Sharing Pediatric Notes

Benefits include:

Remembering what was said during the visit. There’s ample evidence that patients and families often forget what was said during a medical encounter. Reviewing the record and the notes can help everyone understand the treatment plan and next steps.

“My husband calls me the ‘Chief Operating Officer’ of our family. With three kids, each with different schedules and different health concerns, access to notes is a tremendously valuable tool to help us manage our health.”
— Betsy

Communicating concerns. Reviewing notes gives parents, patients, and care partners an opportunity to identify possible inaccuracies, such as details about medication changes, new allergies, family history, or other information that may be useful to clinicians. It also prompts patients and families to communicate with care teams if there's a lack of understanding about the care plan or difficulty following the recommended next steps.

“Shared, ubiquitous, consent-modulated access to medical information promises reduced medical errors, improved efficiency, and safety of medical care, and lower health care costs, as well as activated patients who take responsibility and become partners in managing their own health care.”
— Bourgeois, et al. “Whose Personal Control? Creating Private, Personally Controlled Health Records for Pediatric and Adolescent Patients.” JAMIA, 2008.

Sharing notes. Schools often ask parents to fill out a health form at the beginning of each year. It might include a vaccination record or a description of how a child’s asthma is managed. Accessing the child’s medical record, including the visit notes, can help with recall of important details. It also allows the parent or care partner to share portions of the notes with the school nurse, another health specialist, or anyone they choose to give a more detailed and accurate description of a condition or treatment plan.

Learning to navigate the health system. Open notes can help parents empower their children to feel more in control of their health care, especially if they have complex health issues. Reading notes can also help patients and families develop skills to become more informed users of health systems in the future.

The value of OpenNotes for pediatric patients, their families and impact on the patient-physician relationship | Appl Clin Inform (2021)

OpenNotes: Sharing visit notes with patients and families | Pediatric Nursing (2018)

Read more research