Sixty-two percent of primary care physicians at Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center participating in an OpenNotes project believe the program would help their practices deliver safer care, according to a survey published in Annals of Internal Medicine.
OpenNotes is a program that gives patients electronic access to physicians' notes. In addition to BIDMC physicians, doctors at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle and at Pennsylvania-based Geisinger Health System completed a survey before joining a voluntary pilot program of OpenNotes.
The survey found that one-third of participating PCPs at HMC, 27% of participating PCPs at GHS and 24% of participating PCPs at BIDMC believed the OpenNotes program would help their practices deliver more efficient medical care.
The survey also found that one-third of participating PCPs at BIDMC believed their patients who read their notes would be offended, as did 29% of participating PCPs at HMC and 8% of participating PCPs at GHS.
Results are based on surveys conducted in summer 2010 of primary care practices at the three locations.
Source: Annals of Internal Medicine: "Inviting Patients To Read Their Doctors' Notes: Patients and Doctors Look Ahead"