Lessons from Kaiser in USA on Records Access

Fascinating Webinar on wednesday with the US team leading Records Access for patients in the Kaiser Permanente organisation.

In 2010 they had 2.5 million appointments booked on-line, 12 million e-mails, 10 million prescription repeats and almost 30 million laboratory tests - covering 8.8 million patients.

Points I particularly noted:

• KP developments have been transaction led, and activity increased year on year
• Significant investment in integrated support information for patients through the portal
• Appointment/medication transaction activity does NOT shame UK
• On-line record access is ‘Results’ focussed and basic non-urgent communication
• Communication is via controlled, not 'open', e-mail
• UK advocates have already gone WAY beyond the Kaiser Physician comfort zone with consultation details etc
• Listen to, respect and address concerns of the (many) professional ‘Nay sayers’
• They do not have specialist appointment booking – we DO (C&B)
• E-mail contact workload does build, and is clearly causing increasing concerns
• 3 e-mail contacts/year per on-line patient, 800 per year per physician in 2010
• Need to integrate RA with daily workflow tasks
• They share concerns over release of ‘harmful’ test results
• KP wrote all the content (much exists for us in NHS Choices and other accredited resources etc)
• Webex attendees tend to represent those already keen on Records Access...

So we can learn things from them - but our Heath Economies are slightly different, perhaps they can also learn from us!

So my personal 'learning points':

• Support Records Access with information patients can use to make a difference to health
• Be very cautious about opening an additional communication channel without clear aims and spare resource
• Listen and respect the views of nervous and sceptical colleagues, and learn together
• Build on the fantastic UK availability of electronic GP records to offer appointment, tests results and medication ordering as widely and quickly as possible

Why not have a look at what KP offer below?

https://healthy.kaiserpermanente.org/html/kaiser/index.shtml

And lastly...

From the cost and activity figures given by KP compared to NHS public data I have compiled the table below from 2010, to give me a rough idea how the NHS is in comparison... (Shoot me down if I am wrong)

	Patients (million)	Spend (£ billion)	Spend per patient (£)
Kaiser	8.8	27.9	£3,170.45
England	52.2	97.1	£1,860.15

I have always thought the NHS gives value for money, no matter how hard people knock it. It remains a 'National Treasure'.

Peter Short