More than half of physicians say allowing patients to update their electronic health records, through say, a patient portal, would be a good way to get consumers more engaged in their healthcare, which could help crack that great big $289 billion problem of adherence. And yet, only 31 percent say they should have full access to it and 20 percent of the 3,700 physicians surveyed across eight countries actually provide online access to their patient chart or medical summary. Why?
More than half of doctors said introduction of electronic health records has helped improve the quality of patient care, according to the Accenture (NYSE:ACN) survey. About 84 percent said they are somewhat or strongly committed to promoting electronic records in their clinical practice. About 83 percent said they believe EHR will become integral to effective patient care in the next two years, according to the survey.
Among the types of information U.S. physicians said they would like patients to be able to update are new medications, side effects of medication, allergic episodes and family history. But a lot of U.S. and non-U.S. physicians said they didn’t think patients should have that ability when it comes to lab results –with 47 percent of U.S. physicians and 45 percent of non-U.S. physicians saying they were against the idea.
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Providing patients access to personal health records through patient portals is one aspect of Meaningful Use Stage 2 and U.S. Ambulatory Electronic Medical Record Adoption Stage 5, but just under 6 percent of ambulatory practices have reached this stage and lag behind, according to a HIMSS survey published earlier this year.
Malpractice and other legal issues surrounding the security of the data in electronic health records was raised in a Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association article.
Further data on the impact of electronic health information systems on malpractice, privacy breaches and other professional liabilities are required to understand the real risk these platforms pose.
But those data security issues haven’t stopped the likes of Kaiser Permanente from providing members access to their personal health records, including on their mobile phones. The Blue Button initiative by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has given military personnel access to their medical records.
