You’re Invited! Join special guest Open Notes, @myopennotes, for our next Empowered #patientchat where we’ll discuss health records.

Access to health records is vital because it gives patients and care givers the ability to coordinate their health care better, prevent repeat and unnecessary tests or procedures, engage in shared decision making, and provide a greater control over their health and well-being. Even with more and more health records being made available to patients electronically, there are still challenges.

Let’s chat about health records, shared decision making, and why they can benefit patients.

• An Electronic Health Records (EHR) is a digital version of a patient’s paper chart that can:
  • Contain a patient’s medical history, diagnoses, medications, treatment plans, immunization dates, allergies, radiology images, and lab and test results
  • Allow access to evidence-based tools that providers can use to make decisions about a patient’s care

• Shared Decision Making (SDM) is a process in which clinicians and patients work together to make decisions and select tests, treatments and care plans based on clinical evidence that balances risks and expected outcomes with patient preferences and values.
• A Patient Portal is a secure online website that gives patients convenient 24-hour access to personal health information from anywhere with an Internet connection.

Guiding our discussion will be the following Topic (T#:) Questions:

 

T1: What do you want your health care team to know about you and your health information?

T2: For those who are able to read their visit notes, what are the benefits?

T3: How does access  to notes help you actively share in your healthcare decision making?

T4: Do you ever find information in your notes that you find confusing or worrisome? What do you do about that?

T5: How can the notes be used in between visits to help manage care and keep you organized?

T6: Have you ever found an inaccuracy in your note? Is there a role for patients to play in the safety of care?

T7: What’s your advice for patients who might be a little scared to ask for their notes or bring up an inaccuracy?

We hope to see you Friday, August 4, 2017 on Twitter (or tchat.io/rooms/patientchat) at 10:00 am Pacific / 1:00 pm Eastern. Be sure to include the hashtag #patientchat in all your responses!