How patients use access to their full health records: a qualitative study of patients in general practice.

Objective: To explore how patients use record access, its impact and the benefits and drawbacks of using it.

Design: Qualitative study using focus group interviews, individual interviews and telephone interviews.

Setting: General practice offering electronic access to full medical records using PAERS system.

Participants: Forty-three patients aged between 20 and 71 years participated. Of these, nine were in the healthy group, eight had long-term health conditions, 10 were in the mental health group and 16 were pregnant.

Results: Three themes emerged as to how patients used record access - participation in care, quality of care and self-care strategies. Record access was used to help prepare patients for consultations, compensate for poor or complex communication during consultations and to reduce the fragmentation of care. Record access had a small impact on health behavior intentions. Overall patients felt that record access reinforced trust and confidence in doctors and helped them feel like partners in healthcare.

Conclusion: This study suggests that record access improves shared management, with patients using their records to improve interactions with healthcare providers, make decisions about their health and improve the quality of the care they receive. These findings also suggest a possible long-term potential for record access to improve health outcomes.