Top 4 Reasons You Need a Personal Health Record

Have you ever thought about the reasons you need a personal health record?

The word “personal” comes to mind when discussing a personal health record. You, as the patient, are in charge of these electronic health records. Information from healthcare professionals and pharmacies might include.

It may even instantly enter notes into your health record. In addition, it makes tracking dietary modifications or at-home care practices a breeze.

Before starting to read about reasons to need personal health records, let’s cover what is PHR and why is it important?

What is Personal Health Record?

A personal health record is nothing more than a collection of health-related data. You already have a basic personal health record if you have a shot record or a folder of medical papers.

And you’ve probably experienced the worst disadvantage of paper records: they’re rarely with you when you need them.

Electronic personal health records (PHRs) solve this problem by allowing you to access your information from any web-enabled device, such as a computer, smartphone, or tablet, at any time.

What information goes into a PHR?

The information saved in a PHR varies from one individual to the next and from one system to the next, but a typical record may include the following:

• Information about visits to healthcare professionals
• Allergies
• Family history
• Immunizations
• Information about any conditions or diseases
• A list of medications taken
• Records of hospitalization
• Any operations or procedures that have been done are listed here.

Why is it important?

Patient engagement in their health care is being marketed as crucial in the current medical business, with developments and advancements.

Because patient participation is considered closely linked to care outcomes, efforts have been made to promote their involvement in health monitoring. Personal Health Records are one excellent approach to accomplish this (PHRs).

Why Do You Need a Personal Health Record?

Your doctor or hospital may already use electronic health records, but personal health data are different. Healthcare providers own and operate electronic health records.

Your information is usually entered into the records by the doctor’s office or the hospital. You may examine and access your records, but you need to organize access with your healthcare practitioner. intelyConnect offers a no-code and low-code approach to healthcare data integration and interoperability.

Here are 4 reasons to need a PHR:

• Helps you to coordinate your care:

When you consider big life events like visiting an obstetrician for a pregnancy or a specialist for a health concern, you have to manage many physicians increase even more.

There is a reason why nearly every new doctor asks you to fill out a lengthy medical history form: It might be difficult to coordinate access to your medical records across several doctors’ offices.

Seeing a new doctor used to include acquiring a copy of your records or recalling the details of your care from memory. That procedure is made much easier with a personal health record.

• Decreases medical errors:

It is not simply easier to manage information from several doctors and healthcare providers; it may also improve the quality of your care. 

Even if a medical mistake is not life-threatening, it can substantially impact how fast you recover from a surgery or manage a treatment plan.

When your healthcare information is not in one central area, you’re more likely to repeat treatments and tests while doctors access the same data.

Getting a repeat MRI or chest scan, for example, is a waste of time and money and a significant nuisance.

• In an emergency, you’ll have immediate access:

During the week, calling your doctor’s office or local drugstore is simple. But where would you acquire your health information if you were going internationally?

How would you search up your medications if you were in the middle of the night on the weekend?

An online personal health record is the most reliable approach to ensure that you always have access to your health information, regardless of where or when you need it.

Components of PHR:

•  Audit:

A PHR should allow individuals to examine a history of who has accessed their health information data.

It should offer individuals confidence that their information is being utilized responsibly. Citizens can deny access to those they no longer wish to share their data.

•  Trusted data sources:

The data shown in the PHR does not always assist citizens in comprehending what it implies. Any information provided alongside the data must be reliable, evidence-based medical advice.

Displaying a list of pharmaceuticals does not assist the citizen in comprehending what those pills are intended to treat or any potential negative effects.

• Data storage:

Your PHR will require a method of accessing data, and the source can confirm. The data storage should either guarantee that the data has not been changed since it was first written or disclose when and by whom it has been changed.

Read also: AllScripts EHR Reviews By Health Practitioners

•  Data access:

Through an accessible API, third-party apps must get and use data contained in the PHR (application programming interface).

Developers can use open APIs since they are publicly available. Other permitted apps can read and write to the PHR using these.

The PHR’s API should be HL7 FHIR (Health Level 7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) compliant and utilize HL7 FHIR APIs.

• Device connectivity:

PHRs will have the ability to record data from other applications and wearable devices, such as continuous glucose monitoring and heart rate monitors.

Clinicians on the citizen’s care team will see how they manage their health. In addition, PHR providers will require tools to connect securely to the PHR platform and automatically transfer data.

Benefits of Personal Health Record:

• Improving Health Care Quality:

Personal health records (PHRs) can aid in the better management of your patients’ treatment. Patients may easily update and share their vital health information, such as immunization records, test results, and screening due dates.

• Improve Patient Engagement: 

Much of what your patients do to improve their health happens outside of the clinic. Patients can be more involved in their health and health care if they can track their health through time and have the knowledge and tools to manage it.

• Coordinate and Combine Information from Multiple Providers: 

PHRs can assist your patients in managing information from many providers and enhance care coordination, resulting in improved health care.

• Assist in ensuring the availability of patient data:

In an emergency or while your patients are traveling, online PHRs can ensure that their information is accessible.

• Reduce Administrative Costs:

Using a PHR to give patients simple access to electronic prescription refills and appointment scheduling tools might help your organization save money on administrative expenditures.

Your team will spend less time looking for patient-requested information and responding to patient inquiries if you use PHRs.

• Enhance Provider-Patient Communication:

Many PHRs allow patients and providers to communicate directly and securely. PHRs can help you communicate with your patients more efficiently.

You may be informed and intervene sooner if health concerns occur with open lines of communication, which will strengthen the provider-patient connection.

Barriers to Personal Health Record:

Despite the potential benefits, PHRs face several obstacles. These issues vary from worries about privacy and security to a lack of use and adoption.

• Data accuracy: 

Concerns concerning data accuracy occur when patients or customers enter and update their health information. Users, for example, need to be educated and advised on how to extract useful data from prescription labels and test results.

• Data privacy and security: 

PHRs are subject to fewer data protection regulations. Furthermore, they have not protected institutions like hospitals and vendors who supply stand-alone PHRs. 

These are not covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance. Only covered PHRs linked to a healthcare organization’s electronic health record (EHR).

• Disparity issues and adoption rates: 

Although the study anticipated that 75% of customers would use a personal health record to visit a hospital by 2020 and the digital divide has emerged due to consumers’ low literacy and health literacy, consumers with inadequate literacy are less likely to utilize PHRs.

Conclusion:

Patients’ health records are important because they depend on them. But if in case any health record goes missing, how do doctors correctly provide treatment. 

To resolve this issue, healthcare organizations now moved toward the EMR and EHR system, which helps maintain patient records easily. 

So, if you want to work digitally and improve your patient health outcomes, connect with intelyConnect and adopt an EMR and EHR applications for your healthcare. Visit intely.io to know the EHR process.