NURS 8210 Week 9: Personal Health Records Discussion

NURS 8210 Week 9: Personal Health Records Discussion

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. GoogleHealth, 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 patient’s health outcomes?
• Explore one patient portal. If you do not have access to one through your practice setting, utilize a free service such as FollowMyHealthor Microsoft 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?
• . 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 Day 3 post a cohesive response that addresses the following:

• Appraise your selected personal health patient portal.
• .
• Take a position for or against mandating PHRs. Justify your stance addressing the following points:
  • Personal health records via patient portals are part of Meaningful Use 2 and the debate over mandating them is essentially over.
  • What factors may deter individuals from signing up for this service?
  • What concerns might you and your patients have about a PHR’s capability to securely maintain personal information?
  • How might PHRs influence your professional practice and your patients’ health outcomes, positively or negatively?

Read a selection of your colleagues’ postings.

By Day 6 respond to at least two of your colleagues in one or more of the following ways:

• Select a college whose views are in opposition to yours. Use your research to academically debate why your viewpoint differs from theirs.
• Ask a probing question, substantiated with additional background information, evidence, or research.
• Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings, synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives.
• Offer and support an alternative perspective using readings from the classroom or from your own research in the Walden Library.
• Validate an idea with your own experience and additional research.
• Make a suggestion based on additional evidence drawn from readings or after synthesizing multiple postings.
• Expand on your colleagues’ postings by providing additional insights or contrasting perspectives based on readings and evidence.

Return to this Discussion in a few days to read the responses to your initial posting. Note what you learned and/or any insights you gained as a result of the comments made by your colleagues.

Be sure to support your work with specific citations from this week’s Learning Resources and any additional sources.

Click on the Reply button below to post your response.

“By computerizing health records, we can avoid dangerous medical mistakes, reduce costs and improve care.” —President George W. Bush at his State of the Union Address on January 20th, 2004 (as cited in MSNBC, 2005).

“Our recovery plan will invest in electronic health records and new technology that will reduce errors, bring down costs, ensure privacy, and save lives.” —President Barack Obama during his address to a Joint Session of Congress on February 24th, 2009 (as cited in Miller Center, 2011).

At the core of any health information system are patient data. These data can take many forms, from a medical diagnosis to a therapeutic regime, and from a laboratory result to a personal food diary. Through electronic record keeping, health care providers and organizations are able to collect, organize, and analyze patient data to support and improve clinical decision making and to deliver more timely and effective care. Patients, too, are benefiting from greater access to their personal health data, taking a more active role in their health care decisions.

This week, you consider the benefits of electronic health records and personal health records (PHR).

References:
MSNBC. (2005, January 27). Bush pushes computerized medical records. Retrieved from 
Miller Center. (2011). Presidential speech archive. Retrieved from 

Learning Objectives

Students will:

• Appraise a personal health patient portal
• Evaluate the benefits of electronic records for patients
• Assess the value of personal health records and patient portals

Photo Credit: [filo]/[DigitalVision Vectors]/Getty Images

Learning Resources

Note: To access this week’s required library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.

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), 192–195. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases. 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), 12–22. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases. 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), 1–12. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases. 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.

Accessible player –Downloads– Download Video w/CC Download Audio Download Transcript

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.

Accessible player –Downloads– Download Transcript

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.

Accessible player –Downloads– Download Transcript

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), 243–249.

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

Discussion: Welcome to the Week 9 Discussion area!

Post your responses to the Discussion based on the course requirements.

Your Discussion postings should be written in standard edited English and follow APA guidelines as closely as possible given the constraints of the online platform. Be sure to support your work with specific citations from this week’s Learning Resources and additional scholarly sources as appropriate. Refer to the Essential Guide to APA Style for Walden Students to ensure your in-text citations and reference list are correct. Initial postings must be 250–350 words (not including references).

Submission and Grading Information

Grading Criteria

Post by Day 3 and Respond by Day 6

Assignment: Application 3: Health Information Technology Project [Major Assessment 5]

Continue working on Application 3: Health Information Technology Project [Major Assessment 5], assigned in Week 4.

By Day 7

Submit your Assignment.

Submission and Grading Information

To submit your completed Assignment for review and grading, do the following:

• Please save your Assignment using the naming convention “WK9Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” as the name.
• Click the Application 3 Rubric to review the Grading Criteria for the Assignment.
• Click the Week 9 Assignment  You will also be able to “View Rubric” for grading criteria from this area.
• Next, from the Attach File area, click on the Browse My Computer Find the document you saved as “WK9Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” and click Open.
• If applicable: From the Plagiarism Tools area, click the checkbox for I agree to submit my paper(s) to the Global Reference Database.
• Click on the Submitbutton to complete your submission.

Grading Criteria

Check Your Assignment Draft for Authenticity

Submit Your Assignment by Day 7

Week in Review

This week you evaluated the benefits and assessed the value of electronic health records for patients and patient portals. Next week you will explore change management theories and strategies that can be applied to overcome barriers and positively influence organizational culture.

Personal Health Records Discussion SAMPLE APPROACH

Appraise your selected personal health patient portal.

A personal health record portal (PHR) is an online tool allowing individuals access to view and manage their own personal health information and subsequently facilitate self-management and coordination of their own care via the Internet (Ricciardi, Mostashari, Murphy, Daniel, & Siminerio, 2013). One PHR that I myself utilize is the Veterans Administration’s (VA) My Health eVet portal. In 2003, it was launched nationwide, and has continued to grow and expand increasing its number of users each year (Nazi, 2013) it is a secure portal allowing Veterans to individual ownership of their personal health information.

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

The most popular information accessed by patients is medication history, health history, contact information for health care providers, as well as weight and blood pressure monitoring (Nazi, 2013). The program is gradually adding incremental additions of their personal health data copied from their VA electronic health records (EHR). It is also adding more and more services, such as the ability to print information from your health record, refill your prescriptions, make an appointment, secure messaging with providers and most recently telemedicine where you can actually have a virtual appointment with your VA provider (Nazi, 2013). Access to certain services requires different levels of membership, which are based on your registration for those levels. This is done to ensure privacy and verifies identity. There is no charge for the increased membership, but an individual is required to prove identity in person to gain access to all services and records.

By providing a way for patients access to their individual health information and encouraging them to use the available PHRs we as providers, can better prepare patients to self-manage their medical conditions, facilitate engagement with our patients, and improve communication between patients and providers (Ricciardi, et al., 2013). Incorporating medical resources, such as the PHRs, into the care of our patients can enhance the patient’s chronic disease self-management by allowing them to be more informed and involved in their care, and ultimately improve their overall health outcomes (Casey, 2016).

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

Personal health records via patient portals are part of Meaningful Use 2 and the debate over mandating them is essentially over.

What capabilities and/or features might motivate individuals to maintain PHRs?

What factors may deter individuals from signing up for this service?

What concerns might you and your patients have about a PHR’s capability to securely maintain personal information?

How might PHRs influence your professional practice and your patients’ health outcomes, positively or negatively?

I personally believe that providers should be mandated to utilize PHRs, as they are the important element in reducing the number of medical errors and increasing the quality of care provided, as well as by contributing to better the efficiency of health care management. I agree with Kim, K. & Nahm (2012), in that PHRs will also provide improved patient adherence with medical treatment plans, satisfaction, and empowerment via the accessibility of their medical records. Providers should consider PHR implementation as it will help them meet one of the key requirements for patient engagement according to the Meaningful Use Stage 2 criteria for EHR technology, by providing and having their patients utilize a PHR system. In order for providers to receive incentives for meeting this requirement, they must have a Patient Portal in place that contains information patients want and that is easy for them to use (HIMSS, 2018).

There has been a large interest in PHR systems by consumers due to the individual and provider benefits they provide. Individual benefits include increased empowerment to self-manage their care, improved communication between patient-provider, and access to personal health information in an emergency (Kim & Nahm, 2012). For providers, benefits can include reimbursement from Medicare and improved compliance from patients (Kim & Nahm, 2012).

However, despite a high interest by consumers in PHR systems and a growing availability, there is still an existing paradox regarding the adoption of them, which remains low overall. According to Nazi (2013), during a national consumer survey that was conducted by the Markle Foundation, it was discovered that only 10% of American adults are currently using a PHR. Early findings in the literature suggest that one reason for patients reluctance to adopt PHR systems is the lack of provider endorsement. It I suggested that in order to achieve and sustain positive outcomes regarding PHRs continued clinician engagement with PHRs is required. This is because many consumers derive the value of the use of these systems from the attitudes and actions displayed by their health care providers and other care team members within the clinical setting (Nazi, 2013). Another barrier to the adoption of PHRs according to Kim and Nahm (2012) is the concern over privacy. They discuss a survey conducted by CHCF (2010), which found that 75% of adults that did not currently use a PHR would have concerns regarding the privacy of their health information (Kim & Nahm, 2012). To combat this PHRs are designed so individuals can determine who is allowed access to view, modify, or transmit information from their individual PHR. Consumers can also maintain a sense of control regarding the privacy and confidentiality of their PHR via the ability of the PHR to audit users (Kim & Nahm, 2012).

NURS 8210 Week 9: Personal Health Records Discussion

I think that if efforts are made to promote PHR use and adoption including provider training, vendor collaboration, and patient education that PHRs can positively influence my professional practice and the health outcomes of my patients. I feel that I will have a better connection with my patients, which will provide more support and encouragement for them to manage their health. I feel that my patients will be better motivated to self-manage their care and will display a behavioral change that is more compliant with prescribed treatment. This will ultimately lead to a better overall health outcome of my patients.

References:

Casey, I. (July 2016). The effect of education on portal personal health record use. Online Journal of Nursing Informatics (OJNI), 20(2), Retrieved from