Why a patient-controlled health record is critical to your health, your privacy, and your sanity
Lack of interoperability and poor communication are intrinsic to the current US health care system. It’s a system that not only fosters waste – of time and resources – but has serious consequences for patient care. Consigning critical patient medical information to hospital-based electronic health records (EHRs) is rife with problems that directly affect all of us. Medical records may be spread across multiple sites, resulting in incomplete records that may contain inaccurate or outdated information. The result? Medical errors are now the third-leading cause of death in the US1, and medical information is a prime target for hackers.
Statistics that should scare you:
70% of specialists rate the patient referral information they receive from other providers as fair or poor.2
Many referrals do not include transfer of information, and when they do, the information is often insufficient for medical decision making.
20% of malpractice claims involve missed or delayed diagnoses due to deficits in hand-offs between providers.3
3 of every 10 tests are reordered because the results cannot be found.4
Missing test results can lead to missed diagnoses, inappropriate or delayed treatments, further injury, or even death.
Patient charts cannot be found on 30% of visits.
Patient control of health records eliminates this possibility.
About 80% of all serious medical errors involve miscommunication during care transitions to different care setting.5
Primary care visit to hospital inpatient to rehab to home – there are multiple opportunities for error given the multiplicity of providers and third parties (and their paperwork) that may be involved.
Approximately 25% of US patients report that the results and records from one provider did not reach another provider in time for their appointment.2
Sometimes rescheduling is not an option.
In 2015, ~110 million individuals were impacted by protected health information breaches.6
17,000 patient records are breached per day on average.7
Almost 70% of individuals report that they were not provided access to their clinical laboratory test results in 2012.8
But the hackers who breached your data stored in hospital systems have it…and may be selling it to data brokers or others.
If you’re not concerned by these data, you should be. Even as recently as 2019, 1 in 3 patients still had to deal with missing or inaccurate medical information.
Gaps in medical information persist
Source: https://www.healthit.gov/data/quickstats/gaps-individuals-information-exchange. June 2019.
Worried that your child with asthma may suffer an unpredictable medical emergency? Or that your mom in Florida on multiple medications will have an adverse event with no way to communicate her medical information? Fearful that your brother in serious pain from sickle cell disease who needs emergency treatment will be dismissed in the ER as just another drug seeker? Accurate and complete medical information must be available to patients, their doctors and caregivers whenever and wherever it’s needed, with the privacy we all expect.
A patient-controlled medical record can solve these problems.
A well-designed patient-controlled medical record puts patients and clinicians in control. Patients can connect with their doctors or hospital directly, with no intermediary. Patients can decide who can access their records, and when, and can remove access as they see fit. They can get second opinions, knowing that their records are accurate and complete. Caregivers can be secure in the knowledge that they are prepared for a medical emergency. And they can do it all on their smartphones.
Our team of physicians and engineers at HIE of One is currently working prototyping Trustee®, a patient-controlled health record designed to fulfill these requirements. For more information, contact Adrian Gropper, MD info@trustee.ai .
Ms. Pargh has worked for more than 40 years in the medical and pharmaceutical arenas educating physicians, payers, and patients about emerging treatment options. She is also a consultant to HIE of One.
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/study_suggests_medical_errors_now_third_leading_cause_of_death_in_the_us
Mehrotra A et al. Milbank Q. 2011;89(1):39-68.
Gandhi TK et al. Ann Intern Med. 2006;145(7):488-96.
Technology CEO Council. http://www.techceocouncil.org/clientuploads/reports/A_Healthy_System_Final.pdf.
Technology CEO Council. http://www.techceocouncil.org/clientuploads/reports/A_Healthy_System_Final.pdf.
https://dashboard.healthit.gov/quickstats/pages/breaches-protected-health-information.php
http://www.entechus.com/blog/the-scariest-healthcare-it-security-statistics
https://dashboard.healthit.gov/quickstats/pages/FIG-Patient-Access-to-Results-of-Clinical-Lab-Tests.php