Patients who use online portals to review their clinicians’ notes may become more actively involved in their healthcare, but the healthcare industry knows little about factors that may facilitate or inhibit patients’ use of this new practice.
Delbanco, Tom
Patients Contributing to Their Doctors’ Notes: Insights From Expert Interviews
Background: In a rapidly expanding practice directed toward improved communication, patient engagement, and patient safety, clinicians are increasingly inviting patients to read office visit notes on secure electronic portals. Reports from doctors and patients participating in a pilot study are strongly positive (1). However, although patient-reported outcomes indicate that reading notes is valuable, it is primarily a passive activity. As a next step, inviting patients and their families to contribute to their notes may further patient engagement and offload work from beleaguered doctors.
Objective: To solicit ideas from experts about the concept of OurNotes, an intervention in which patients and families co-produce medical notes with clinicians.
Inviting patients and care partners to read doctors’ notes: OpenNotes and shared access to electronic medical records
Care partners were more likely to access and use patient portal functionality and reported improved communication with patients’ providers at follow-up. Our findings suggest that offering patients and care partners access to doctors’ notes is acceptable and improves communication and patients’ confidence in managing their care.
A patient feedback reporting tool for OpenNotes: Implications for patient-clinician safety and quality partnerships
Patients and care partners reported potential safety concerns in about one-quarter of reports, often resulting in a change to the record or care. Early data from an OpenNotes patient reporting tool may help engage patients as safety partners without apparent negative consequences for clinician workflow or patient-clinician relationships.
OpenNotes: How the power of knowing can change health care
The OpenNotes initiative is engaging patients through shared clinical notes. What have we learned since its debut, and how will open access continue to change the health care landscape?
Your Patient Is Now Reading Your Note: Opportunities, Problems, and Prospects
Patients have unprecedented online access to their medical records. More than 6 million Americans can now read their doctors’ notes via patient portals, and continued rapid growth is likely. Sharing notes with patients may yield important health benefits, including increased patient empowerment and improved medication adherence. Seeing written information, including notes, helps patients remember the plan of care, reinforces patients’ positive behaviors, and strengthens the patient–doctor alliance.
Transparenz in der Arzt-Patienten-Kommunikation
Den Patienten den Einblick in die eigenen Gesundheitsinformationen zu gewähren, kann unter anderem ihre aktive Rolle verstärken. Sie sind daran interessiert, bei der Erstellung und Bereitstellung ihrer medizinischen Aufzeichnungen beteiligt zu werden. Da sich die Transparenz im Umgang mit medizinischen Dokumenten gegenwärtig ausbreitet, ist es wichtig, ein besseres Verständnis für Vor- und Nachteile zu gewinnen. Das gilt für Patienten und Ärzte gleichermaßen. Zudem können Zielgruppen identifiziert werden, die möglicherweise unterschiedliche Formen der Übermittlung erfordern. Weitere, vertiefende Studien sind notwendig.
Transparent Electronic Health Records and Lagging Laws
Millions of patients are accessing their medical records online via secure electronic patient portals. They are also increasingly uploading data directly into their records, and many clinicians now offer patients ready and ongoing access to the notes that document encounters. In response, patients report improved understanding of their care, better recall, enhanced adherence to care plans, and an increased sense of control over their health.
When doctors share visit notes with patients: a study of patient and doctor perceptions of documentation errors, safety opportunities and the patient–doctor relationship
Patient advocates and safety experts encourage adoption of transparent health records, but sceptics worry that shared notes may offend patients, erode trust or promote defensive medicine. As electronic health records disseminate, such disparate views fuel policy debates about risks and benefits of sharing visit notes with patients through portals.
Patients learning to read their doctors’ notes: the importance of reminders
As millions of patients nationwide increasingly gain access to clinicians’ notes, explicit email invitations to review notes may be important for fostering patient engagement and patient-doctor communication.
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