Workflow

How do I implement My Life My Health Care into my organization’s workflow?

Identifying Patients

Some organizations use My Life My Health Care with all patients across a primary care practice.

Others look for specific patients—for instance, those who have multiple chronic conditions and a heavy healthcare burden.

Patients who have used My Life My Health Care include people living with:

diabetes
multiple chronic conditions
unclear or complex social needs
newly diagnosed conditions
and many more

Introducing the Tool

There are generally two moments in a clinic’s workflow to introduce My Life My Health Care to patients.

At the front desk

Patient
Hi, I’m here for my 10am appointment with Dr. Allen.

Front desk staff
Great, I have you checked in. Here is your med list to review. If there are any changes, just let the nurse know. I also have My Life My Health Care here for you to fill out. This is a communication aid that Dr. Allen will look at when she comes in the room. If you’d just fill that out while you’re waiting, that would be great. Any questions, you can let your nurse know.

While rooming

The nurse brings the patient to their room and asks all the questions part of a typical visit, e.g. med review, patient safety, PHQ-2, etc. At the end, she introduces My Life My Health Care to the patient.

Nurse
I am going to let Dr. Allen know you’re ready to see her and she will be in in just a few minutes. If you wouldn’t mind, while you wait, can you please fill out this My Life My Health Care card for her? It is a communication aid that she will want to look at and go over with you when she comes in the room.

Patient
No problem!

Starting the Conversation

If the patient is new to the clinician…

Clinician
Thank you so much for taking the time to fill out My Life My Health Care. Since I am just getting to know you, this will help me learn more about you, your life, and how that interacts with your health and healthcare. We will use it in this visit, and we may use it again in the future to check in on how things are going.

If the patient has seen the clinician for a while, but is new to My Life My Health Care…

Clinician
So good to see you, it’s been a while! So, you probably noticed we had you fill out a new tool we call My Life My Health Care. I have started using it in my practice because I really think it helps us get the big picture of what’s going on and the most important things for us to address in your visit. Do you mind if I take a look?

For more conversation practice, experience, and training materials, go to Conversations.

Charting

There are many potential ways to integrate information from My Life My Health Care into the electronic medical record.

Here is one example developed by our partners at the Zablocki VA Medical Center and Edward Hines Jr. VA Medical Center.

Download the DOCUMENTATION template

Organizations

Here are some of the organizations who have implemented My Life My Health Care. Thank you to all our partners and to AHRQ for funding the tool’s development.