Access to Medical Records Eases Patients Worry in Hospital

Letting patients see their medical records while they’re in the hospital might ease worry and confusion without extra work for doctors and nurses, a small study suggests.

"The hope is that increased transparency achieved by sharing electronic medical records with patients while they're in the hospital would make them more engaged in their care, more satisfied, and more likely to ask questions and catch errors," said lead study author Jonathan Michael Pell, MD, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado in Denver.

Patients didn't think they could catch medical errors, “so that piece didn't come out the way we had hoped it would," Dr Pell said. "But we were also pleasantly surprised that many of the doctors and nurses didn't see their work load increased by patients having access to their records."

Read more at Reuters: http://reut.rs/1C1HT0K

See the study in JAMA Internal Medicine: http://bit.ly/1aZDKA6