Question

Patient Portals

Overview: Patients have always had the right to obtain copies of their health records, unless the provider believes that would be harmful to the patient. In the past, health records were all paper. Providing patients copies of their records was a time consuming process for the health care staff. With meaningful use now in place, most patients may have access to their medical record through an electronic patient portal.

Case:
Read the overview below and answer the questions.

Jonathan had always been healthy, seeing a physician only once a year. He exercised routinely, but his diet consisted of fast food as he worked a high stress computer tech job that did not allow him time to plan meals accordingly. He realized that he had lost ten pounds in about 6 weeks and was always hungry. He went to his primary care physician, who after lab work was completed, told Jonathan that he was pre-diabetic and his A.1.C. was close to Type 2 diabetes. The physician talked to Jonathan about healthy eating and more exercise. Jonathan couldn’t believe he was diabetic, so he went to another physician. This physician told him that his A.1.C. was normal and to improve his diet. Jonathan did some reading about his possible condition. He also went into his patient portal for each physician and discovered that the first physician had misread his A.1.C. results.

Read the overview below and complete the activities that follow.

1.) May the information be downloaded by the patient from each portal? Why would a patient want to do that?

2.) May the information be downloaded by the patient from each portal? Why would a patient want to do that?

3.) What are the negative aspects of patients having immediate access 24 hours a day to their health records?

Answer 1

1.Mr.Jonathan was very anxious about his condition,that is why he enquired a second opinion from another doctor about his condition.Two doctors have separate opinion, which made him tensed.Ifbhe didn't do that,he may get false direction from his primary doctor,which may led to type2diabetes in Jonathan.The doctor should give proper information about patient's condition always.

2.There are negative aspects of patient having immediate access to health records.There are confidential information about the patient in their health records,which is not shared with the patient.Thevother drawbacks includes high upfront acquisition costs, ongoing maintenance costs and disruptions to workflows that contribute to temporary losses in productivity that are the result of learning a new system.