We’re excited to share the topic and questions for this week’s #HITsm chat happening Friday, 12/8 at Noon ET (9 AM PT). This week’s chat will be hosted by Homer Chin (@chinhom) and Amy Fellows (@afellowsamy) from (@MyOpenNotes) on the topic of “EHR, Patient Portals and OpenNotes: Making OpenNotes Work Well.”
There are now nearly 100 health systems across the United States using secure patient portals to share visit notes with more than 20 million of their patients. And as the saying goes, if you’ve seen one OpenNotes implementation, you’ve seen one OpenNotes implementation.
No two health systems approach OpenNotes in the same way, and much of the variation stems from human resistance to change. Change is hard; whether it involves assuring and supporting clinicians in their move toward sharing notes or whether it’s surmounting technical challenges within the electronic health record.
We know the electronic health record is here to stay. We’re not going back to paper. And we know that when patients are offered online access to the medical information in their records, including access to notes, these patients continue to want that access and they share its benefits.
At their annual meeting in November 2017, the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) announced a formal collaboration with OpenNotes, stating, “The evidence-base is clear: providing patients access to their physician’s notes improves physician-patient communication and trust, patient safety, and perhaps even patient outcomes.”
So how do we bridge resistance to change? And as OpenNotes expands, how do we guide health systems to ensure the best possible patient experience?
Join us as we dive into this topic during this week’s #HITsm chat using the following questions. Homer Chin and Amy Fellows will be on hand to share key learnings from vendors and health IT teams that have been making OpenNotes work over the past few years.
Reference Materials:
- Your Patient Is Now Reading Your Note: Opportunities, Problems, and Prospects
- What patients value about reading visit notes: a qualitative inquiry of patient experiences with their health information
- When doctors share visit notes with patients: a study of patient and doctor perceptions of documentation errors, safety opportunities and the patient–doctor relationship
- OpenNotes assists with transparency, patient engagement
- 4 reasons patients value access to visit notes in the EHR
- OpenNotes’ benefits extend to care partners
- A strong case for OpenNotes
- How to ensure OpenNotes is a positive experience for patients
Topics for This Week’s #HITsm Chat:
T1: What cultural barriers to OpenNotes adoption and use exist within the #healthcare IT profession vs. the clinical/medical community? #hitsm
T2: Given that OpenNotes is a movement and not a discrete software product, what are the technical challenges for implementing OpenNotes inside the patient portal? #hitsm
T3: If you’re currently implementing OpenNotes in your health system: What advice and/or cavetats can you share with colleagues? #hitsm
T4: If you haven’t implemented OpenNotes at your health system: What’s holding you back? What do you believe are the key challenges impeding implementation? #hitsm
T5: What customization strategies and/or tips do you have for helping patients navigate healthcare portals to find their #medical record notes? #hitsm
BONUS: What type of “OpenNotes-related” functionality should #EHR vendors be including in their product(s) to serve both clinicians AND patients? #hitsm
Upcoming #HITsm Chat Schedule
12/15 – What’s Keeing HealthIT from Soaring to the Cloud?
Hosted by David Fuller (@genkidave)
12/22 – Holiday Break
12/29 – Holiday Break
We look forward to learning from the #HITsm community! As always, let us know if you’d like to host a future #HITsm chat or if you know someone you think we should invite to host.
If you’re searching for the latest #HITsm chat, you can always find the latest #HITsm chat and schedule of chats here.