Abstract
Objectives: Leverage log data to explore access to My Health Record (MHR), the national electronic health record of Australia, by clinicians in the emergency department.Materials and Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted using secondary routinely-collected data. Log data pertaining to all patients who presented to the emergency department between 2019 and 2021 of a not-for-profit hospital (that annually observes 23,000 emergency department presentations) were included in this research. Attendance data and human resources data were linked with MHR log data. The primary outcome was a dichotomous variable that indicated whether the MHR of a patient was accessed. Logistic regression facilitated the exploration of factors (user role, day of the week, and month) associated with access.Results: My Health Record was accessed by a pharmacist, doctor, or nurse in 19.60% (n = 9,262) of all emergency department presentations. Access was dominated by pharmacists (18.31%, n = 8,656). All users demonstrated a small, yet significant, increase in access every month (odds ratio = 1.07, 95% Confidence interval: 1.06–1.07, p ≤ 0.001).Discussion: Doctors, pharmacists, and nurses are increasingly accessing MHR. Based on this research, substantially more pharmacists appear to be accessing MHR, compared to other user groups. However, only one in every five patients who present to the emergency department have their MHR accessed, thereby indicating a need to accelerate and encourage the adoption and access of MHR by clinicians.
Highlights
An electronic health record (EHR) is defined as a longitudinal digital record of patient health information that patients and authorized healthcare professionals can access, manage, and upload health information to [1]
My Health Record (MHR) access was more likely to occur between Monday and Friday compared to Sunday
There was no significant difference between MHR access on Saturday and Sunday (OR = 0.88, 95% confidence intervals (CIs): 0.79–0.96)
Summary
An electronic health record (EHR) is defined as a longitudinal digital record of patient health information that patients and authorized healthcare professionals can access, manage, and upload health information to [1]. The emergency department (ED) has been a major focus for the effective implementation and use of EHRs [5], as ED clinicians require efficient access to patient information that may exist outside of what is available within the internal medical record system of a healthcare provider [7]. The benefits of using an EHR in the ED include improved communication to prevent medication errors, increased efficiencies [8], and improved coordination among healthcare providers [9]. There is no record of an objective analysis of MHR access having been conducted in Australia, though it is a critical requirement in order to understand who uses MHR and how it is used
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