CLEVELAND, Ohio —
Cleveland Clinic patients will begin to see more detailed information in their online electronic medical records beginning next week giving them broader access to test results and physician reports.
The goal is to arm patients with the tools they need to become more engaged in decisions about their health care, said Dr. Lori Posk, medical director of MyChart, the Clinic’s online EMR system.
Currently, about 500,000 Clinic patients on the MyChart system can access information on their home computers including appointments, summaries of check-ups after seeing a doctor, lists of medications, immunization records, allergies, preventative care details, lab results and radiology reports.
To see the rest of their medical records, patients now must request printed copies.
By 2014, patients will be able to view online nearly everything their doctor sees in the EMR except images, said Dr. C. Martin Harris, the clinic’s chief information officer.
Next week, patients will have access to pathology records for the first time, Posk said. This will be the actual report that the pathologist writes with results and interpretations. “If a biopsy is done [for example]” she said, “the report will explain what tissue was examined, what it looked like, was it normal or what it showed signs of and the diagnosis.”
Reports won’t appear in the EMR for about 20 days, which will give the treating physician time to contact the patient and explain results, Posk said. But, she added, doctors will have the ability to release records early.
“We think patients will understand a lot of the reports and we hope that access to the reports generates questions from patients to their doctors,” she said.
Other information to be phased into the MyChart EMR over the next year will include X-ray reports, physician notes, list of current health issues and known diagnoses, Harris said.
Posk explained that patients will see the report dictated by physicians who perform procedures such as stress tests, sleep studies or colonoscopies. The report will include what instruments were used, the doctor’s observations, if tissue was taken for biopsies and more.
But, patients will not see notes from treating psychiatrists, therapists and nurses in the EMR, Clinic officials said.
EMR systems are widely used by other area hospitals that provide a variety of information to patients.
MetroHealth System’s MyChart allows patients to electronically request and cancel appointments, view health summaries and histories, and see records of immunizations, allergies and medications. They also can view test results, request prescription renewals and send messages to treating physicians.
At Kaiser Permanente, patients have access to an after-visit summary, medications list, allergies, immunization records and laboratory results, according to spokesman Nathan Kaplan. Patients also can order prescriptions through the system and have them mailed. Lab test results and some radiology reports can be seen online by patients as well.
University Hospitals currently has an online system in which patients can communicate with their doctors, make appointments and pay bills. In the next several months, UH plans to launch a portal system in which patients will be able to see medical results as well as access, download and manage records from UH and institutions in the statewide EMR system, said John Foley, chief information officer at UH.
