My #BlueButton Patient Journey – Laying the Groundwork

After taking the Blue Button Pledge, my next step is to get proactive with my medical records. As I may have mentioned in a previous post, I currently see four different doctors throughout the year. Three of those offer a patient portal. Two of them are in the same practice, and therefore use the same portal. Confused yet?

I think the key to being an engaged patient is to first make sure I can log in to each of these portals. I create bookmarks for them as well. I also make sure I know how to navigate through them and that all of my information is correct and up to date. I take care of the first two items by either looking back at papers given to me during my last office visit, or calling my PCP’s office to ask for a pin code.

Once I’ve looked through my information in each portal (powered by Cerner and athenahealth, respectively), I decide to go even further by messaging my PCP to let her know how my visit to a specialist went. If I don’t let her know now, I might forget many of the details when I see her again towards the end of the year. While I’m in there, I decide to look at my past bills to see why I’m still getting one for a balance I’m pretty sure I paid at my last office visit.

bluebuttondownload

Once those details are seen to, I decide to check out the portal used by two of my other doctors because I seem to remember seeing a Blue Button icon on one of the screens during my last log in. Sure enough, there is a link to “View, download or transmit health data.” Clicking this link takes me to a screen where I can “Support the Blue Button® initiative by downloading your health data and storing it in your personal records.”

I hit download and save them on my computer, but then I’m left wondering, “Now what?” I suppose uploading them to a thumb drive and taking them to whatever provider I see next might be helpful. But I have the sneaking suspicion they’d still prefer paper. Since my PCP’s portal doesn’t offer a Blue Button link to download my data, I decide to message my PCP again to let her know I’d like to see this offered. I wonder if she’ll appreciate the comment, and if she’s gotten the request from other patients.

I feel like my next step should be uploading my health data into some kind of personal health record, but which one? Where do I even start when it comes to selecting something like that? Honestly, the data entry involved with PHRs is off putting to me, which is probably why I haven’t created one up to this point.

What has worked for you and your family? Providers, are there PHRs you find easier to work with (assuming you interact with them at all?) I’d appreciate any reader suggestions and advice you’d care to give via the comments below.

About the author

Jennifer Dennard

As Social Marketing Director at Billian, Jennifer Dennard is responsible for the continuing development and implementation of the company's social media strategies for Billian's HealthDATA and Porter Research. She is a regular contributor to a number of healthcare blogs and currently manages social marketing channels for the Health IT Leadership Summit and Technology Association of Georgia’s Health Society. You can find her on Twitter @JennDennard.

5 Comments

  • I like nomoreclipboards.com – they have some support for BlueButton, CCR, CCD, text etc and have tried to be an early adopter of DIRECT secure messaging. Still – small practices don’t have much time or inclination to adopt yet, and employed physicians don’t have much control over their IT in the office, so printing out summaries seems to be the best approach for the moment.

  • This post caught my eye because I am a geriatrician and just published a post in The Health Care Blog about needing a personal health record that I can recommend to families caring for an older person.

    So far it seems that CareSync and Zweena will do the work of getting your records for you. There might be others with a similar services. For overwhelmed family caregivers, minimizing the data entry work is really a must.

    I don’t have personal experience with these PHRs but hope to have a patient try one soon and then I’ll know more.

  • Jen,
    Just found your report on this topic. I am serving as co-chair of AHIM’s consumer engagement practice council this year. AHIMA has also had a very educational, informative web site re: PHRs online for nearly a decade.
    Getting patients interested and involved continues to be the challenge. You might find some interesting information here:
    http://www.myphr.com/

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