Among several advantages of health information exchange, patient safety is considered the most important one. Access to patients’ critical health information through technology-enabled, enhanced Personal Health Record Software(PHR) provides a comprehensive clinical picture about them. Right information at the right time ensures improved patient safety.

Significance of Personal Health Information

Before the ingress of information technology tools and applications in the health care segment, all required information couldn’t always be accessed at the point of clinical decision-making. This was having implications on care quality and patient safety. Personal Health Records Software has potentially improved this situation by offering access to patient-specific health information from multiple setting.

PHR – an Emerging Health Information Technology

Personal Health Records Software maintained by individuals have the potential for addressing the information requirements at the point of care in timely and convenient manner. Vital health records related to patients are with the patients themselves, enabling physicians to quickly access the same and arrive at information-based decisions.

Potential Benefits of the PHR

There are several benefits offered by the digital PHR System. A few have been discussed below:

• Increased patient empowerment
• Improved provider-patient communication
• Patient Safety

How Do PHR Increase Patient safety?

Health information being held by patients themselves in the portable electronic format, it is possible to present crucial details to physicians quickly. These include medications, adverse drug reactions, allergies, and vital diagnoses that can be made more readily available to the providers. This considerably improves clinical decision-making at the time of care delivery. This proves very useful in emergency situations.

Travelers and those requiring care by multiple providers are the most benefitted. Moreover, patients, having access to their own health records, will be able to identify errors such as misdiagnoses. This in turn helps in improving their safety and appropriateness of their health care.

Features in PHR that Ensure Patient Safety

• PHR Access control is given to patients – who can access, which part may be accessed, and duration of access
• PHR can be interoperable with other health IT systems such as EMR
• Patient data security and privacy
• Ease of use and personalized features
• Quick and easy access to critical health information from anywhere at anytime

75Health Personal Health Records Software System helps safe exchange of sensitive health information and facilitates better patient engagement.