Use of a patient-accessible electronic medical record in a practice for congestive heart failure: patient and physician experiences

• HIT Description: Patient decision support / Consumer health informatics More info...
  
• Purpose of Study: To evaluate experiences of patients and MDs with an online electronic medical record system
  
• Years of study: 2002
  
• Study Design: Pre-post
  
• Outcomes: Impact on patient satisfaction
  

• Settings: Academic subspecialty clinic for patients with congestive heart failure in Denver, CO
• Intervention: Patient-accessible electronic medical record system (SPPARO)
• Evaluation Method: Questionnaires, individual interviews, and user focus groups.
• Description: SPPARO (System Providing Patients Access to Records Online) is a secure Web interface to three components: medical records, a guide to heart failure, and a messaging system. The medical record component consists of clinical notes, lab reports, and test results. Security systems include the use of passwords, firewalls, and encryption.
• Strategy: Patients given a written user guide
• Barriers: 40% of users expressed a preference for an edited form of the record that was easier to understand. About 30% had concerns about privacy.
• Healthcare Utilization: Patients used the HIT system a medium of 8 days per year. There was a trend for higher use of the system by whites and those with more clinic visits.
• Changes in healthcare costs: MDs and staff reported no change in workload.
• Time needed to accrue benefit: Study reports results as one year.�