Kenneth Bunting’s Thanksgiving Day visit to the emergency room began as a nightmare of stroke symptoms. He had no balance, he kept falling, and his speech was slurred.
After arriving by ambulance at University Hospital, Bunting, who directs MU's Freedom of Information Center, did an unusual thing. He e-mailed his family-medicine physician to tell him he was in the ER.
The emergency ended well. Bunting, who has had diabetes for 25 years, learned his symptoms were caused by low blood sugar rather than a stroke. Relieved by the diagnosis, he now watches his diet and records his glucose levels more diligently.
Bunting’s approach to his health is an example of how technology is improving the quality of care for patients of MU Health Care.
Before the Thanksgiving problem, Bunting had set up a patient health portal called Healthe, which is how he alerted his MD, Karl Kochendorfer, to the emergency.
“I’m not the most facile person with technology, yet I realize the health portal’s potential, and I’m comfortable with it,” Bunting says of the secure e-mail system.
Reviewed 2013-01-23