Patients and their health records: one entity in two manifests

Abstract

Background: Patients’ health records are essential for good healthcare provision. The quality depends on accurate and prompt documentation of the care provided. Regular analysis of records’ contents is essential for improving quality of care. This paper look at patients input into the management of their health records.

Methodology/Results: Searches into literatures on patients’ confidence into how their health records are documented and secured in the hospital are the paramount focus of this study. The outcomes revealed that patients level of awareness of how their health records are being used in researches are increasing. The patients’ supports in this will be enhanced as they have access to their health records too, thereby affording them to play active roles in their care management. However, patients were concerned about reduced confidentiality with their records held on computer.

Conclusion: The researchers concluded that to respect patients’ autonomy, privacy and consent choices, efforts should be geared toward health-services users’ active roles in their care process. One way is to facilitate patients having gainful access to their records and a standard and documented way of obtaining consents from them to use the records in research. These will go a long way in evolving better health outcome and in effect, improved healthcare quality.

Keywords: Access; Confidentiality; Health Records; Privacy; Protected Health Information