Today, we can use a phone to order fresh groceries (and have them brought directly to our car the same day), schedule pizza deliveries in the future, find a compatible marriage partner and instantly pay for a cab ride from wherever our GPS determines we are located.

The digitizing of our world is ever-evolving and happening fast. For many, this can be scary, but it can also be beneficial.

Digitization is also becoming more important in health care as our federal government simultaneously pushes for higher quality care and reduced costs.

In response, health care providers are utilizing technology such as Patient Portals to optimize resources.

Patient Portals are online health management tools that help improve communication between patients and providers, streamline processes and offer patients 24/7 convenient access to their personal health information.

St. James Parish Hospital and its provider-based clinics each offer a secure web-based Patient Portal.

What do you need?

It’s simple. If you are a patient of the hospital or one of the hospital’s provider-based clinics (Poche Medical Clinic, Lutcher Family Clinic, St. James West Bank Clinic, St. James Surgical Specialists and St. James Urology Clinic), you have access to our Patient Portals.

All you need to sign-up is the internet, a personal email address and a computer or mobile device.

Are the Portals safe and secure?

Both our hospital and clinic Patient Portals are hosted by certified Electronic Health Record (EHR) Providers that follow federal regulations in regard to ensuring that your health information is kept both private and secure.

What can I do from the hospital Portal?

St. James Parish Hospital’s secure Patient Portal offers unrestricted access to certain clinical data such as lab test results, medications, allergies, health issues and immunization records.

In addition, the hospital Portal offers an integrated online bill pay system. Patients can view and pay hospital bills directly from the portal and easily make payments toward multiple hospital accounts.

What are the benefits of the clinic Portal?

Our hospital-owned clinics also offer a Patient Portal that can be accessed 24 hours a day.

Our clinic Portal can be utilized to request an appointment, request a prescription refill, pay your bill, review your visit notes and much more.

Do I need to sign up for two portals?

If you want access to hospital and clinic information and associated functionality for both, you will need to sign-up for each Portal.

Currently, our hospital and clinics are supported by two different certified EHR providers.

How do I get started?

Patients can send a request to join the hospital and/or clinic Patient Portals to portalhelp@sjph.org. Patients can also visit our website, sjph.org, and click “PATIENT PORTAL INFO” in order to be directed to an online form.

Kassie S. Roussel is the director of marketing for St. James Parish Hospital. She can be reached at kstpierre@sjph.org or 225-258-5998.