's MUSC Health affiliate and through this app and through MyChart, because of our relationship with MUSC Health, you're now going to be able to access your Tidelands health records and your MUSC health records in the same place; because it's all in that same MyChart integration. And so, that's just a really great win because maybe you see a family doctor here or an oncologist here, but you travel to Charleston to MUSC Health to see a subspecialist for your care. Now those records and all of that information can be seen in the same place.

And not only you can see it in the same place, but your doctors can also see it in the same place. And so just a really great convenience and integration through MyChart, and the Epic platform that I know our patients are going to be so excited about and the My Tidelands Health app is the easiest way for you to access that.

Host: That is amazing, Amy. I mean, it could not be easier and more useful. So thank you so much for your time and telling us all about this app.

Amy Stevens: Well, thank you and I just encourage everybody go to your app store and download the app. It'll just take a couple of seconds. Download the My Tidelands Health app and start playing with it. And, hopefully you'll find everything you need. And if there's something missing, let us know and we'll try to continually improve and build on it too.

Host: Absolutely. Again, that's Amy Stevens. You can download the My Tidelands Health app today from your app store or Google Play Store, as we said. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and check out our entire podcast library for topics of interest to you. I'm Maggie McKay. Thanks for listening to the Better Health Podcast from Tidelands Health.