In an attempt to comply with the information blocking provision of the 21st Century Cure Act that gives patients freedom to review their data, a large three-campus health system opted to provide patients with swift access to elements of their electronic health information, including imaging results.
A review of records from patients who had outpatient imaging examinations at the health system in 2021 and 2022—one year prior and the first year of the data sharing change—showed the amount of time necessary for patients to access their information decreased, and the number of radiology reports accessed by patients increased. The findings from the study are published in the American Journal of Roentgenology. [1]
The study included reports for 1,188,692 examinations from 388,921 patients, with about half of the records coming from each year. Imaging results were made available to patients after a 36-hour embargo period, as opposed to after immediate report finalization. Patients were given access to their records through a patient portal, where acknowledgment of both data being made available and reviewed by patients were recorded by researchers.
During the pre-implementation period, a total of 77.5% of all available records, including radiology reports, were accessed by patients. However, after improving upload times of test results and implementing the new patient portal policy, that number increased to 80.4%. The median time from report finalization to the first patient access was 45 hours before implementation, compared to 5.5 hours after. Additionally, the percentage of their own records patients accessed increased from 18.5% to 44%.
The study authors, led by Jordan Pollock from the Department of Radiology at the Mayo Clinic, said the change is ultimately a success because it means fewer test and imaging results are falling through the cracks, adding that radiologists who fear the change “should consider mechanisms to ensure timely and appropriate communication of important findings to ordering providers.”
The full study is available at the link below.
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