Improving healthcare outcomes with active patient engagement

Improving Healthcare Outcomes with Active Patient Engagement

EHRs enable more effective medical records review for legal as well as medical purposes. They also allow patients to participate in their own healthcare

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Improving Healthcare Outcomes with Active Patient Engagement Electronic health records are associated with many benefits, and included among them are easier medical record retrieval and more effective medical records review for legal as well as medical purposes. Another major advantage of the electronic patient record is the improved access it allows patients, thereby improving their participation in their healthcare. When patients are more involved in their own healthcare, it can lead to considerable improvements in the quality of care provided. This is achieved by emphasizing wellness and prevention rather than treatment of chronic disease. With easy access to their personal health records, healthcare consumers can keep track of preventive measures such as immunizations and screening tests. These documents also have a significant role to play as regards instilling healthy lifestyle habits including diet management, exercising, and smoking cessation.

There are many ways in which providers can connect with their patients and families – examples include patient portal adoption, social media, secure messaging and other health related technologies that are being developed.

Patient Engagement Beneficial, New Research Shows New research published in the March – April Issue of Annals of Family Medicine draws attention to the benefits obtained by patients as well as their primary care clinicians when patients were encouraged to enter details of their own visit note into the EHR to specify their expectations for the medical consultation. 101 patients at Harborview Medical Center, a safety-net county hospital in Seattle participated in this study conducted from June 9 to July 22, 2015. The results of this research reflected all-round satisfaction. The authors of the study say that “Agenda perceptions were strongly positive among both patients and clinicians. Patients and clinicians felt this improved communication, and both expressed interest in patient-written agendas in the future.”

The participating patients were met in the waiting room by the research assistant when they arrived at the clinic. The patients were requested to type their visit agendas into the EHR via a laptop computer. The assistant stayed with the patients while they typed.

The patients belonged to the age group 18 to older than 70, and were selected on the basis of their proficiency in English and comfort level with typing on the keyboard. Most of these patients finished their task quickly, with 83% typing for less than 10 minutes, and 80% writing notes shorter than 60 words. Their comments were also mostly brief and direct. In a follow-up survey, patient comments regarding their consultation experience were perceptive. In general, the comments reflected the fact that patients welcomed this new approach.

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A high percentage of both patients and clinicians endorsed patient-written agendas saying that these helped to: •

Better prepare clinicians

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Achieve a more efficient visit

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Improve clinician understanding of patient concerns

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Prioritize the visit

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Improve clinician-patient communication

Patient – Provider Collaboration Can Flourish in Any Healthcare Setting Both providers and patients expressed interest in continuing using patient-written agendas. The study authors say that collaboration between clinicians and their patients can flourish anywhere, even in settings that care for vulnerable patient populations.

They pointed out that this study was conducted at a county hospital where they had homeless patients who access their records on cell phones or library computers, which shows they are interested and able to participate. Though patient-written notes have a number of typos, the researchers would like to see EHRs help advance healthcare to the next level of patient-note co-generation.

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Patients could send providers their agendas ahead of their appointments via the patient portal.

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Alternatively, they could type their agendas on computers in the waiting room.

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These agendas would then be automatically inserted into the doctor’s visit notes, saving the providers valuable time in addition to getting patients more involved in their healthcare.

The researchers stressed the importance of further study in this regard, including measurement of patient engagement and health outcomes.

The OpenNotes Experiment Earlier, in 2010 the OpenNotes experiment conducted by an internist Tom Delbanco and Jan Walker, a nurse and researcher had demonstrated the advantage of patient participation in their healthcare. Though doctors overall were not much in favour of this experiment, after the first year the results were remarkable. Eighty percent of patients who saw their records reported better understanding of their medical condition and said they were in better control of their health. Two-thirds of patients said that they were better at following their prescriptions. 99% of patients wanted OpenNotes to continue, and no doctor withdrew from this project. It was proved that when patients see their records, there is more accuracy and more trust.

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(800) 670 2809

As providers of medical review services, it is with great interest that we follow these new developments that are very likely to be beneficial to the medical and legal community as well as the healthcare consumers. Surely, providers and patients working together to achieve better health outcomes is a practical and effective way of healthcare management. When patients are engaged as decision makers in their own care, we can expect to see a healthier community with better outcomes.

www.mosmedicalrecordreview.com

(800) 670 2809