Access Partnership Understanding

Patient Portal or open health record?

Its time to talk about the OHR, that is Our Health Record.

  • Interested in helping patients become better at self management?
  • Can patient portals help you do this? Are they worth the cost?
  • Concerned how hard it is geting to navigate the silos in Healthcare?

Want to understand what products out there in New Zealand health ICT environment can help?Well you are in the right place. Here I have placed everything I have learned about products in the to help NZ health providers make good informed choices.

The next generation needs this

If the health system is to cope with the challenges of the future, then we need better self-management of chronic conditions.

GP advanced training has always focused on patient centered approach and continuality of care. What is the patient’s agenda?. Considering the person biopsychio social in environment. Involving them in all management decisions when possible.

Taking care to make sure patient doctor relationship is balanced. But it is the doctor who has the access to notes, who records what happened in the visit and the management plan. But why isn’t the Patient able to have these memory aids? they can legally read and get a copy of notes for review at any time, but what about having always having access. They have the most to gain about the accuracy of the record, and its like having an extra person in the care team!

The CoPilot Clinician

The doctor needs to make notes to remember what happened. There is legal requirements for this, and the notes can be used in investigations about the quality of care. Also the notes were originally there to help other clinicians get a snapshot of the persons health status.

Many Modern day Clinicians include their patients in all decisions, why not let them review the medical record? If the doctor needs a reminder of what happened in a consult why not the patient?

The perfect situation is when the Clinician perfectly understands the individuals bio psycho and social factors. But how often does that happen?. The perfect patient understands all the relevant options and science behind each diagnosis and needs no help in deciding management. The patient is the only true expert about themselves, and in ideal world the doctor is a partner or a copilot in the persons health journey.

With this approach, a transparent relationship is vital and supported by open notes, and there should be no surprises!.

OpenNotes

Watch this lecture from Prof Tom Delbanco on why Sharing your notes with Patients is so good. The results are astounding, and in the reviews section you will see the papers. As Prof tom states, what other advance in medicine has helped with patient adherence to medicine as much as these results?

ToolKit

With so many promises and different tools, all claiming to do everything, it can be confusing. So here is my list of tool kits