Concerns by physicians about the repercussions of increasing independent patient access to online laboratory reports may be unfounded. Patients who view their lab test results online overwhelmingly react with positive, rather than negative, emotions, and access to the records does not seem to increase the ordering physician’s workload, according to a study published Oct. 3 in the Journal of Participatory Medicine. Kaiser Permanente’s online rollout of laboratory test results began in 2005 and was completed in 2007 with the vast majority of test results available to patients at the same time they are available to the ordering physicians. Pathology results, genetic tests, and sometimes HIV results (to comply with state laws) are among the exceptions. Standard ranges for test results, general information about the type of test, any physician comments (such as, “This is heading in the right direction”), and details about follow-up testing are included. Past lab results remain in the members’ accounts indefinitely. Kaiser says that viewing of online lab results has steadily increased and is now the most frequently used feature of the online health record with consistently high satisfaction ratings on member surveys. In this study the researchers conducted an e-mail survey of Kaiser Permanente members, […]
Concerns by physicians about the repercussions of increasing independent patient access to online laboratory reports may be unfounded. Patients who view their lab test results online overwhelmingly react with positive, rather than negative, emotions, and access to the records does not seem to increase the ordering physician’s workload, according to a study published Oct. 3 in the Journal of Participatory Medicine.
Kaiser Permanente’s online rollout of laboratory test results began in 2005 and was completed in 2007 with the vast majority of test results available to patients at the same time they are available to the ordering physicians. Pathology results, genetic tests, and sometimes HIV results (to comply with state laws) are among the exceptions. Standard ranges for test results, general information about the type of test, any physician comments (such as, “This is heading in the right direction”), and details about follow-up testing are included. Past lab results remain in the members’ accounts indefinitely. Kaiser says that viewing of online lab results has steadily increased and is now the most frequently used feature of the online health record with consistently high satisfaction ratings on member surveys.
In this study the researchers conducted an e-mail survey of Kaiser Permanente members, who had viewed at least one test result online within the past year. Based on results from 1,546 respondents (median age 58 years), patients report high levels of satisfaction, appreciation, calm, happiness, and relief. Few experience worry, confusion, fear, upset, or anger from viewing results. The most common follow-up activities after viewing lab test results online were speaking with family or friends about the results, looking up information on Web sites, and making a graph of the pattern of test results over time. Patients whose doctors spoke with them about what to expect from their test results experienced significantly more positive reactions than those who did not speak with their doctors and were also less likely to engage in follow-up activities, including e-mailing and telephoning doctors and scheduling additional appointments.
“The findings that patients largely react positively to seeing test results online should be reassuring,” write the authors Kate Christensen, M.D., and Valerie Sue, both from Kaiser. “For practices that have already implemented online test result access but are still limiting access to a small number of results, our findings might provide a good basis for expanding access to results.”
Takeaway: Findings that patients largely react positively to seeing test results online should be reassuring to providers since the study confirms that patients want and can handle the results of their laboratory tests.
