Two Types of PHR Systems used in U.S Healthcare

Discuss about the Information of Health Informatics for Journal of Information Systems.
 

PHR or Personal Health Records have been identified as one of the most significant tools that can be used in assisting the safety of the patients (Fernandez-Aleman et al. 2013). The highly increased demand of the public for accessing the health information as well as the growth of the consumerism in the industry off health care are two of the most important reasons behind increasing the attention to the PHRs in recent years. This paper will elaborate on the comparing the PHR system in different health care system and the challenges existing for it in its process of implementation. Furthermore, the paper will also discuss about the different opinions of the stakeholders on the issue of PHR system. Lastly, this paper will present a brief reflection on My Health Record System.

There are two different types of PHR systems that are used in different healthcare systems of U.S.A.  In some of the hospitals including Trinity Helath and Mercy Health, they make use of Standalone Personal Health records that enable the patients to fill in the information from their own records and those information are then stores on the computers of the patients or on the internet (Li et al. 2014). It also accepts various data from the external sources such as the laboratories and through the providers. Along with the Standalone PHR, the patient could exercise and add diet information in order to track their progress over the time. Also, in other hospitals such as SSM Health Care, they make use of Connected PHR that are linked to a particular HER (electronic Health Record) system of the healthcare system (Woods et al. 2013). Through this the patients could access their own records by means of secure portal.

There are a wide series of challenges that have been listed under the potential barriers to use of the PHRs by the physicians and patients consisting of the security concerns, costs, privacy, accountability, integrity, political and liability risk and the health literacy. According to the recent survey, there are about 31% of the patients who do not believe than the information that are provided in their PHR system are confidential (Hawley et al. 2014). This is a major challenge for the system prevailing. With the same, the electronic PHRs have presented an issue for the individuals who are uneducated and illiterate or the ones who do not know how to use a computer. Also, one of the highly recognized challenges to using PHR system is the increased risk of confidentiality and security breaches, as not all the parties have ethical or legal obligations for respecting the privacy of the patients. The time when the physicians are distressed regarding the reliability of information that are held in the PHRs, integrity of those products are then questioned. Furthermore, it has been reported by Tierney et al. (2015) that PHR might also threated the authority, autonomy and the control of some of the providers as well. The vendors of the PHR have dealt with many difficulties in balancing their activities around the integrity. Also, the physicians and the patients are capable of sharing their PHR information all around the organisations as of the issue of interoperability. This because of the development of coding standardisation that has made the logistics of implementing the transparent interoperability across the disparate systems that has remained a daunting and enormous task. Furthermore, the time required for examining the PHR, adding information to it, and using it in the decision making process in the field of medicines is not free of cost (McMillan et al. 2013). The cost of PHR might be counterbalanced as well because of the decreased administrative fees and the well improved health care activities that might transform into the reduction of the total health care costs. 

Challenges in the Implementation of PHRs

The primary stakeholders of the Personal Health Record Systems are the consumer, employer, physicians, clinical technology and public health. The physicians perceive that the information provided by the PHR are not accurate enough to rely on. As according to (), near about 79% of the physicians have apprehensions in context to the accuracy of the provided information that the patients have placed in their PHRs (Ahlan and Ahmad 2015). It is also perceived to increase the work load of the physicians. Also, they fear of lacking of the reimbursement in the PHRs and this has led to the formation of hesitation among the physicians and customers in adoption of the PHRs. On the other hand, there are also some stakeholders that perceive PHRs to be effective and advantageous. According to the recent survey, there are some physicians who thought that the PHRs increases the activity of involvement of the patients in their care (Ovretveit et al. 2013). Also, the PHRs have certain features like that of the up to date allergy and medication list that are useful for improving the safety of the patients.

My Health Records, a digital health record system in Australia that has been developed in order to provide us an online summary of our health information. I am personally using the service and I found it very useful for many reasons. First of all, it helps me to keep a track of my health every time and I can use it any time as well as my health care providers too could use this system to work on my health issues for effectively. A week back I met with an accident and after that I was facing some skin issues. I went to my doctors for a check-up then. He asked me various questions regarding the accident as well as on my past disorder. At that time, I was unable to recall the past health issues of mine and I suddenly realised that I have an access to My Health Record on my smart phone. I immediately too out my phone and provided it to the doctor. From there, he accessed all the necessary information regarding my health that he needed to carry on with my treatment process. It provided him with a list of all the allergies that I am prone to, including the medicines I was taking then and the previous day as well as my medical conditions during that time. This helped me a lot to get the proper treatment as well as my healthcare provider to identify why the issue was taking place within me. He identified that I have dust allergy and during the accident I consumed several things in the place of accident that are implementing their after effects on my mind due to which there were emergence of rashes in several parts of by body.

Stakeholder Opinions on PHRs

Conclusion

In United States, the Health care spending over the last decade has rapidly increased and it is indeed expected to rise furthermore to 20% of the GDP in the U.S.A by the end of the decade. In the year 2010, the Congress of the United Sates have approved the act of Health Care Reform with a critical component of this legislation being the adoption of health information technologies such as of the EMRs, PHRs, EHRs etc. with an aim of transforming the health care system. The models of the Consumer-driven health care are regarded as very important for controlling the escalating costs of the health care in the country. Hence, it can be said that PHR system are working effectively for the convenience of both the physicians and the patients, although it is equipped with few challenges that need to be overcome.

References:

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