Abstract
BackgroundAs electronic health records have become a more integral part of a physician’s daily life, new electronic health record tools will continue to be rolled out to trainees. Patient access to provider notes is becoming a more widespread practice because this has been shown to increase patient empowerment.ObjectiveIn this analysis, we compared differences between resident and attending physicians’ perceptions prior to implementation of patient access to provider notes to facilitate optimal use of electronic health record features and as a potential for patient empowerment.MethodsThis was a single-site study within an academic internal medicine program. Prior to implementation of patient access to provider notes, we surveyed resident and attending physicians to assess differences in perceptions of this new electronic health record tool using an open access survey provided by OpenNotes.ResultsWe surveyed 37% (20/54 total) of resident physicians and obtained a 100% response rate and 72% (31/44 total) of attending physicians. Similarities between the groups included concerns about documenting sensitive topics and anticipation of improved patient engagement. Compared with attending physicians, resident physicians were more concerned about litigation, discussing weight, offending patients, and communicated less overall with patients through electronic health record.ConclusionsPatient access to provider notes has the potential to empower patients but concerns of the resident physicians need to be validated and addressed prior to its utilization.
Highlights
Electronic health records (EHRs) have become a part of daily life for physicians practicing in today’s technological era
We evaluated differences in the perceptions of resident and attending physicians prior to implementation of patient access to provider notes to identify potential targets for curricular interventions and facilitate optimal use of EHR features while increasing patient empowerment
A convenience sample of residents who were on their ambulatory block pre-implementation reached 37% (20/54) of resident physicians within our academic practice, with a 100% resident response rate
Summary
Electronic health records (EHRs) have become a part of daily life for physicians practicing in today’s technological era. EHRs are used for documentation and billing but can increase patient engagement through portals that allow patients to contact physicians, review lab work, and perform other tasks. Recent studies have shown that patients with access to their notes feel more engaged to work as a team with their health care providers. The study showed that patients were empowered by access to their notes http://mededu.jmir.org/2018/1/e15/ XSLFO RenderX. Most providers opted to continue offering their patients access to their notes after the study period concluded [1,2,3,4]. Patient access to provider notes is becoming a more widespread practice because this has been shown to increase patient empowerment
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