What should the doctor share with you?
Posted 12/11/2009
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How would you react if you read this note written by a doctor into your medical record after a visit to his or her office?
She worries about money, enjoys her hobbies, and is basically doing quite nicely, although she is certainly dependent on narcotics for pain control at this point and is dealing with underlying depression, which is not overwhelming, but is certainly not making her a happy person.
Tom Delbanco, MD, of Beth Israel Deaconess and Mary Merkel, DO, from the Merrimack Family Practice, Dartmouth-Hitchcock in Nashua, NH, will discuss the benefits of reading notes on WIHI - a new "talk show" program from IHI.
The free audio program - available on computer, telephone or both - airs Thursday Dec. 17 at 2 p.m. EST. To enroll, click here.
Would a patient be surprised to read this in her medical record? Even so, might the assessment prove constructive? Is this the sort of transparency and patient-centered care the U.S. health care system, or any health care system, needs?
Where Dr. Merkel practices, this level of transparency is commonplace and perceived of value to everyone concerned, including a patient who'll join us on the show; BIDMC's Dr. Delbanco and colleagues at two other hospitals hope to learn more about opening up the notes when they launch OpenNotes, a study with 100 physicians and 30,000 patients in 2010.
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