Personal Health Records
 

Consider the PHRs of today. Patient-accessible health records are currently web-based and have seen little consumer use when compared to the total U.S. population. The VA has had notable success with its veterans logging on; however, other web-based portals have struggled. Google Health, a free PHR site, shut its services down effective January of 2012 citing too few and inconsistent users to maintain the site.
 

PHRs can eliminate the plethora of patient charts and help to assimilate a lifetime of medical documentation. What do you think will motivate society to fully embrace these electronic resources?
 

To prepare:

• Reflect      on the information presented in the Learning Resources, focusing on      personal health records and patient portals as used by the VA.
• Consider      your personal and professional experiences with personal health records      and patient portals.
• What      benefits, concerns, and challenges do these types of systems bring to the      health care profession? How might they influence your professional practice      and your patientàhealth outcomes?
• Explore      one patient portal. If you do not have access to one through your practice      setting, utilize a free service such as FollowMyHealth http://followmyhealth.jardogs.com/ or      Microsoft HealthVault http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/healthvault/.
• Assess      the kind of information that you would put in your own personal health      record. What concerns (if any) would you have about the security of your      personal information in a personal health record?
• Think      about your stance on the value of PHRs. Do you believe that every      individual should be required to maintain a PHR?

 

• What       capabilities and/or features might entice people to use them?
• What       factors might inhibit people from using them?

By tomorrow Tuesday 10/24/17, write a minimum of 550 words essay with at least 3 references in APA format from the list of required readings below. Include the level one and level two headings per APA guidelines as numbered and lettered below:

Post a cohesive response that addresses the following:

1) Appraise your selected personal health patient portal. 

2) Evaluate the influence of PHRs on health care delivery and clinical practice.

3) Take a position for or against mandating PHRs. Justify your stance addressing the following points:

 

1. Personal       health records via patient portals are part of Meaningful Use 2 and the       debate over mandating them is essentially over.
2. What       capabilities and/or features might motivate individuals to maintain PHRs?
3. What       factors may deter individuals from signing up for this service?
4. What       concerns might you and your patients have about a PHR’s capability to       securely maintain personal information?
5. How       might PHRs influence your professional practice and your patients’ health       outcomes, positively or negatively?

Required Readings

Course Text: Ball, M. J., Douglas, J. V., Hinton Walker, P., DuLong, D., Gugerty, B., Hannah, K. J., . . . Troseth, M. R. (Eds.) (2011). Nursing informatics: Where technology and caring meet (4th ed.). London, England: Springer-Verlag.

• Review      Chapter 16, “Personal Health Record: Managing Personal Health”

This chapter focuses on the future of personal health records and consumerism, as well as the initiatives being developed to strengthen health literacy in the patient population. The nurse’s role in the development of personal health records is also discussed.

Reti, S. R., Feldman, H. J., Ross, S. E., & Safran, C. (2010). Improving personal health records for patient-centered care. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 17(2), 192y5. 

Several key elements that designers and practitioners need to be aware of when developing patient-centered electronic health records are outlined in this article.

Schneider, J. M. (2010). Electronic and personal health records: VA’s key to patient safety. Journal of Consumer Health on the Internet, 14(1), 12². 

This article begins with a brief overview of the benefits and challenges of EHRs and moves into an exemplary example of the record systems currently being used at the VA.

Wagner, P. J., Howard, S. M., Bentley, D. R., Seol, Y., & Sodomka, P. (2010). Incorporating patient perspectives into the personal health record: Implications for care and caring. Perspectives in Health Information Management, 7(Fall), 1r. 

Within this study, the authors integrate patients into a preexisting personal health record system to analyze the overall feelings that patients have about its design and usability options.

Required Media

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2011). Transforming nursing and healthcare through technology: Electronic records. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 10 minutes.

This week’s media presentations explain how electronic access to patient information is changing the way that health care is practiced.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2011). Transforming nursing and healthcare through technology: The way to good health! Baltimore, MD: Author.

Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 9 minutes.

This week’s media presentations explain how electronic access to patient information is changing the way that health care is practiced. This media segment is from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and allow you to take a look into the workings of patient portals. VA professionals who work closely with these systems look at the devices, benefits, and future of interoperable technology systems.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2011). Transforming nursing and healthcare through technology: VA & DoD sharing of electronic health information. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 7 minutes.

This week’s media presentations explain how electronic access to patient information is changing the way that health care is practiced. This media segment is from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and allow you to take a look into the workings of patient portals. VA professionals who work closely with these systems look at the devices, benefits, and future of interoperable technology systems. 

Optional Resources

Jones, D. A., Shipman, J. P., Plaut, D. A., & Selden, C. R. (2010). Characteristics of personal health records: Findings of the Medical Library Association/National Library of Medicine Joint Electronic Personal Health Record Task Force. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 98(3), 243´9.

Page, D. (2010). The two paths to PHRS. Hospitals & Health Networks, 84(9), 44, 46.