Vanderbilt University Medical Center patients are overwhelmingly in favor of having immediate electronic access to their clinical test results, recent surveys show.
A federal rule, called the 21st Century Cures Act, in effect since April 5 was designed in part to ensure that patients are given electronic access to their health information upon their request and at no cost, including, with very few exceptions, immediate access to any clinical test results.
At VUMC, secure patient access to electronic health records (EHR) is provided through a patient portal, My Health at Vanderbilt (MHAV).
"We previously released most test results to the portal within days of their hitting the EHR, with longer delays for certain results that we thought could potentially pose distress for patients if viewed without the context that a clinician can provide," said Trent Rosenbloom, MD, MPH, FACMI, FAMIA, Director of MHAV and Interim Chair of DBMI. "While the federal rule met with trepidation from some quarters, our survey results are very clear: most patients appreciate having the ability to see their test results the moment they come into the electronic record, rather than wait to be contacted by their health care team."