Patient access to online records low

Few consumers had online access to their medical records in 2013 but half of those who did, accessed their records at least once, according to an Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) data brief.

Findings of the ONC brief are based on data collected in 2013 through a survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago. The survey involved a nationally representative sample of about 2,100 individuals and provides the "first comprehensive look at the state of consumer access and use of online health records," according to a post on ONC's blog.

About 28 percent of respondents were offered online access to their health records and ONC attributed that low rate to "providers' limited capabilities prior to implementation of Stage 2 Meaningful Use," which requires at least 5 percent of individuals who are provided online access to their health information to view, download or transmit their records at least once.

Of those with online access to their records, 21 percent accessed their data once or twice in the past year, 10 percent accessed their data six or more times and 54 percent did not access their data.

Those who did view their records online used the data in various ways, including to monitor their health (75 percent), to share with another individual (40 percent), to download their data (40 percent) and 10 percent said they sent data from their online record to another technology source such as a mobile application or personal health record.

Those who declined to access their medical records online named no need to view the data, privacy or security concerns with the website and lack of internet access as the leading reasons.

Despite the low rate of use, the majority (70 percent) of respondents viewed having secure online access to their health records as very or somewhat important, including 62 percent of those who did not access their records.

Access the complete data brief.