Empowering patients through access to health records

Sharing data with patients shouldn’t be an afterthought, according to panelists who shared their efforts to empower patients with their health data at the fourth annual Consumer Health IT Summit on Sept. 15 in Washington, D.C.

Since the Kansas Health Information Network (KHIN) first got off the ground in 2009, “there was never a time we didn’t plan to have personal health records as part of our services,” said KHIN Executive Director Laura McCracy, EdD.

KHIN, a statewide exchange that now encompasses 282 organizations utilizing disparate EHR systems, did a “soft launch” of its free personal health record feature last October.

For the launch, 16 organizations agreed to be pilot sites. During the first phase of the project, KHIN began working through a variety of challenging bugs. “Providing the personal health record within the HIE is pretty complicated,” McCracy said. “One thing that is sufficiently challenging is patient matching because you can’t deliver the wrong information to patients.”

Phase 2 entailed bringing all the information from the exchange and delivering it directly to patients so they get notices, real time, that new information is available in their record, she said.

OCHIN, a health information network that spans 19 states with 70 clinic system members and more than 4,500 physicians, allows its patients to view physician notes through a portal, according to Tim Burdick, MD, MS, CMIO of OCHIN. The information network also is partnering with the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute for various research projects involving its troves of data.

“We need to focus on providing care in a more feasible way,” Burdick said, noting that patients—especially in rural locations—want to decrease face-to-face visits and use telehealth technology.

He also advocated using trust bundles like Blue Button that are dedicated to patient connections. “Providers need to get away from thinking that using Direct Trust is enough to get the job done.”

Also, he touched upon the need for redesigning workflows so staff at certain touch points can share with patients how to log in and use patient portals. He said an effort to have rooming staff show the patients the portals resulted in 50 to 55 percent of its patients utilizing the service.

Gilbert Salinas, MPA, fellow at Institute for Healthcare Improvement, has been dealing with a number of issues, including arthritis, partial paralysis and spine pain, due to an accidental gunshot as a teenager. When he had to relocate away from his providers for a fellowship, “I realized I could learn to redesign healthcare and flip it.”

Working with his longtime providers, he did as much care as possible online with prescriptions written up and delivered on time from California to Cambridge, Mass., the location of his fellowship. Since then, “I’ve never been healthier.” With the costs lowered, “I’m chasing the Triple Aim.”

Salinas added that the “biggest myth” is that people in underserved communities will not utilize technology if given it.

“I’ve never met a patient who didn’t want to be healthy,” he said. “Why can’t we give our patients iPhones?”