NR 361 Week 4 Graded Discussion: Your Patient has a PHR (Patient Health Record) Now What?
Patient portals and patient health records (PHRs) are
... [Show More] commonplace today.
1. What are the pros and cons of having a PHR?
2. What safeguards and decision-making support tools are included in patient portals and PHRs to help patients and healthcare professionals ensure safety?
3. Do you agree or disagree with this process?
4. What are challenges for patients that do not have access to all of the EHRs? Remember, only portions of the EHRs are typically … in the PHRs.
ANSWER
Response
Patient portals are applications that allow patients to interact and communicate with the healthcare providers, i.e. hospitals and doctors, allowing the patient to be proactive in their care (CCN, 2016). The electronic medical record (EMR) system plays a vital role in providing services to the patients and gives the ability to interact with the medical information through the internet. Patient portals are a greater achievement towards the realization of better patient management, and the healthcare system provides accessible ways for patients (Hebda & Czar, 2016, p. 326). Hence the patients can create effective partnerships with their health. Thus patients have the ability to make competent and well-informed decisions (Tang, et. al., 2006, p. 123).
The patient portal can expose individual patient health information in a very secure manner hence minimizing the risk of vulnerability. Portals allow accessibility thus patients communicate with the health providers in this process the efficiency and productivity are increased rapidly. The physicians on their part can meet requirements this helps in receiving federal incentives by the ease of providing health information to patients (Hebda & Czar, p. 340). Information is accessed quickly in that applicants are required to fill and register forms online this helps streamline visits to hospitals and clinics. Some portal applications allow the request for prescription refills, order eyeglasses and contact lenses, pay bills and access medical records among others duties such as schedule appointments (Hebda & Czar, p. 339).
The patient portal ease communication and provide a platform for them to air their grievances, the major setbacks come into play when one has portals with different organizations. Patients are required to log in different portals depending on the organization to access information this makes it difficult. Personal health records are details of personal health information stored on a system hence provide an easier platform for patients to access information faster and quickly, and they can manipulate to their liking.
The pros are that patients can manage the access to the PHR online and the amount of personal information that people can access. The information can be stored in a secure environment on a reliable server and retrieved at will, the accessibility by different people i.e. pharmacists, physicians means services are fast. The cons are many in that due to lack of policies and laws information may be sold to 3rd parties without patients consent and the capital needed to set up a health care server (Stone, 2015). The information may be prone to hacking and manipulation.
Regulations and policies set up such as HIPAA regulations guarantee patient information is held in confidence. Thus security is a primary concern and a decision-making tool. Patient has usernames and passwords thus they can access the information at their liking.
References
Chamberlain College of Nursing. (2016). Week 2 Lesson: Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and Personal Health Records (PHRs) [Online lesson]. Downers Grove, IL: Devry Education Group
Hebda, T., & Czar, P. (2013). Handbook of informatics for nurses & healthcare professionals (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
Stone, J. (2015 July 30). Your personal medical information is twice as likely to be hacked as financial data. Here's why. International Business Times. Retrieved from http://www.ibtimes.com/your-personal-medical-information-twice-likely-be-hacked-financial-data-heres-why-2021826
Tang, P. C., Ash, J. S., Bates, D. W., Overhage, J. M., & Sands, D. Z. (2006). Personal health records: Definitions, benefits, and strategies for overcoming barriers to adoption. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association: JAMIA, 13(2), 121–126. http://doi.org/10.1197/jamia.M2025 [Show Less]