Patient Empowerment: Challenges

One of the challenges of patient empowerment, is the widespread acceptance and use of the PHR. But it’s not just the patient that needs to buy into the benefits of having one. Doctors and other health care providers also need to embrace the use of PHRs-in order to acheive true patient empowerment. But such acceptance and use of personal health records doesn’t come without a full undertsanding of what they are, how they work, and the valuable service they provide in improving patient health and the overall delivery of care.I came across and interesting article the other day that was written for the American Academy of Family Physicians, “An Introduction to Personal Health Records.”Although it was written for physicians, it is a good primer on PHRs. I encourage you to read the full article but I wanted to highlight what I thought was the most important point of the article: the benefits of PHRs for you, your doctors and the health care system.Why PHRs Are Important for You and For Your Doctor• Empowerment of patients. PHRs let patients verify the information in their medical record and monitor health data about themselves (very useful in chronic disease management). PHRs also provide scheduling reminders for health maintenance services.• Improved patient-provider relationships. PHRs improve communication between patients and clinicians, allow documentation of interactions with patients and convey timely explanations of test results.• Increased patient safety. PHRs provide drug alerts, help identify missed procedures and services, and get important test results to patients rapidly. PHRs also give patients timely access to updated care plans.• Improved quality of care. PHRs enable continuous, comprehensive care with better coordination between patients, physicians and other providers.• More efficient delivery of care. PHRs help avoid duplicative testing and unnecessary services. They provide more efficient communication between patients and physicians (e.g., avoiding congested office phones).• Better safeguards on health information privacy. By giving patients control of access to their records, PHRs offer more selectivity in sharing of personal health information. The PCASSO (patient-centered access to secure systems online) study at the University of California-San Diego suggests that PHRs are more secure than paper records.• Bigger cost savings. Improved documentation brought about by PHRs can decrease malpractice costs. PHRs’ ability to reduce duplicative tests and services is a factor here, too. (Of course, there is a cost for setting up a PHR. The price varies widely, based on whether the physician pays for the service or directs patients to subscribe, and whether the system is Web-based or stand-alone.) Source: American Academy of Family Physicians, Family Practice Management.I hope this article has you thinking more about PHRs and how they can help empower you as a patient. But this is just the beginning. Stay tuned.