Are you looking for a CD copy of your images?
Mackenzie Health has partnered with PocketHealth to give patients online access to view and share their images from our hospital and other participating organizations at a reduced fee. This includes x-rays, ultrasounds, CTs, MRIs and other diagnostic imaging.
Log in to your MyChart account to access this and additional features including eCheck-In, lab and test results, preparation instructions for upcoming appointments and more!
What are the benefits to accessing my images online?
By accessing your images online, you can:
- Save on time, no need to visit the hospital to obtain a CD
- Save money on parking and reduced fees
- Share your images online directly with your requesting physician
- View images from our and other participating hospitals and x-ray clinics
How do I sign up?
Log in to your MyChart Account, visit the Test Results page and follow the link to our partner site, PocketHealth. From there, you can access your images in 3 easy steps:
- Enter your patient information, including name, date of birth and health card number
- Consent to the terms and conditions of the services being provided
- Complete a secure payment of $5
Can I come to the hospital and pick up my images in person?
You can request a CD copy of your health records from Health Information Services at Mackenzie Health for a small fee. Please visit ourHealth Information Servicespage for more information.
What is PocketHealth, and what problem is it solving?
Being able to easily view diagnostic imaging files — like Ultrasounds, Mammograms, CT scans and MRIs — is often critical for your ongoing or future treatment and your physician may need rapid access your recent diagnostic imaging to aid or direct their decision-making.
However, sharing these records in the past meant you had to return to your hospital/clinic to request and pick-up a CD with your imaging files, and then drop this CD off at the time of your doctor visit. If you’re out-of-town, your hospital/clinic may be willing to courier the CD over, but isn’t a fast (or cheap) option either. Unfortunately, this is still how most of the diagnostic imaging industry operates — CDs are the primary form of imaging file transfer from a hospital/clinic to patient, physician or external hospital.
PocketHealth is a big step in the right direction: it’s a simple, secure web platform that is designed to mimic how image sharing works ‘outside’ of healthcare — i.e., user-friendly, reliable and fast. PocketHealth allows you to permanently store your complete imaging history from over 500 hospitals/clinics across North America.
How does online access to images help patients and their care team?
Reliable access to your images equips patients with the tools to becometruly active participantsin their own care. With the ability to easily access and control where their health record goes, patients can become more engaged, informed and empowered to make a difference in their own health.
The ability to access and share your records indiagnostic qualitymeans patients avoid unnecessary tests or repeat radiation when prior exams are required by a physician and can’t be quickly located. Instant, remote sharing also means you can leave the CD behind and save multiple trips acting as a courier between your imaging center and your consultation (tip: you can request your record remotely as well). By sharing your record days before your consultation your physician, chiropractor or physiotherapist can spend your in-clinic time delivering direct care, not loading a CD or reviewing imaging for the first time.
Lastly, with online access to images you also have the option to upload and digitize any imaging already in your possession like old CDs or records currently stored on USB, and truly complete your imaging record. That way, even if your hospital/clinic isn’t part of the PocketHealth network, you can upload and share a comprehensive capture of your imaging record, in full diagnostic quality.
The bottom line: having online access to your images means you and your healthcare providers receive secure access to the imaging information you need, when you need it. By building and maintaining your imaging record over time, you can have the peace of mind that when you or your healthcare provider need a prior study quickly, it’s only a click away.
What can I do with my images online?
By logging onto yourMyChartaccount atmychart.mackenziehealth.caand accessing our partner site, PocketHealth, you have access to a wide variety of features. For example, you can:
- Share Imaging Electronically:Share your images with any healthcare professional in full diagnostic quality by fax, email or print-a-link, who can then view the records instantly within their web browser via a Health Canada/FDA-certified diagnostic viewer.
- Burn your own CD or USB:With the simple Self-Serve function in your account, you can easily burn your entire imaging record onto a CD or USB Drive with an integrated diagnostic viewer for your physician.
- Download:Download individual images as PNG files (for non-diagnostic use only) or download entire records as DICOM files (for diagnostic use). These files can be stored locally on your computer or shared via USB or by burning to CD.
- Request Records from New Clinics/Hospitals:Search for over 500 clinics and hospitals across North America and enroll for access from new imaging providers, helping build a more comprehensive health record.
- Upload Your Old CDs:Upload and digitize any imaging already in your possession like old CDs or records from hospitals not currently connected to PocketHealth, and truly complete your imaging record.
- Have Your Record Wherever You Go:You can access your images from any device with an internet connection, anywhere in the world - forever.
Of course, the most important feature of accessing your images online is that your imaging record(s) will be securely stored in full medical quality that you can access and share at a moment’s notice. Finally: your health records, in your control.
How long does it take to receive my images online?
Through our partner, PocketHealth, we are electronically connected to your imaging provider (and over 500 other imaging providers across North America), meaning that there is typically no clerical or manual processing related to retrieving your records.
That means that once your consent is provided to PocketHealth, within a few minutes you can expect to receive an email notification that all historical exams have been added to your account. If you have a very large record set (some patients have hundreds of historical imaging exams), this may take up to 2 to 3 hours.
Your imaging records are typically released between 3 and 14 days after the reports are finalized. If you do not see your images after 14 days, please contact MyChart support:
By e-mail: mychart@mackenziehealth.caor
By phone: 905-883-2202 from Richmond Hill or
905-832-4554 ext. 2202 from across Vaughan.
Hours: Monday to Friday from 8:00 a.m.to 4:00 p.m.
What should online access to images not be used for?
Online access to images should not be used for any analysis of your imaging record unless you are a trained medical professional. Diagnostic images require highly specialized training to interpret and often require a sophisticated DICOM viewer to aid analysis as well as full, professional understanding of your medical history. Having online access to images is a powerful tool for you to control and share your imaging records, but that still means you should workclosely and collaborativelywith your physician at every step of your diagnosis and treatment plan.
If you are not sure about which medical professional is best to speak to about a particular exam, try starting with the physician that referred you for the testing! For simplicity, you can find their name on the left of every exam you view, in case you’re not sure exactly who your referring physician was.
How long are my records stored for?
Your records are stored permanently within your account for your future access. If you prefer to keep your records offline, you can always download your entire record onto your computer. You can also permanently remove all of your records from our partner site, PocketHealth, anytime, and revoke access from anyone you’ve shared your records with.
What exactly is included in my record?
All of the imaging in the exam(s) you have requested will be included in your record in their original diagnostic format (DICOM). These images also include a number of embedded attributes (e.g., date of exam, body part, patient identifier, etc.) that make up an important and essential part of your imaging record. You should also receive the typed radiologist report for the exams as well, though on rare occasion this may not be possible due to the individual policy of the imaging provider that transferred your imaging record.
I think an imaging record is missing, what should I do?
If you believe any exams are missing from your account, please reach out to MyChart Support at mychart@mackenziehealth.ca. Let us know the type of exam and date your exam was performed. With this information we can better advise you on how to access your exam.
How do I share my record with my physician?
You can securely share your entire imaging record (or even just a few, selected exams) directly through our partner site, PocketHealth: simply click on the ‘Share My Records’ button, and select either Email, Fax or Print:
Email:Enter in the email address for your physician (or their registration/front desk) or healthcare institution. Be sure to ask your physician/healthcare institution beforehand, to ensure you are sending your records to the correct address. Once you’ve confirmed, you can click “Share”, and then in a few seconds your recipient with receive an email with a unique secure link and an access code that will allow them to view your imaging record within their web browser as well as download your diagnostic-quality imaging as DICOM files to import into their internal system.
Print:Print a secure Access Page and bring it to your appointment. The code on this access page is unique to this specific share only, and will expire after 7 days. If your physician follows the simple steps on the page, they will be able to view your imaging within their web browser as well as download your diagnostic-quality imaging as DICOM files to import into their internal system.
Fax:Yes — that’s right, fax! Chances are, this is still a common method of sending and receiving information for your hospital/physician, so if you’re trying to fit in with your physician’s workflow faxing your record access may be a good option for you as well. To use this function, ask your recipient for their fax number and then enter it in. Once you’ve confirmed, you can click “Send Fax” and in a few seconds the secure Access Page (the same type that’s generated for Print Sharing, but a bit more ‘fax-friendly’) is faxed over to the recipient. Just like with Print Sharing, if your physician follows the simple steps on the page, they will be able to view your imaging within their web browser as well as download your diagnostic-quality imaging as DICOM files to import into their internal system.
We believe in simple, quick access for healthcare professionals, so your recipient does not need to have a MyChart or PocketHealth account before you share with them nor are they required to create oneat any point. They also do not need to download any specialized software or install any plugins to access the full viewing & downloading functionality of the platform.
Can I check on the status of my share, resend a share, or revoke access?
Yes! You are able to view the status of your share, resend it or revoke access to your imaging at any time. To do so, please select ‘My Shares’ in your top menu and you’ll then be presented with a detailed history of how you have shared your records, with status logs and buttons that allow you to resend/revoke any past share.
My physician won't accept an email, fax or printed link — what are my options?
While sharing and accessing imaging online is the fastest and most secure way for healthcare professionals to access imaging, we understand that certain healthcare professionals may prefer that you provide your imaging in the form of a CD or USB. If that is the case, you can burn your imaging records with a DICOM viewer onto a CD or USB directly by selecting the ‘Share My Records’ button within your account and then selecting “CD/USB”. You can then burn your imaging records onto a CD/USB in their original format, along with a DICOM viewer.
How does pricing work and what does my transfer fee cover?
Every time you choose to add records from a new imaging provider to your account, you are required to pay a$5.00 transfer fee. This transfer fee allows you to addall past imaging recordsfrom that imaging provider. These records will then bestored permanentlyin your account, and you will never pay an additional transfer fee to access, download or share those records ever again — they’re yours, forever.
After a while, you may return to your imaging provider to have additional imaging exams done and you may want to update your account with that newer imaging as well. No problem — at any time, you can update your account and receive all of the new imaging records. Since this was a new transfer, it does require another $5.00 transfer fee. Once you’ve paid that, these records will work just like your previous ones: they’re stored permanently without any further fees (ever), and you can share, access and download them as many times as you’d like.
One last twist: since its possible that you may have to return to get new imaging done unexpectedly days after you just paid a $5.00 fee to update your account (bad luck!), every time you update your account or receive records from a new provider, we also give you14-day grace period. That means that any exams you undergo for the 14 days following a payment are added to your account as part of the transfer you already paid for, without any extra charge.
At the end of the day, we believe that a $5.00, non-recurring fee for electronic access beats taking time off work, travelling back to a hospital, paying for parking, and picking up a CD (which sometimes has its own $10.00-$20.00 fee!). But rest assured: if you do prefer a CD that is completely fine, and your clinic or hospital would be happy to burn one for you if you give them a call beforehand.
I’ve had multiple imaging studies done at one institution — do those need to be requested separately?
No, when you enroll for access at an imaging provider you will receive all available imaging records in your history there, without a limit to the number of studies. If your imaging studies are from a location that is different from the location you submitted your original request to, then you will need to submit a new request for another location. Each clinic or hospital group has their own online request form, and they each require your consent to having information released.
I need my record, but don't have means to pay - what are my options?
Give us a call, toll-free, on our patient support line905-883-2202and a representative will be able to process your request to remove the transfer fee linked to your record request. We believe in a Sustainable Pricing model (learn morehere) with an affordable fee per record transfer from an imaging center. A key part of this model is that patients that don’t have the means to pay, don’t have to — no questions asked.
How do I remove my records permanently from PocketHealth?
Please submit your request for permanent deletion tomychart@mackenziehealth.ca. A member of our Support Team will walk you through several steps to verify your identity before processing your deletion request. Please note that deletion requests must be made from the email address associated with your PocketHealth account. This process will not impact the storage status of any diagnostic imaging files at your imaging center or physician’s office.
I require further assistance; what resources are available to me?
Please feel free to send us a note atmychart@mackenziehealth.caand a member of our support team will get back to you as soon as possible. You can also contact the MyChart Support Line, at 905-883-2202 from Richmond Hill of 905-832-4554 ext. 2202 from Vaughan. Our telephone support hours are Monday - Friday, 8am - 4pm EST. Our MyChart Support team is always on-hand to answer your questions (big or small) so, when in doubt, reach out and we’ll do our best to answer your questions.
