So the question does arise as the news arrives that Wal-Mart and five other large companies are collaborating on the development of "Web-based employee personal health records": how can the employees know their records will be secure and private?
According to the Government Computer News (CGN.com) story referenced above:
Individuals will be able to maintain comprehensive and up-to-date health histories of themselves and their families, said J.D. Kleinke, CEO of the Omnimedix Institute, the nonprofit group in Portland Ore., that is developing the system.
Dossia gathers health information on behalf of the individual from various sources and stores it within secured databases. Dossia’s open architecture will support multiple personal health applications, which lets users organize and summarize their information in ways that are most useful to them.
Health records will be secure and private, accessible only by the individual or by others to whom they have granted permission. Records also will be portable, so individuals can use the records even if they change employers, health plans or doctors.
That’s all nifty and swell, but privacy rights advocates are a tad worried.
Or, as the article continues:
The Patient Privacy Rights Foundation in Austin, Texas, however, denounced the plan to store their employees’ records in a centralized data warehouse linking hospitals, doctors and pharmacies.
"This is a prescription for disaster. Will these companies guarantee that employees’ personal health information will never be used against them or disclosed without informed consent?" said Deborah Peel, founder and chairwoman of Patient Privacy Rights. . Wal-Mart Stores plans to apply market pressure and incentives to get hospitals and doctors on board and will insist that health care providers adopt electronic records and prescribing as a condition of future business, she said. . "Electronic health records are essentially a good idea. But American health consumers have said repeatedly that they do not want their employers or their insurers to have access to their records," Peel said.
I have to agree with Peel, who the article says, recommends that a "neutral third party, such as a health banking repository, should house patient data."
In other words, to have my employer store my health and medical records in a system that would allow that employer access to my record? IF I were an employee of one of the companies colloborating on Dossia, I sure would want to know who could access my files, when that person could see my files, why that person should see my files at all and how much power I have to give or take that power away.
As I write this, Thanksgiving has just passed and there are but four weeks until Christmas. I’m headed out to my new home in Pennsylvania next week and am staying with my parents in their home near San Diego until then.
While here, I’m putting together an online personal health record for both of them.
They both have appointments with my father’s neurologist a couple of days before I leave and I’ve already requested a copy of both their medical records from the doctor’s office. I will pick them up on the day of their appointments, when both of them will sign the form that gives the doc’s office permission to release the records to me.
Until then, I work with what I can find out from their medicine cupboards and from speaking with them.
My father is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, so he has plenty of medications that he takes, including some he takes to manage other chronic conditions he has.
As does my mother.
In fact, they each take so many medications that a kitchen cupboard shelf takes in the overflow from their medicine cabinet.
The prescriptions give me a wealth of information. Not only do I get the drug name, its reason for use and its dosage, but I also get the name of the prescribing physician. They have so many – the neurologist, their general practitioner, their dermatologist, a “heart guy” (as my father calls him), I can get all names and numbers without having to ask.
I get a list together and ask my mother if I’ve missed anyone. She lets me know that one general practitioner no longer is hers – she didn’t like his “bedside manner” so now she’s going to another physician for her regular checkups.
I’ll be coming back with my daughter the week between Christmas and New Year’s so if they have any appointments with any of these other health care providers, I’ll tag along and ask to get copies of their medical records. And I’ll do so each time I visit next year until I’m able to hit all of their docs’ offices and get copies of their records. I’ll also meet each doctor and let him or her know I may be calling periodically when I have a question about my parents’ care.
I enter as much information as I can into the PHRs I create for both of them at the free service provided at ihealthrecord.com. I also fill out the page in their PHRs that allows my sister to access their records. Ihealthrecord.com allows others users “read only” access, so I give her the log-in codes and passwords for both records so that she can add info when she’s in town and goes to doctor’s appointments with them.
My sister’s not as keen on the efficacy of using this online PHR, but I know I’ll be able to show her the online health record light as time goes on.
Having an online record for my parents will be a great Christmas for myself. I can print their PHRs out each time before I visit and have the notes within them with me. All neat and tidy.
As I get ready to start my new life across the country, don’t be surprised if you hear me softly singing this holiday season: “All I want for Christmas is my dad’s PHR.”
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