Patient feedback holds promise of better record accuracy
Patient access and feedback to their EHR can improve accuracy of medication lists, according to a study published in eGems (Generating Evidence and Methods to Improve Patient Outcomes).
A group of researchers from NORC at the University of Chicago, the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Geisinger Health Systems analyzed the impact of Geisinger’s online platform, launched in 2011, that allows patients to provide feedback on their medication lists before a doctor’s visit. Any feedback is routed to a Geisinger pharmacist, who reviews it and follows up with the patient before changing the medication list shared by the patient and the clinicians.
For the study, the researchers:
- conducted patient focus groups (users, nonusers and partial users of the feedback form)
- conducted semi-structured interviews with providers and pharmacists
- analyzed user observations with patients
- did a quantitative analysis of patient feedback data and pharmacists’ medication reconciliation logs
The research unearthed a number of findings:
- Patients were eager to provide feedback on their medications and recognized the advantages.
- Patients requested changes to the shared medication lists in 89 percent of cases.
- Patients provided useful and accurate online feedback. In a subsample of 107 patient feedback forms, pharmacists responded positively to 68 percent of patient requests for medication list changes.
- Processing patient feedback will requires both software algorithms and human interpretation.
- A supportive overall e-health environment makes acceptance of an online patient feedback system more likely.
“Online medication reconciliation provides a model for collaborative processes that can be employed to improve the quality of problem lists, immunizations, allergies and other areas of the medical record,” wrote the authors. They recommended more research on how to optimize form elements for patient feedback in other areas of the medical record and methods to effectively automate appropriate aspects of form processing, among other areas.
Read the study.