Doctors have long treated their clinic notes like top secret documents, but that attitude is changing. Research shows that patients appreciate being able to check their records and doctors’ notes.
A few years ago, a study of a system called OpenNotes indicated that both patients and physicians, despite initial misgivings, found the practice was helpful. (We wrote about it here.) A follow-up study of OpenNotes in three hospital systems included 19,000 patients.
The investigators had anticipated that only web-savvy young patients would be interested in this electronic access, but they found that even older patients and those with lower education were interested and found the notes helpful.
If your clinic or hospital system does not yet allow you access to such notes, ask for it. Only when patients demonstrate interest will this approach spread beyond the few institutions included in the initial study.
