Summit Medical Group launches web portal for patients

KNOXVILLE -- Patients of Summit Medical Group now have a quick, easy and secure way to communicate online with their healthcare provider.

A new web-based portal, mySummit, allows patients of Summit Medical Group physicians to request medication refills, schedule an appointment, pay bills, or ask billing or clinical questions all from the comfort of their own computer device.

"This service is similar to what you would find with an online banking service," Summit Medical Group Chief Executive Officer Tim Young said. "You no longer have to spend time on the phone or visiting the office to get basic maintenance needs met. Our mySummit portal is secure, so patients do not have to worry about their information being shared. Usernames and passwords are specific to the patient, just as they would be with a financial service."

Information submitted to mySummit is routed directly to the patient's physician, who then processes the request based on the specific need. Requests should take no longer than 48 hours or often less to process, depending on the type of request.

"More than 3,000 patients are already active users of mySummit, and this number will grow tremendously over the next few months as we begin to unveil it to all patients," Young said. "Our users are of all ages and surprisingly, the age group with the largest number of users is 45 and older, with the average age of users being 46.

Users of mySummit must be at least 18 years of age and the service is free of charge for all Summit Medical Group patients. Summit provides primary health care services to more than 300,000 patients in East Tennessee.

The portal is operated in partnership with Intuit Health. Patients can register to use Summit Medical Group's website at www.summitmedical.com.

Summit Medical Group has 220 physicians at 58 practice locations in 11 East Tennessee counties as well as four ancillary service centers, four physical therapy centers, three express clinics and one sleep services center. Summit provides healthcare services to an average of 81,000 patients each month.

Published October 20, 2012