Introduction
The purpose of the paper is to discuss personal health records in detail and provide examples of how these records are used in clinical care. Personal health records are represented by digital documents, programs, and lists that comprise information about a patient’s disorder or condition, medications she or he is taking, necessary laboratory tests and their results, and e-mails or messages sent to and received from their physician. Personal health records help cut money spent by patients on their healthcare and make services provided in a hospital more effective. The nursing care is advanced by personal health records because they improve patient-nurse communication and show patients why it is essential to know how to manage their condition independently. This way, nurses can assist patients in their empowerment, but such assistance does not compromise nurses’ ability to focus on other tasks as well.
Example of Personal Health Records
In the study conducted by Greysen et al. (2016), the authors utilized both inpatient and post-discharge personal health records together with tablets to observe whether there would be an increase in patients’ engagement with the health records. As an example, I would like to use post-discharge personal health records, which are somewhat different from inpatient records. First, post-discharge records are primarily used to schedule follow-up appointments, communicate with the provider(s), and receive and retrieve test results (Greysen et al., 2016).
Additionally, post-discharge personal health records are needed to control the adherence to medications prescribed by the physician. Kogut, Goldstein, Charbonneau, Jackson, and Patry (2014) point out that post-discharge personal health records both support patients in using their medications correctly and ensure that a nurse or a physician can detect a medication-related problem or discrepancy quicker than usual. Thus, post-discharge records can potentially prevent users from medication errors, which can have different impacts (from mild to severe) on their health and the efficiency of the prescribed treatment.
Another critical aspect that nurses need to consider is the beneficial side of personal health records with regard to information related to patients. Nurses use these records to collect data on why patients stop using some medications, what errors there are during the intake of medicines, why patients refuse to take them, etc. Using post-discharge records, patients can communicate with nurses and provide complete data on how and when the drug was taken. At the same time, nurses can check prescribed medications and prevent human error before it affects the patient in any way. Readmissions also frequently happen during the first month after discharge. The personal health records aim to minimize the risk of readmission and help the patient manage their treatment and condition.
Personal Experience
I have used a post-discharge personal health record with the patient who was a cancer survivor. The patient, a 36-year old female, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017. After her discharge, I was appointed to conduct follow-ups and communicate with her to ensure that she adheres to her post-discharge plan precisely. The patient had various questions about her needs and preferences after she returned home, and we used her personal health record to communicate. During this time, I have answered multiple questions about correct behavior after surgery, exercise and their necessity, counseling sessions with a professional psychotherapist, etc. The patient also shared her medication list provided by other physicians for me to evaluate. In case of questions that the physician or I could not answer I scheduled follow-up appointments for the patient who sometimes had difficulty navigating or using the record.
The positive aspect of this experience was my ability to communicate with the patient after her discharge, which, I believe, prevented readmission, as once the patient mistakenly wanted to take the medication she was prohibited from using at that time. Furthermore, the patient received support from a nurse, which, as she had claimed, made her feel better and helped her cope with her life of a cancer survivor. Khaneghah et al. (2016) point out that some patients claim personal health records make their self-management more effective. While the patient in my example did not make similar claims, she insisted that the record did make her life easier.
The negative aspect of the experience was the patient’s inability to use the personal health record efficiently. Sometimes, due to glitches in the program, the patient could not send messages, or I did not receive them although they were sent. Lester, Boateng, Studeny, and Coustasse (2016) point out that some participants in their study found that sending messages via personal health records was too cumbersome, which interfered with patient-physician communication. To improve this disadvantage, the developers of the programs should test the usability of messages in hospitals before the application is released. Some additional ways of communication (e.g., a chat instead of an e-mail form) should be added too.
Conclusion
Personal health records are programs used by patients, nurses, and physicians to store and share information that relates to the patient’s condition or illness. Such records help individuals communicate, check medication, and schedule follow-up visits. The purpose of the paper was to demonstrate what personal health records are, how they are used, and what strengths and weaknesses they have. I will support patients’ engagement with these records but also make them aware of the problems they might experience; such issues should not affect the care I provide or the safety of patients. Since I know that not all patients find personal health records convenient, I plan to develop other methods that patients can use to monitor their health.
References
Greysen, S. R., Mendoza, Y. M., Rosenthal, J., Jacolbia, R., Rajkomar, A., Lee, H., & Auerbach, A. (2016). Using tablet computers to increase patient engagement with electronic personal health records: Protocol for a prospective, randomized interventional study. JMIR Research Protocols, 5(3), 176-184.
Khaneghah, P. A., Miguel-Cruz, A., Bentley, P., Liu, L., Stroulia, E., & Ferguson-Pell, M. (2016). Users’ attitudes towards personal health records. Applied Clinical Informatics, 7(2), 573-586.
Kogut, S. J., Goldstein, E., Charbonneau, C., Jackson, A., & Patry, G. (2014). Improving medication management after a hospitalization with pharmacist home visits and electronic personal health records: An observational study. Drug, Healthcare and Patient Safety, 6(1), 1-6.
Lester, M., Boateng, S., Studeny, J., & Coustasse, A. (2016). Personal health records: Beneficial or burdensome for patients and healthcare providers? Perspectives in Health Information Management, 13(2), 1-12.