A collaboration among Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Pennsylvania’s Geisinger Health System, and Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center is demonstrating and evaluating the impact of the online sharing of encounter notes between primary care physicians and their patients.
A survey of almost 38,000 patients revealed that over 90% wanted their encounter notes after an office visit to be made available to them, and 80% felt they’d take better care of themselves if they had this access. The collaborative OpenNotes project aims to expand the lab results, medication lists, and other medical records data accessible by patients to include notes written about them by doctors and other medical personnel. The 20,000 participating patients have been able to view the encounter notes written by their own PCPs via secure patient portals on the Web since the twelve-month study began in the summer of 2010. While the study period is ended now, the patients continue to have access to their notes as the results are being analyzed.
An Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system like Medisoft Clinical, McKesson Practice Choice, or Allscripts MyWay is vital to giving patients quality healthcare. Microwize Technology can aid in this process.