Health IT adoption has spread throughout the medical industry ever since the HITECH Act was passed in 2009 and meaningful use requirements were established under the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs. Whether in the hospital, clinics, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, or other medical facilities, health IT adoption has made significant progress in advancing the quality of healthcare services.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) published a report showing how health IT adoption has revolutionized ambulatory care settings. Whether it is workflow or efficiency of care, HIT makes a significant impact among ambulatory care practices.
Via the use of patient portals, patients are able to access their health records digitally as well as provide information directly to a clinic. Patient portals may be used to access records, send secure messages, upload medical information, schedule appointment, request pill refills, and even pay bills online.
Meaningful use requirements have requested that healthcare providers develop a method for patients to access, view, and share their health information and most facilities have developed portals for this capability.
A research team looked at how certain capabilities of health IT adoption has allowed patients to exchange and share electronic data among different clinics. Additionally, the researchers analyzed how patient data sharing impacted the clinic workflow. Through interviews and observations, the team discovered how providers and clinics redesign workflow depending on patient-reported information.
Greater patient engagement is necessary for this type of data sharing via patient portals and secure messaging platforms. There are three questions that the researchers answered, which include:
- How does health IT adoption aiding patient-reported information impact the workflow of clinicians, healthcare staff, and patients?
- In what ways do sociotechnical context affect workflow associated with patient-reported information?
- What methods do clinics use to redesign workflows when it comes to patient-reported data?
The results from the study show that five out of six clinics use secure messaging with communication and information flow acting as a stimulant among clinicians. Secure messaging is one essential tool that improves communication between patients and providers, the researchers explain.
“The majority of clinicians think that secure messaging does have a positive effect on patient satisfaction and that it could improve the quality of care and patient safety. The most frequently reported barriers to the use of secure messaging for clinicians are communication and information flow, inappropriate use of the health IT application by patients, and poor usability of the application itself,” the report stated.
“The barriers that staff most frequently reported are communication and information flow, amount of work, and ambiguity. Like clinicians, staff perceive barriers related to communication and information flow: they are afraid that they could miss important information when communicating via secure messages.”
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