Your observations about MyChart utilization in your clinical setting are considerable, and the issues you mentioned for the communication between a dialysis patient and transplant center provide essential evidence about using such applications. You stated that “when I worked in nephrology, I encouraged patients to set up those accounts with local hospitals who have EPIC access.” Indeed, showing the need for having a personal health records program increases the willingness of clients to install and actively fill MyChart. Redelmeier & Kraus (2018) claim that “online patient portals can provide a popular and reliable system for distributing personal medical information to active patients and may merit consideration for hospitals” (p. e43). Although I agree with you that personal health records are crucial for patient-centered care, they also significantly impact the clinics’ working efficiency. The opposite alternative perspective on using services like MyChart can be to assess them as tools for medical personnel and physicians.
Personal health records create the appropriate environment to gather and store data about patients’ conditions, lab tests’ results, and scheduled future appointments. This scope of information is a profound foundation for internal clinical management and can help nursing administrators. However, the challenge of utilizing programs like MyChart is the inability of patients such as the elderly and the risk of errors in the system because the records are being filled from two sides (Weatherly et al., 2019). I have experience working with a different personal health record program, and the main limitation lacking education for clients. While personnel had an opportunity to learn the working process, many patients quitted using applications after facing challenges. Based on my experience and the evidence, the suggestion for your disease management implementation of personal health record tools is to expand the educational practices for clients and improve technical support.
I agree with the benefits of personal health records and EPIC program implementation for most healthcare providers and patients. You correctly mentioned that “the security and privacy of patient information help make patients more comfortable with organizations having access to PHR of other organizations through the portal.” However, the opposite side of exercising personal health records through programs such as MyChart can be the limitations established by The Cures Act. Indeed, inhibiting patients from receiving their data or letting them decide what can be shared disrupts the practices of retrieving and utilizing their results and observations for treatment and prevention (Abul-Husn & Kenny, 2019). Considering the difficulties with managing the scope of information to be applied for healthcare delivery, the alternative perspective on using MyChart is the range of privacy given to clients.
Privacy is a sensitive topic precisely when it comes to sharing health data, even though a patient does it with a certified hospital and in accordance with MyChart’s Terms. It is crucial to create the optimal practices that will address clients’ security needs without harming a healthcare facility’s efficiency. Zerden et al. (2021) claim that “opportunities and challenges to using the data were identified and needed to be addressed to better understand the behavioral health and social care interventions in integrated care” (p. 80). Furthermore, my own experience with the health record software FollowMyHealth revealed that most patients experience difficulties adjusting their lifestyle to continuous tracking. Based on the evidence from peer-reviewed sources and my interactions with the programs, I would suggest spending more time educating and addressing the privacy needs of the clients.
References
Abul-Husn, N. S., & Kenny, E. E. (2019). Personalized medicine and the power of electronic health records. Cell, 177(1), 58-69.
Redelmeier, D. A., & Kraus, N. C. (2018). Patterns in patient access and utilization of online medical records: analysis of MyChart. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 20(2), e43.
Weatherly, J., Kishnani, S., & Aye, T. (2019). Challenges with patient adoption of automated integration of blood glucose meter data in the electronic health record. Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics, 21(11), 671-674.
Zerden, L. D. S., Lombardi, B. M., Richman, E. L., Fraher, E. P., & Shoenbill, K. A. (2021). Harnessing the electronic health record to advance integrated care. Families, Systems, & Health, 39(1), 77-88.