ONC Data Brief 38 | September, 2016
JaWanna Henry, MPH; Yuriy Pylypchuk, PhD; Vaishali Patel, PhD MPH
Providing patients with the ability to engage with their health care provider electronically can lead to better communication, care, and outcomes for patients as well as lower costs (1). Federal programs, plans, and tools are available to guide health care clinicians and patients toward greater patient engagement (2) (3). The Shared Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap calls on health care providers to enable patients to electronically view, download, and transmit their health information to a destination of the patient’s choice (4). The Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs required participating hospitals and health care professionals to enable patients with online access to view, download, and transmit their health information (5). This brief describes trends in hospitals’ capability to engage patients with their health information electronically from 2012 to 2015.
Briefs
The percent of hospitals offering additional types of patient engagement capabilities increased significantly between 2014 and 2015
- In 2015, more than three quarters of hospitals (77%) enabled patients to request an amendment to their health data, and offered patients the ability to electronically pay their bills (74%).
- Over one-third of hospitals (37%) enabled patients to submit patient-generated data in 2015; this has grown almost 3-fold since 2013.
- In 2015, 4 out of 10 hospitals allowed patients to request prescription refills (42%), schedule appointments online (44%), or submit their data electronically (37%).
- Between 2014 and 2015, the percent of hospitals offering patients the ability to electronically send or receive secure messages increased by almost one-quarter (24%).
Nine in ten hospitals possess four or more electronic patient engagement capabilities
- The percent of hospitals adopting 7 to 9 patient engagement functionalities increased significantly between 2014 and 2015, by 5 percentage points.
- In 2015, the percent of hospitals that provided 0 to 3 electronic patient engagement functionalities decreased significantly, by 6 percentage points.
View complete report here.