Only 33% of Spanish patients have access to their electronic medical record (EHR). However, the vast majority of them (96%) would like to have it, and this desire is supported by their doctors, of whom 87% also advocate this option. These are data corresponding to a study that the consulting firm Accenture has conducted in nine different countries.
The report points out that the digitization of healthcare in our country is limited almost exclusively to electronic appointments, a possibility that two-thirds of Spaniards do enjoy. Instead, most cannot access their medical information, order prescriptions electronically, contact their doctor or center by e-mail, or receive online reminders.
More than half, 57%, do not enjoy electronic access to their medical information or prescription. 62% do not have the possibility to communicate with their center or with their doctor by secure e-mail, and 55% do not receive electronic reminders or via SMS.
To these percentages must be added another, smaller, but also significant: that of all those Spaniards who do not know if they have the above options and who, in the case of having them, could not enjoy them for not having the necessary technological knowledge .
It is not a simple data file
The electronic medical record, explains the head of Accenture for the healthcare sector in Spain, Baltasar Lobato, "has gone from being a simple clinical data file to becoming a platform from which doctors and patients can make decisions together."
Lobato adds that patients who worry about accessing their medical records tend to better understand their health status and tend to follow treatments with more discipline. All this translates, he says, "into a higher quality of medical care."
What doctors and patients do not agree on, however, is the type of access that doctors should have to their records. While 75% of Spaniards advocate full access (even 46% offer to update their own electronic history), only 22% of their doctors share that view. 65% of doctors, on the other hand, opt for limited access.
Source: http://www.hospitaldigital.com
