Granting Patients Access to Records: The Impact of the Privacy Act at a Federal Hospital

Seitz, Jean‐François; Ward, Archibald F.; Dobbs, William H.

doi:10.1176/ps.29.5.288

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…27 There were three studies of patients who spontaneously requested to read their charts. [28][29][30] Clinical trials were considered relevant if they allowed adult patients to review their own medical notes. Studies that provided only a truncated version of the medical record were also considered relevant if they included a doctor-generated list of medical problems at a minimum.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Requests from psychiatric inpatients are also rare-less than 2% in one study. 28 Studies disagree about the motivations for spontaneous requests. In one survey, most physicians believed that patients requested to read their records for "further treatment, education, or additional information," but one-third of the physicians believed that the requests were prompted by "litigious motives" or "from the need to obtain secondary gain."…”

Section: Patient Experience With Access To the Medical Recordmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although only a handful of patients actually found their records to be "confusing," 28,46,57 patients commonly had difficulty understanding at least part of their records. In an early descriptive study, general medical outpatients were asked whether they could understand "all or most" of the information in various notes.…”

Section: Confusion and Misunderstandingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Patient-accessible medical records did not generate substantial anxiety or concern in most studies. [28][29][30]50,51 In a descriptive study, however, 11% of medical outpatients reported "upsetting feelings" after reading their records. For obstetric patients, although a nonrandomized controlled trial reported that 23% found the records "difficult to understand or worrying," 52 two randomized controlled trials found that patients who carried their medical records were no more anxious than those who carried the standard cooperation cards (patient-carried cards with information to be passed from obstetrician to general practitioner).…”

Section: Patient Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

The Effects of Promoting Patient Access to Medical Records: A Review

Lin

2003

J Am Med Inform Assoc

265

215

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Health Insurance Privacy and Portability Act (HIPPA) stipulates that patients must be permitted to review and amend their medical records. As information technology makes medical records more accessible to patients, it may become more commonplace for patients to review their records routinely. This article analyzes the potential benefits and drawbacks of facilitating patient access to the medical record by reviewing previously published research. Previous research includes analysis of clinical notes, surveys of patients and practitioners, and studies of patient-accessible medical records. Overall, studies suggest the potential for modest benefits (for instance, in enhancing doctor-patient communication). Risks (for instance, increasing patient worry or confusion) appear to be minimal in medical patients. The studies, however, were of limited quality and low statistical power to detect the variety of outcomes that may result from implementation of a patient-accessible medical record. The data from these studies lay the foundation for future research.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Patient Experience With Access To the Medical Recordmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Confusion and Misunderstandingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Patient Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The Effects of Promoting Patient Access to Medical Records: A Review

Lin

2003

J Am Med Inform Assoc

265

215

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Despite these potential benefits, enabling patients to view their medical records may also have negative consequences. Preliminary studies found that access to medical records has the potential to unnecessarily concern or confuse patients, and many clinicians are concerned that such access will increase their workload if patients contact the office with questions about their records [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. Additionally, there is concern that clinicians may change the way they document if they know the records will be viewed by patients, potentially rendering them less useful to healthcare professionals and patients alike [18,19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risks and rewards of increasing patient access to medical records in clinical ophthalmology using OpenNotes

Radell

Tatum

Lin

et al. 2021

Eye

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background The implementation of OpenNotes and corresponding increase in patient access to medical records requires thorough assessment of the risks and benefits of note-sharing. Ophthalmology notes are unique among medical records in that they extensively utilize non-standardized abbreviations and drawings; they are often indecipherable even to highly-educated clinicians outside of ophthalmology. No studies to date have assessed ophthalmologist perceptions of OpenNotes. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted from 4/28 to 5/12/2016. A survey was distributed to 30 clinicians (25 ophthalmologists, three optometrists, two nurses) in the University of Colorado’s Department of Ophthalmology to evaluate provider attitudes towards granting patients access to online medical records. Results Many clinicians felt patients would have difficulty understanding their records and may be unnecessarily alarmed or offended by them. Some clinicians worried their workload would increase and feared having to change the way they document. Perceived benefits of OpenNotes included improving patient understanding of their medical conditions, strengthening patient–physician trust, and enhancing patient care. Many perceived risks and benefits of note-sharing were associated with conceptions of the ideal clinician–patient relationship. Conclusions Clinicians in ophthalmology perceived both benefits and consequences of increasing patient access to ophthalmic records, and there were significant correlations between these perceptions and their conceptions of the clinician–patient relationship. This is the first study to assess potential ophthalmology provider attitudes toward sharing ophthalmic records. Although limited in sample size and power, this study demonstrates some ways patient-accessible ophthalmic records can affect the clinical practice of ophthalmology and emphasizes the unique challenges of OpenNotes in ophthalmology.

show abstract

Erratum to: Who Is the Client and Who Controls Release of Records in a Forensic Evaluation? A Review of Ethics Codes and Practice Guidelines

Borkosky

2015

Psychol. Inj. and Law

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Granting Patients Access to Records: The Impact of the Privacy Act at a Federal Hospital

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

The Effects of Promoting Patient Access to Medical Records: A Review

The Effects of Promoting Patient Access to Medical Records: A Review

Risks and rewards of increasing patient access to medical records in clinical ophthalmology using OpenNotes

Erratum to: Who Is the Client and Who Controls Release of Records in a Forensic Evaluation? A Review of Ethics Codes and Practice Guidelines

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About