Health IT and Electronic Health
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Is sharing medical records with patients better for them?
Today I read an article in a national paper written by a physician about how patients over react when reviewing to their medical records and notes written by their care giver.
The article also outlined how in the practice where the writer practiced, most clinical staff had the same attitude toward sharing detailed medical information with patients.
My question to everyone is: Do you in your professional opinion agree that openly sharing all medical data (which by the law is every patients right) will create more issues for the clinical staff?
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ASKED:
July 26, 2010 2:35 AM
UPDATED:
July 30, 2010 1:21 pm
Answer Wiki:
yes.I agree with you that sharing medical information or record may create some issue.Law says that accessing their own medical information or record is patient's right.We cant do anything on this.If patient demands the record copy then we need to grant him the access.The issue comes when patient sees the paper based record.Many documents in the record may be illegible or may not be complete or may not be available and this only creates issues.Once records will be electronic then in my opinion issues for clinical staff will be reduced.We are embarking on the era of PHR where patient is managing their record so institution should be open about granting access of information to patient.I would suggest that Healthcare provider should have PHR or PMR element built into their EHR or EMR and not only allow access of information but also allow patient to manage medical information in the system.
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It depends on case to case basis – how it is used (unlike other information, we are dealing with some private information and misusage has high negative impact here) or who is using this information.
But, in general – I would say, it would benefit both the clinical staff and patient. It’s empowering the patient. It is as trival as getting a grocery bill for simple analogy – without taking the privacy issue. In case we don’t get the bill at the grocery counter, there is a high chance of misusing accountability; offcourse some people don’t bother to look at, what’s in it, which is a different issue.
But, for accountability, auditing and empowering the customer this is good. From my experience on e-governace – yes, it will create some issues initially, but with increased awareness, in long run – this will prove to be better.