The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has requested the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reevaluate the effectiveness of its attempts to promote patient EHR access and EHR data use.
According to the report, most interviewed patients only access their data immediately before or after a physician visit despite reporting numerous benefits of EHR data beyond doctor visits. The report indicated a vast majority of patients were offered EHR access, but few took advantage of the opportunity. In its investigation, the agency found age plays a part in how likely a patient is to access their information, with older patients being less inclined to electronically access their records.
“Our survey found that nearly all providers routinely provided new patients with access to this information (92 percent of healthcare professionals and 91 percent of hospitals),” the federal agency stated in its report. Comparatively, GAO found only 15 percent of hospital patients and less than one-third of patients at physician practices accessed their information when offered the opportunity.
“Patients we interviewed said that the type of information made available in their portals was incomplete and inconsistent across providers. Though many patients talked about accessing their lab results through their portal, multiple patients said that their results were not always available for them to view,” stated the report.
“Patients also expressed frustration with the amount of time and effort it took to set up electronic access through their providers, managing multiple passwords for their many portals, and understanding each portal’s user interface,” the report continued.
Given the discrepancies between how often patients access their information in comparison to how often the information is available, as well as the lack of longitudinal health records, GAO recommended the Department develop performance measures to assess outcomes of key efforts related to patients’ electronic access to longitudinal health information and to use the information offered through the performance measures to make program adjustments, as appropriate.
Great Plains QIN team members can assist healthcare providers in assessing the number of patients using their health portals and improving utilization. Our team can also assist with workflow processes to better incorporate the use of patient portals and efficiencies that could be attained in using portal functions, such as payments, appointment scheduling, prescription refills, etc.