Ocean Platform
How to use the
Ocean platform
For our valued patients,
In 2020, Health for All Family Health Team expanded our virtual care of patients to ensure that we can communicate with and care for our patients safely and effectively in a timely manner. To help with this expansion, we began using a platform called Ocean to securely communicate and deliver services between provider and patient. As technology can be challenging, we have created a series of “How-to” instructions to assist you with using this platform. We have also clarified some of the language used in these instructions to support your understanding.
What is Ocean?
Imagine that your friend sends you a letter through the post office. Inside the letter is information that they ONLY want to share with you. It’s possible that anyone could stop the post carrier and read your letter – this is similar to sending an e-mail over the internet. Now imagine instead of an envelope, your friend puts the letter in a locked box and only you have the key. They send the box in the mail, the same as before. However, this time if someone stopped the post carrier they would not be able to read the letter. When your box finally arrived, only you could open it with your key to read it, regardless of whether someone had looked at the box or known that it was being sent. This is similar to using Ocean. Ocean is the locked box that ensures only YOU can access the information in the email via a secure message. As communication with your health care provider may contain sensitive personal health information, using Ocean is important to uphold your privacy.
How-To Tutorials:
Helpful Terms:
Inbox – this is where all of your messages appear when you sign into your e-mail account.
E-mail – this is the electronic message that appears when you open your e-mail browser and look in your inbox. You receive ‘e-mails’ from Health for All as a notification when your provider wants to communicate with you through Ocean. E-mail is not secure, it is simply a way that we notify that you have a message. DO NOT respond to e-mails from Health for All, please respond to the secure message.
Secure Message – This is the message that the provider is wanting you to access when you sign into Ocean. When you receive a secure message and need to reply to it, please do so in Ocean, not via e-mail. The instructions on how to do this are available in the “How-To” section.
E-form – An e-form is a type of survey that automatically and securely inputs your responses into your patient chart so that your provider can access the information when meeting with you. When your provider asks you to complete an e-form, it is so that they may review your chart prior to your appointment to ensure that more time is dedicated to your needs, rather than collecting information.