As health information transparency increases, patients may perceive important errors in their visit notes, and inviting them to report mistakes that they believe are very serious may be associated with improved record accuracy and patient engagement in safety.
Delbanco, Tom
Covid-19 as Innovation Accelerator: Cogenerating Telemedicine Visit Notes with Patients
Over the past decade, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has been committed to sharing clinical notes with its patients. Now, as the Covid-19 pandemic is accelerating the adoption of telemedicine, the hospital’s primary care practice is implementing an initiative called OurNotes. In addition to inviting patients to review notes before and after a visit, this effort also engages patients before the telemedicine visit by soliciting important prework information through an electronic form, and by enabling coproduction of the visit note.
Care Partners and Patient Portals—Faulty Access, Threats to Privacy, and Ample Opportunity
Care partners value having access to their loved one’s information. The patient portal is a convenient way to access test results and clinical notes, communicate with health care practitioners, and link care partners to the clinical team, making it a powerful tool for realizing the goals of care.
The Views and Experiences of Clinicians Sharing Medical Record Notes With Patients
In this web-based survey study of 1628 clinicians, most viewed note sharing positively (74% agreed that it is a good idea and 74% viewed shared notes as useful for engaging patients in their care), and 37% of physicians surveyed reported spending more time in documentation. Physicians with more years in practice and fewer hours spent in patient care had more positive opinions overall.
Empowering patients and reducing inequities: is there potential in sharing clinical notes?
Patients who read their clinical notes via online patient portals (‘open notes’) report that doing so engages them actively in their care, improves their sense of control over their health and enhances safety. In several surveys, patients who are older, less educated, non-white or whose first language is not English report even greater benefits than do their counterparts. However, for many reasons, persons from these demographic groups are less likely to use health portals than other patient populations.
Patients Managing Medications and Reading Their Visit Notes: A Survey of OpenNotes Participants
We examined patients’ perceptions of how note reading affects factors related to medication adherence. In addition, we sought to understand their engagement with online medication lists and their willingness to participate in keeping those lists correct and up to date.
OpenNotes After 7 Years: Patient Experiences With Ongoing Access to Their Clinicians’ Outpatient Visit Notes
Following a 2010-2011 pilot intervention in which a limited sample of primary care doctors offered their patients secure Web-based portal access to their office visit notes, the participating sites expanded OpenNotes to nearly all clinicians in primary care, medical, and surgical specialty practices.
Who Reads Their Doctor’s Notes? Examining the Association between Preconceptions and Accessing Online Clinical Notes
Patients who use online portals to review their clinicians’ notes may become more actively involved in their healthcare, but the healthcare industry knows little about factors that may facilitate or inhibit patients’ use of this new practice.
Patients Contributing to Their Doctors’ Notes: Insights From Expert Interviews
Background: In a rapidly expanding practice directed toward improved communication, patient engagement, and patient safety, clinicians are increasingly inviting patients to read office visit notes on secure electronic portals. Reports from doctors and patients participating in a pilot study are strongly positive (1). However, although patient-reported outcomes indicate that reading notes is valuable, it is primarily a passive activity. As a next step, inviting patients and their families to contribute to their notes may further patient engagement and offload work from beleaguered doctors.
Objective: To solicit ideas from experts about the concept of OurNotes, an intervention in which patients and families co-produce medical notes with clinicians.
Inviting patients and care partners to read doctors’ notes: OpenNotes and shared access to electronic medical records
Care partners were more likely to access and use patient portal functionality and reported improved communication with patients’ providers at follow-up. Our findings suggest that offering patients and care partners access to doctors’ notes is acceptable and improves communication and patients’ confidence in managing their care.
Except where otherwise noted, the content by OpenNotes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
