The OpenNotes Mental Health Conundrum

By all accounts, the the OpenNotes initiative, which is a project that invites patients to review their visit notes written by their doctors, nurses, or other clinicians, has been an unequivocal success. Large healthcare delivery systems that have adopted the practice report that it has led to more engaged patients. 

In a patient survey, the majority of patients who opened a note and filled out a post-intervention survey said that OpenNotes put them in greater control of their care, it helped increase their medication adherence, and better remember their plan of care. And significantly, every provider who had participated in the OpenNotes trial program opted to continue. 

Now the OpenNotes initiative is expanding and not only restricting its program to medical/surgical patients. Beth Israel Deaconess in Boston, which was an early OpenNotes adopter, is pioneering the project among high-functioning mental health patients and other providers are reported to be cautiously considering participating in the initiative.

Read the Gabriel Perna's entire blog at Healthcare Informatics.