This article does a good job in outlining the direction of the PHR, personal health record for those who have not caught up with the lingo yet. Do patients want it? As of now most probably don’t know what to do with it, agree. There are some cases though where this does not hold true, as an example, Kaiser Permanente is one where patients depending upon where they are, have had access for over a year or so.
I have spoken with individuals under the Kaiser plan, and over all, like “Mikey”, they like it. Why, because they can go to any facility and have their medical records available for anyone treating them. There’s another reason and that is the ability to access their records, from their computer at home. In most instances, the patient has not done one stick of data input, but voile, it is there for them, if nothing else a convenience.
As Google and Microsoft continue with their strategic alliances with healthcare companies to integrate, guess what, once more there might be little or no data input from the patient once again. How is this possible? Let’s look at one simple example here with using Quest Diagnostics, who almost everyone knows or is aware of, one of the big labs. Lab results can be sent to Google Health, no effort on the patient other than getting their physician to authorize the transaction. Once more, no data input from the patient. Keep that thought.
As time marches on and the records begin to fill with information from other healthcare companies, one just might think about perhaps adding a note or two themselves, again since this is their record and they have control with HealthVault or Google Health.
Next scenario, out of network Kaiser patient arrives for treatment at your door and they have their records stored in the HealthVault and want to share. What’s the next move? Are you doing to ask the patient to print it all on paper, and in case of an emergency you may not have that luxury, and when they return to their primary care provider at Kaiser, are they going to be excited over getting a stack of paper, as more than likely they will want to have it added to the chart? I don’t think so. So what will the medical office and physician do? Good question.
As much publicity as PHRs have received, I have talked to medical assistants in offices that have no clue what it is, physicians, CEOs, same thing. We usually talk in terms of the “haves” and “have nots” but for this post I’m going to say it’s more like the ‘knows” and the “know nots”.
I have just touched the tip of the iceberg here, but be aware these types of situations are on the way, and the last thing an office needs right now with time restrictions with patient care is another administrative nightmare in not knowing what a PHR is and how to handle the information with technology instead of printing on paper. If you are not prepared, the stage is soon being set for another Chinese fire drill on how to handle personal health record information from the “informed patient” when they show up on your doorstep.
PS – there are links to both sites in the resource side of this blog if you need the links to read up. BD
BLUE CROSS Blue Shield of Massachusetts announced an agreement recently to give members access to their records via the new Google Health service. This venture is part of a movement to put consumers in charge of their medical records as the healthcare system edges into the Internet era. It’s unclear, however, whether patients want this control. What’s more important is getting doctors and hospitals connected into a single system. Blue Cross is doing its part by financing an experiment in three Massachusetts communities.
The most important benefit of obtaining a PHR in particular is that this can allow you to receive more appropriate screening if it becomes necessary. There are many different types of screening that we may need as we grow older, and it is essential to know when and if we have ever experienced that screening before. If it is a type of screening that requires regularly scheduled updates, having your medical records on hand can prove to be especially helpful.
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