Doctors and hospitals are saying goodbye to the old paper charts that once filled the back office from floor to ceiling and are increasingly adopting electronic health records (EHR) systems instead.
This is good news for patients, since electronic health records are transforming patient-doctor relationships by giving patients greater access to their records online, enabling them to plan ahead for doctor visits, and even allowing them to request prescription refills online.
Among the benefits of EHRs are better coordination of care, increased face time with doctors, electronic prescribing, and a reduction of unnecessary tests and procedures that have already been performed recently.
Accenture, a management consulting and tech services company, conducted a survey which found that 90% of patients want online access to their medical records. EHRs are making this possible, and as standards improve physicians and hospitals that use EHRs are increasingly required to provide patients with access to their own records.
Additional findings of the Accenture survey were that:
- 33% of patients didn’t know whether services were available to them online
- 72% want to be able to book, change and cancel appointments
- 72% want to be able to request prescription refills
- 88% want to receive appointment reminders via email
- 76% want to communicate with their physicians via email
In an increasingly busy world, it’s not surprising that patients want access to their health care records online to better manage their time.
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