Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Jun 1;7(2):446-60.
doi: 10.4338/ACI-2015-10-RA-0130. eCollection 2016.

Patient Experiences Using an Inpatient Personal Health Record

Janet Woollen  1 , Jennifer Prey  1 , Lauren Wilcox  2 , Alexander Sackeim  3 , Susan Restaino  4 , Syed T Raza  4 , Suzanne Bakken  5 , Steven Feiner  6 , George Hripcsak  1 , David Vawdrey  7
Affiliations

Patient Experiences Using an Inpatient Personal Health Record

Janet Woollen et al. Appl Clin Inform. .

Abstract

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 post-acute 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.

Keywords: Patient engagement; inpatient; personal health records; technology.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest

The authors have no competing interests to declare.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Patient-entered questions and comments for the care team
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Gammon. Analysis of the stressful effects of hospitalisation and source isolation on coping and psychological constructs: Coping and psychological constructs. Int J Nurs Pract 2008; 4(2):84–96. - PubMed
    1. Thompson DR. A randomized controlled trial of in-hospital nursing support for first time myocardial infarction patients and their partners: effects on anxiety and depression*. J Adv Nurs 1989; 14(4):291–297. - PubMed
    1. Elliott D. Measuring patient anxiety in coronary care. Aust Crit Care 1992; 5(2):12–16. - PubMed
    1. Teasdale K. Information and anxiety: a critical reappraisal. J Adv Nurs 1993; 18(7):1125–1132. - PubMed
    1. Shuldham CM, Cunningham G, Hiscock M, Luscombe P. Assessment of anxiety in hospital patients. J Adv Nurs 1995; 22(1):87–93. - PubMed

Publication types