The initial success of the Open Notes program is well-documented.
As MedCity News reported, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine at the beginning of 2014 found widespread enthusiasm about the idea of opening unedited primary care clinician notes to patients at three test sites. After the first year of Open Notes, 99 percent of the participating patients surveyed said they wanted access to continue, while 85 percent said the ability to view physician notes would affect their choice of healthcare provider in the future.
Remarkably, not one of the initial 100 primary care physicians in Open Notes dropped out after the year, despite initial concerns about patients not understanding their documentation or about being overwhelmed by patient questions.
Since the pilot study ended in 2013, Open Notes has grown to include nearly 5 million patients, Janice Walker, a researcher at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, who led the study, said Sunday in Chicago. Walker spoke at a HIMSS15 preconference symposium on patient engagement. And participants open their notes nearly 60 percent of the time.
“It’s not just a one-time thing,” said Walker, a registered nurse. “This started out as a research project, and now we think of it as a movement.”
Read Neil Versel’s full article on MEDCITY News.com.
