No more waiting on hold for the next available receptionist or nurse to pick up the phone line. No more wondering when a doctor will have time to call back, and worrying about whether or not you will be available when he or she calls. And no need to just imagine such a world.

Patients of physicians in area health care systems can now access their personal medical information including test results, medication lists and appointment times online. Both Aurora Health Care and Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare-All Saints offer such access through software programs designed to give patients easier access to their medical records and their physicians.

The services are free and available to patients of physicians within those health care systems. All that is needed to use them is online access, an email account and an access code, provided by your physician (mobile apps are also available).

While the electronic health record systems offered by Aurora and WFAS may differ in detail, their overall goals are the same.

The real focus of this is putting tools in patients hands that allow them to better manage and monitor their health, said Jamey Shiels, director of social media and digital communications with Aurora Health Care.

It is going to allow patients to take a more active role in their health care, said Dr. Jennifer Brittig, a family medicine physician with Wheaton Franciscan-All Saints.

Wheaton Franciscan-All Saints launched its online patient access, called MyChart (by Epic Systems Corp.), in June, and so far, it offers information ranging from lab results to a list of immunizations, current health concerns, reminders for preventive care and more. Patients can also correspond with their physician, through secure email messages, according to Brittig, who also serves as the Epic Physician Champion for WFAS. And, with a click of the mouse and entering a few dates, they can compare their latest test results with those of a year ago.

Not all of the features offered by MyChart are available yet to All Saints patients, Brittig said, as some are still in development. This is still a relatively new system for WFAS, she said, and they are taking the time to make sure that all of the information being presented on MyChart is accurate before making it accessible. Hopefully within the next month patients will have access to pretty much everything, she said. Something that should not be dealt with through MyChart (www.mywheaton.org/mychart), however, are urgent medical matters.

Aurora Health Care, which has been using its MyAurora patient portal since 2002, will soon be offering a new, electronic health record system to its patients.

We made the decision last year to create our own by merging the two systems we have been using into one, seamless experience for the patient, Shiels said.

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Health care systems offer patients access to charts and more online