Patients' Access to Their Online Electronic Health Records

Abstract

We surveyed a randomized group of 1050 adult patients stratified for age and sex, from a general practice in Oxfordshire, to find out their attitudes to electronic health records (EHRs). Eighty-six per cent thought that patients should have the right to see their records. While 72% knew that they had the right to see their records, only 4% had done so. Private EHR viewing booths with a computer and fingerprint identification system were installed in the primary care centre. Patients were randomly selected from those who responded to the questionnaire and wished to view their EHR. Of the 100 patients who saw their online EHR, 99 found the session useful and 84 found their records easy to understand. Three focus groups were held with 14 patients who said that they did not want to access their EHRs. The reasons patients gave during the focus groups included that they trusted their general practitioner and thought it would imply a lack of confidence. After the focus groups, 11 patients changed their minds and accessed their records. We believe that patient-accessed EHRs will offer substantial benefits to patients, health professionals and the National Health Service as a whole.

Comparison of user groups' perspectives of barriers and facilitators to implementing electronic health records: a systematic review

“…The most frequent types of technology covered were: electronic health records (EHR) (n = 23 studies) [39,40,42,45,47,49,54-59,62,65-68,70,72,75-77,79,81,90,92]; electronic medical records (EMR) (n = 19) [35,43,44,46,48,51,52,60,61,64,69,71,73,74,78,82,83,86,88]; electronic patient records (EPR) (n = 5) [50,53,87,91,93] and computer-based/computerized patient records (n = 2) [36,63]. Other forms of technology were each represented by one study: computerized patient information system [80], computerized medical records [84], electronic records management [34], personal health records [38], portable computers [89], smart card [85], and summary care records [37,41].…”

“…A large number of studies (n = 17, 32.7%) were conducted in European countries: United Kingdom (n = 10) [37,41,53,58,67,68,72,79,81,90], Norway (n = 5) [46,50,60,87,88], Sweden (n = 3) [36,51,52], Denmark (n = 3) [75,91,93], Greece (n = 1) [49] and Spain (n = 1) [74]. Two Australian (3.8%) [80,84] and two Japanese studies [43,44] were also included in this systematic review.…”

The impact of patient record access on appointments and telephone calls in two English general practices: a population-based study

“…Experience, literature reviews and research suggest that RA in general practice improves safety, 14 patient satisfaction 15 and compliance with treatment. 2,16 This may come from a greater sense of understanding and control felt by patients.…”

Potential impacts of patient access to their electronic care records

“…1 This low uptake could be due to a general lack of interest, fears about the complexity of the information, or simply a lack of awareness of their right to do so. 2,3 Doctors too, as a group, have not generally encouraged patients to examine what is written about them clinically. Previous research suggests that clinicians have concerns for the potentially negative impacts of allowing patients access to their records, fearing that patients might misinterpret the material or that it might undermine self-esteem.…”

“…3 The aim of the research reported in this paper was to investigate the attitude of patients attending a London-based primary care practice to having access to their electronic records, their perception of how it would alter the sense they made about their health, the impact on the doctor-patient relationship, and patients' interest in being permitted to add to the notes themselves.…”