New Findings on Patient Care and Safety from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Summarized (Tackling Ambulatory Safety Risks Through Patient Engagement: What 10,000 Patients and Families Say About Safety-related Knowledge, Behaviors, and …): Health and Medicine – Patient Care and Safety

2021 DEC 27 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health & Medicine Daily -- Research findings on Health and Medicine - Patient Care and Safety are discussed in a new report. According to news reporting originating in Boston, Massachusetts, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “Ambulatory safety risks including delayed diagnoses or missed abnormal test results are difficult for clinicians to see, because they often occur in the space between visits. Experts advocate greater patient engagement to improve safety, but strategies are limited.”

Financial support for this research came from Controlled Risk Insurance Company/Risk Management Foundation of the Harvard Medical Institutions.

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, “Patient access to clinical notes (‘OpenNotes’) may help close the safety gap between visits. We surveyed patients and families who logged on to the patient portal and had at least one ambulatory note available in the past 12 months at two academic hospitals during June to September 2016, focusing on patient-reported effects of OpenNotes on safety knowledge, behaviors, and attitudes. A total of 6913 (28%) of 24,722 patients at an adult hospital and 3672 (17%) of 21,579 participants at the children’s hospital submitted surveys. Approximately 75% of patients and parents each reported that reading notes helped them understand the reason for both tests and referrals, and approximately 50% felt that it helped them complete tests and referrals. Roughly 75% of participants were more likely to check and understand test results. Overall, 97% of participants reported that trust in the provider, activation, patient-provider goal alignment, and teamwork were each better or the same after reading 1 note or more. Nonwhite participants and those with high school education or less were 30% to 50% more likely to report that reading notes helped them complete tests compared with white and more educated respondents, respectively. Overall, the majority of more than 10,000 patients and parents reported reading notes helped them understand and follow through on tests and referrals.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “As information transparency spreads, OpenNotes can help activate patients and families, facilitate safety behaviors, and forge stronger partnerships with clinicians.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Tackling Ambulatory Safety Risks Through Patient Engagement: What 10,000 Patients and Families Say About Safety-related Knowledge, Behaviors, and Attitudes After Reading Visit Notes. Journal of Patient Safety, 2021;17(8). Journal of Patient Safety can be contacted at: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Two Commerce Sq, 2001 Market St, Philadelphia, PA 19103, USA. (Lippincott Williams and Wilkins - www.lww.com; Journal of Patient Safety - http://journals.lww.com/journalpatientsafety/pages/default.aspx)

Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Sigall K. Bell, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Dept. of Medicine, 133 Brookline Ave, OpenNotes Fl 2, Annex Bldg, Boston, MA 02215, United States. Additional authors for this research include Alan Fossa, Suzanne Leveille, Jan Walker, Patricia Folcarelli, Macda Gerard, Marvin Harper, Fabienne Bourgeois, Caroline Moore, Barbara Sarnoff Lee and Kenneth E. Sands.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1097/PTS.0000000000000494. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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