Appl Clin Inform 2016; 07(02): 446-460
DOI: 10.4338/ACI-2015-10-RA-0130
Research Article
Schattauer GmbH

Patient Experiences Using an Inpatient Personal Health Record

Janet Woollen
1   Department of Biomedical Informatics, Columbia University, New York, NY
,
Jennifer Prey
1   Department of Biomedical Informatics, Columbia University, New York, NY
,
Lauren Wilcox
2   School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA
,
Alexander Sackeim
3   University of Pennsylvania Health System, Pennsylvania, PA
,
Susan Restaino
4   College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY
,
Syed T. Raza
4   College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY
,
Suzanne Bakken
1   Department of Biomedical Informatics, Columbia University, New York, NY
5   School of Nursing, Columbia University, New York, NY
,
Steven Feiner
6   Department of Computer Science, Columbia University, New York, NY
,
George Hripcsak
1   Department of Biomedical Informatics, Columbia University, New York, NY
,
David Vawdrey
1   Department of Biomedical Informatics, Columbia University, New York, NY
7   NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY
› Author Affiliations

This project was supported by grants from the National Library of Medicine (T15 LM00707) and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (R01HS21816).
Further Information

Correspondence to:

Janet Woollen
Columbia University
Department of Bioemdical Informatics
622 W. 168th St. PH-20
New York
NY 10032
United States of America

Publication History

received: 11 November 2015

accepted: 15 March 2016

Publication Date:
16 December 2017 (online)

 

Summary

Objective

To investigate patients’ experience using an inpatient personal health record (PHR) on a tablet computer to increase engagement in their hospital care.

Methods

We performed observations and conducted semi-structured interviews with 14 post-operative cardiac surgical patients and their family members who received an inpatient PHR. Themes were identified using an inductive coding scheme.

Results

All participants responded favorably to having access to view their clinical information. A majority (85.7%) of participants used the application following an initial training session. Patients reported high satisfaction with being able to view their hospital medications and access educational materials related to their medical conditions. Patients reported a desire to view daily progress reports about their hospital stay and have access to educational information about their postacute recovery. In addition, patients expressed a common desire to view their diagnoses, laboratory test results, radiology reports, and procedure notes in language that is patient-friendly.

Conclusion

Patients have unmet information needs in the hospital setting. Our findings suggest that for some inpatients and their family members, providing personalized health information through a tablet computer may improve satisfaction, decrease anxiety, increase understanding of their health conditions, and improve safety and quality of care.


 


Conflicts of Isnterest

The authors have no competing interests to declare.


Correspondence to:

Janet Woollen
Columbia University
Department of Bioemdical Informatics
622 W. 168th St. PH-20
New York
NY 10032
United States of America