What are the pros and cons of the situation in the case study?
A patient has access to some of their medical data as entered by their healthcare provider via their Personal Health Record (PHR) (Hebda, Hunter, & Czar, 2019, p. 113). The pros of PHRs are that the patient can communicate with their provider as well as have access some of their medical records, therefore allowing the patient to be more aware and involved in their care. The cons for this situation are that the patient was not able to access their full medical records. The fact that the patient was only able to access a portion of her lab results can make the patient more apprehensive about what they weren’t able to see. I believe this can cause the patient to speculate more about what the possible missing results are.
What safeguards are included in patient portals and PHRs to help patients and healthcare professionals ensure safety?
In order to access one’s own PHR portal, the individual most first sign multiple waivers at their healthcare provider’s facility. Usually this includes a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) disclosure and a waiver from the application or program used to access the PHR (Lester, Boateng, Studeny, & Coustasse, 2016). Once the waivers have been signed, the patient then selects a username and password using security questions and a personal email.
Do you agree or disagree with the way that a patient obtains Personal Health Records (PHRs)?
I agree with the current practices used for patients to obtain PHRs. I appreciate that this is optional for patients, and not the only way to access these records. There is still a population of patients who wish to keep track of their medical records in paper form instead of electronically. In the future, I believe technology will advance to where all medical records can be added to a universal database that is accessible by patients and healthcare providers from different institutions, seamlessly.
What are challenges for patients that do not have access to all of the PHRs? Remember, only portions of the EHRs are typically included in the PHRs.
The challenge for patients that do not have access to all of the PHRs is that all information that is a part of their Electronic Health Record (EHR) does not automatically become a part of their PHR. This situation highlights the worst part of PHRs, which is that separate institutions do not share results and medical records automatically. PHR databases are not perfect and may not include the complete results and reports, which can be troublesome. For patients who want complete medical records, they should stick with old-fashioned paper copies of their medical records.
References
Hebda, T., Hunter, K., & Czar, P. (2019). Handbook of informatics for nurses & healthcare professionals (6th ed.). Pearson.
Lester, M., Boateng, S., Studeny, J., & Coustasse, A. (2016). Personal Health Records: Beneficial or Burdensome for Patients and Healthcare Providers?. Perspectives in health information management, 13 (Spring), 1h.
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