PatientSite at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Participants

• Clinical insitution: 3 hospitals and 72 ambulatory care practices, including Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC)
• IT vendor: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC)MyFamilyHealth
• Patient group: all patients

Key statistics

• Clinical messaging is the most popular feature (20 per month per 100 patients), followed by prescription renewals (4 per month per 100 patients), followed by appointment making (2 per month per 100 patients).
• Over 35,000 unique patients actively use the system, with the number growing every month since it went live.

Details

In 1999, a group of clinicians and patient advocates in New England suggested that Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) should share all of its electronic records with patients, since all healthcare data ultimately belongs to the patient. In 2000, BIDMC went live with a hospital-based personal health record, PatientSite (www.patientsite.org).

PatientSite includes full access to problem lists, medications, allergies, visits, laboratory results, diagnostic test results, and microbiology results from 3 hospitals and 72 ambulatory care practices. In addition to these hospital- and ambulatory clinic-provided data, patients can amend their own records online, adding home glucometer readings, over-the-counter medications, and notes. Full secure patient-doctor messaging is integrated into the system. Convenience functions such as appointment making, medication renewal, and specialist referral are automated and easy to use. Clinical messaging is the most popular feature (20 per month per 100 patients), followed by prescription renewals (4 per month per 100 patients), followed by appointment making (2 per month per 100 patients).

Over 35,000 unique patients actively use the system, with the number growing every month since it went live.

Sources

• Early experiences with personal health records. Halamka et al., JAMIA 2008.