Lee Health official discusses advantages of patient portal for Spanish speakers

Having access to healthcare records at your fingertips was widely available but out of reach for Hispanics in Southwest Florida.

“MyChart, the platform, will be easier to navigate for those of Spanish-speaking descent,” said Yahaira Vega De Rozas, Practice Supervisor LPG Pulmonology Cape Coral Hospital.

Last week, Lee Health announced the launch of a Spanish-language version of the digital patient portal MyChart.

“It will create a better relationship between the physician and their providers with their patient care,” said Vega De Rozas, “and especially for understanding and knowing exactly what it is that their next steps will be in their care.”

The portal allows patients to see results, create appointments, request prescription refills, make payments and communicate with doctors.

It will allow access to important information that wasn’t previously available to non-English speakers.

“A lot of them are having challenges now,” said Vega De Rozas. “They don’t understand what’s being said or what’s next or they have to give it to a family member to outsource it and make sure that, you know, what it is that they’re doing is correct, so now it’ll just be so much simpler for them to navigate.”

It’s the start of many other MyChart expansions.

“This is going to be a great initiation for future languages to come on board,” said Vega De Rozas, “Obviously, it creates communications between the care teams, and it’ll create a much better patient.”