Health smart cards: differing perceptions of emergency department patients and staff

Abstract

An analytical, cross-sectional survey of 270 emergency department patients and 92 staff undertaken in three tertiary referral hospital emergency departments was completed to compare the perceptions of patients and staff regarding the use of health smart cards containing patient medical records. The study recorded data on a range of health smart card issues including awareness, privacy, confidentiality, security, advantages and disadvantages, and willingness to use. A significantly higher proportion of staff had heard of the card. The perceived disadvantages reported by patients and staff were, overall, significantly different, with the staff reporting more disadvantages. A significantly higher proportion of patients believed that they should choose what information is on the card and who should have access to the information. Patients were more conservative regarding what information should be included, but staff were more conservative regarding who should have access to the information. Significantly fewer staff believed that patients could reliably handle the cards. Overall, however, the cards were considered acceptable and useful, and

Improving patient privacy and confidentiality in one regional Emergency Department – A quality project

“…Nursing team leader to keep space free in department for this. 5. Make reminder signs to close down the EDIS screen when not in use.…”

“…However, a number of factors specific to the ED, may impact on how PPaC is maintained [1] . These factors may include open plan physical design, space that is crowded and public, 'fishbowl' like staff stations, curtains only between most patients, high patient volume and through-put [2,3] , overcrowding, length of stay, and lack of caregiver vigilance [2,4,5] .At times due to access block, patients may also be in areas not meant for patient care (e.g. hallways).…”

“…In departments that are already established, with little financial means to make changes, the responsibility of innovative practices to improve PPaC falls to staff. A number of studies have measured breaches in PPaC due to the design of the ED and volume of patients [ 3,4,5] but only one [7] considered the effects of changes in an ED on PPaC.…”

Personalized medical information card for adults with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome: An initiative to improve communication between patients and healthcare providers

“…Neumayr et al., 2010; Olola, Narus, Nebeker, et al, 2011; Olola, Narus, Poynton, et al, 2011). In Australia, Mohd Rosli, Taylor, Knott, Das, and Dent (2009) surveyed potential users for the perceived advantages and disadvantages of a health smart card, defined as “a smart card containing the cardholder's electronic medical records.” Patients and emergency department staff felt the cards would be useful in emergencies, save patients’ time, improve accuracy and communication, help avoid confusion and decrease staff workload. However, concerns included issues related to privacy, confidentiality, security and inaccuracies.…”

An intervention to encourage ambulance paramedics to bring patients' own medications to the ED: Impact on medications brought in and prescribing errors

“…A variety of methods have been advocated to improve the ability of ED staff to determine the comprehensive medication history of their patients. Community resources such as general practitioners 6 and community pharmacists 7 are valuable, as are patient medication lists 8,9 and electronic ‘Smart cards’ 10–12 have been explored. Having a clinical pharmacist practicing in the ED has been shown to improve prescribing when patients are admitted to hospital 13–18 .…”