Beyond the registration desk, another key strategy has been to take the outreach and education directly to the patients' bedsides.

"We have (staff) who are actively helping patients register and log into the patient portal using iPads," says Ong.

That's been a boon so far, says Morrissey, helping to "encourage any patients who have not provided their email at registration ... to register for a portal account and begin using it, to a) help them understand how to access and b) get them familiar with it and see the benefits of it."

Those selling points are made clear at the bedside, she says: "This is a convenient way for you to access your medical record. And you'll only be able to do that if your email address matches."

So far, the response has been gratifying.

"I would say it took a couple weeks for that to pick up some traction and streamline the way people were registered," says Morrissey. "But we've seen an increase in both the upfront collection and the frequency of the accurate match, once we're getting someone to register for a portal account."

As those numbers have gone up, the hospital is starting to think more creatively about new ways to reach out and new patient populations to target.

"As we get more facile internally with (these new workflows), we're focusing on some of our units where we have folks we think will be more eager to do it," says Morrissey. "Maybe that's our mother/baby population. We're looking at adding some features to the medical record that will make the parent want to look at it -- maybe a footprint and a photo of the baby. So we're getting a secure photo service to do that, enabling the uploading of that photo."

Still there are technical challenges inherent in the patient-facing software (a tethered portal from Allscripts), says Ong.

"It's still a relatively new technology, and even though we've had it for a while, you always find new problems when patients try to access it," he says. "Things like resetting passwords: In order for the patient to verify who they are in the registration, they have to remember what they identified as their primary email address as well as their preferred phone number that they gave the registrars.

"Speaking for myself, I can't always tell you what my preferred number is – and I have three email addresses," he adds. "If it's a challenge for me, and I work in IT, you can see what a challenge it is for many patients as well."

"We've created some very detailed but simplistic instructions for people that they get at their point of entry into the organization and we allow them to write down the email address that they use at that time," says Morrissey. "We suggest they write down their username and give them instructions on how to create a secure password.

"We made a decision here that rather than giving people 57 pieces of information or not giving them anything, we would give them one very simple thing to allow them to do this," she adds. "All of our staff, including volunteers and medical students who are part of the volunteer force going to the bedside to encourage patients to use this, everybody is using the same instructions and the same piece of paper."

The clock starts ticking next Tuesday, July 1.

Morrissey says the hospital is "absolutely" confident that a "very consistent effort," from the "moment people walk in the door," will see online patient access top 5 percent "for the full 90 days – and then after."

Even with such a challenging population to engage, she's sure that the hospital's enterprise-wide efforts will pay off: "We won't miss the mark on this, no way."

Beyond merely meeting meaningful use, after all, projects like these ultimately make for better outcomes.

"I really think that's going to make a difference and I would encourage anyone to do it," says Morrissey. "If it's a stretch for an organization to try, it's worth the stretch, because it's going to be better for patient care."