EMR Implementation & HITECH Act Blog

Most Patients Are Upbeat About EHR Implementation

One very important aspect of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act is electronic health record (EHR) implementation.  As health care professionals, manufacturers, organizations, politicians and insurance companies publicly debate the nation’s health care issues, patients may have something to smile about.

EHR implementation can be a mixed bag of benefits and risks, both for patients and medical staff.  The transition to an “EHR world” may not be an easy one.   Government, industrial, and medical players with a vested interest in health care are  becoming increasingly concerned about the unknowns.  How exactly do President Obama and Congress plan to usher in an age of universal usage?  Unfortunately we will have to wait a while longer to see the details.  Bottom line:  the great commodity of electronic health records is the patient’s medical information.  Getting a pulse on patient attitudes toward EHR adoption is crucial.

The three issues that seem to matter the most to patients are cost, privacy, and accessibility.

One big question is:  Who is going to pay for this?  Clearly, the bulk of up-front expenses for EHR implementation are going to fall squarely on health care providers.  This may lead to some anxiety among patients about their long-term costs for electronic health records.  But patients appear to be more upbeat about paying for these services, even in the face of higher overall health care costs.

In terms of EHR maintenance, a 2005 survey of 520 people conducted by Accenture revealed that the overwhelming majority of those surveyed would be willing to pay for electronic services.  Half of those responding said that $5 a month was reasonable.  Knowing that patient optimism is high enough for them to open their wallets should be a great encouragement as medical offices move forward in their adoption of electronic health records.

A second issue important to patients is maintaining privacy of their records.  A recent study on patient attitudes about EHR implementation by the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston was very revealing.  It found that patients were willing to sacrifice some of their privacy for the benefits of coordinated access among providers.  That’s a promising result for medical doctors and EHR companies alike.  Less stringent privacy rules can open the door for patients to easily seek care from a range of caregivers.  And patients appreciate the freedom to receive needed care outside their primary care physician’s office hours.

Finally, one of the greatest benefits for patients is access to their own medical records.  Imagine patients being able to:

• correct any potential misinformation
• ask medical professionals more informed questions
• play a bigger role in their own health care through awareness

A 2007 survey revealed that three out of four U.S. consumers believed electronic health records would improve accessibility and management of patient records for patients.  Exactly how patient-access to their own records plays out will likely become of increasing interest to the media so we’ll hear a lot more about it soon.

In the end, it appears that when it comes to EHR implementation, patients are mostly in favor of adoption.  That suggests that the move to universal electronic health record usage may be less controversial from the patients’ perspective than has been anticipated.

David Hill
PC Healthstop Blogging Team

Image credit:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/john-norris/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Posted by PC Healthstop Blogging Team