
What happens when patients gain access to the notes their doctors and nurses take during a visit? A culture shift with empowered and motivated patients at the center.
In December I was proud to announce an exciting partnership with three other foundations—the Cambia Health Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the Peterson Center on Healthcare—to take a bold step to expand access to clinical notes written by doctors, nurses, and other clinicians to 50 million patients nationwide. The $10 million in new funding to OpenNotes will allow the initiative to dramatically step up its efforts to create a new standard of care and set a new bar for patient-centeredness.We know that physicians can help their patients become more engaged in their own care, and that this kind of patient activation can lead to improved outcomes and lower health care costs. Of course, that is easier said than done—especially when clinicians are already under pressure to adopt new technologies, implement new models for delivering health care, and make data on the quality of their care publicly available.
Health care innovators are unrelenting in their search for simple, scalable solutions to help both clinicians and consumers—and philanthropists can help put these bright ideas to the test to determine what works. OpenNotes is one such solution.
Read Susan Mende’s full post here.