"Open Notes" Mandate: Another Reason to Switch to an EHR
If you aren't already convinced to use an electronic health record because of the ease of scheduling and payments, quality charting, and no-touch administration, perhaps this will do it.
A new government mandate requiring electronic access to treatment notes for patients goes into effect November 2.
HIPAA has mandated patient access to health records for decades. The electronic health records mandate was passed in 2014. Now the 21 Century Cures Act says that patients must have fast, free, electronic access to the following types of notes: consultations, discharge summaries, history, physical examination findings, and procedure and progress notes.
This idea of releasing notes to patients immediately is also known as "open notes."
Patient portals are used more and more as a way for health care providers to communicate with patients. Now providers will be posting the entire note instead of a brief to-do list and formal reports.
The 21 Century Cures Act was signed into law in December 2016 and goes into effect November 2, 2020.
Hands Heal EHR first went live on October 4, 2016. We've provided open access to session notes through a client portal since we started.
In health,
Diana
Patients Can Read Your Clinical Notes Starting Nov. 2, Medscape, Oct. 21, 2020.