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Health care is about taking care of patients; ensuring that your community members are healthy and taking care of them when they are not. That much we know. After all, that’s why many of us got into health care to begin with. What we don’tknow fully, however, is how to most systematically and effectively ensure that our goal of keeping our community healthy can be achieved.
The regulators are telling us, through the release of regulations for Stage 2 of Meaningful Use (along with the proposed Stage 3 measures), that we need to develop a plan for exactly how to engage our patients and communities in their health through patient portals and the usage of electronic health records (EHRs). Stage 2 of Meaningful Use ramps up on initial efforts laid out in Stage 1 and will require 50 percent of a provider’s patients to be given access to online health information for viewing, downloading and or/transferring through a patient portal. Further, providers must have 5 percent of their patients accessing their electronic health information online and must engage in secure, two-way messaging with their provider through the portals.
That’s a BIG leap from Stage 1, imploring facilities and providers to develop a strategy for how they will implement their portal, how they will educate providers and staff, how to communicate with patients and, ultimately, how to encourage patients and communities to recognize the value of this interaction with their own health. The common criticism of these provisions is that it places a lot of responsibility for patient engagement in the hands of facilities and providers. Another perspective is that healthcare providers are held accountable for the level of patient involvement in their own care.
We know that two out of three people would consider switching to a physician who offers access to medical records through a secure Internet connection[1]. We know that 80% of American who have access to their health information in electronic health records use it and 65% who don’t have it, say it’s important to[2]. We know that people who are more engaged in their health actually get better health care[3].
So, where to start? With the myriad of rules and regulations that seem overwhelming to leadership, how do you prioritize the development and implementation of a comprehensive patient engagement strategy? The answer lies in the foundational concept of the regulations—it needs to be a COMMUNITY approach. Health care facilities and providers need to be talking with their patients and community members, local businesses and governmental leadership, regional extension centers and health information exchanges (HIE), and rural health networks to develop a comprehensive strategy. By developing something collaboratively that is owned by the community reduces the burdens on the individual facilities and empowers patients to utilize something that they helped to create.
[1] 2011 Survey of Health Care Consumers in the United States; Key Findings, Strategic Implications. Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, Washington, DC, 2011.
[2] National Partnership for Women and Families. Making IT Meaningful: How Consumers Value and Trust Health IT. 2012.
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