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Healthcare Consumers’ Attitudes Towards Physician and Personal Use of Health Information Exchange

  • Original Research
  • Published:
Journal of General Internal Medicine Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

BACKGROUND

Health information exchange (HIE), the electronic transmission of patient medical information across healthcare institutions, is on the forefront of the national agenda for healthcare reform. As healthcare consumers are critical participants in HIE, understanding their attitudes toward HIE is essential.

OBJECTIVE

To determine healthcare consumers’ attitudes toward physician and personal use of HIE, and factors associated with their attitudes.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional telephone survey.

PARTICIPANTS

English-speaking residents of the Hudson Valley of New York.

MAIN MEASURE

Consumer reported attitudes towards HIE.

KEY RESULTS

Of 199 eligible residents contacted, 170 (85%) completed the survey: 67% supported physician HIE use and 58% reported interest in using HIE themselves. Multivariate analysis suggested supporters of physician HIE were more likely to be caregivers for chronically ill individuals (OR 4.6, 95% CI 1.06, 19.6), earn more than $100,000 yearly (OR 3.5, 95% CI 1.2, 10.0), and believe physician HIE would improve the privacy and security of their medical records (OR 2.9, 95% CI 1.05, 7.9). Respondents interested in using personal HIE were less likely to be female (OR 0.4, 95% CI 0.1, 0.98), and more likely to be frequent Internet-users (OR 3.3, 95% CI 1.03, 10.6), feel communication among their physicians was inadequate (OR 6.7, 95% CI 1.7, 25.3), and believe personal HIE use would improve communication with their physicians (OR 4.7, 95% CI 1.7, 12.8).

CONCLUSIONS

Consumer outreach to gain further support for ongoing personal and physician HIE efforts is needed and should address consumer security concerns and potential disparities in HIE acceptance and use.

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Funders

The Taconic Independent Practice Association funded this work through a grant to Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. O’Donnell participated in this study as a fellow funded by the Department of Public Health at Weill Cornell Medical College.

Contributors

The authors would like to thank Rachel Block, Curt Cole, MD, Lori Evans, MPP, MPH, Ellen Flink, MBA, Gil Kuperman, MD, Akshay Kapur, Alex Low, Jason Shapiro, MD, and Adam Wilcox, PhD for their participation in the survey development workgroup. They would also like to thank Randolph Barrows Jr., MD, MS, John Blair, MD, Janlori Goldman, JD, and Art Levin for their input on the survey and Ken Griffin, PhD for his advice on survey methodology.

Conflicts of Interest

None disclosed.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Children’s Hospital at Montefiore, 1621 Eastchester Road Suite 102, Bronx, NY, 10461, USA

    Heather C. O’Donnell MD, MSc

  2. Department of Public Health, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, USA

    Vaishali Patel MPH, PhD, Lisa M. Kern MD, MPH, Yolanda Barrón MS, Paul Teixeira DrPh, Rina Dhopeshwarkar MPH & Rainu Kaushal MD, MPH

  3. Health Information Technology Evaluation Collaborative (HITEC), New York, NY, USA

    Vaishali Patel MPH, PhD, Lisa M. Kern MD, MPH, Yolanda Barrón MS, Rina Dhopeshwarkar MPH & Rainu Kaushal MD, MPH

  4. New York Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY, USA

    Lisa M. Kern MD, MPH & Rainu Kaushal MD, MPH

  5. Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, USA

    Rainu Kaushal MD, MPH

  6. Department of Pediatrics, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, USA

    Rainu Kaushal MD, MPH

Authors
  1. Heather C. O’Donnell MD, MSc
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  2. Vaishali Patel MPH, PhD
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  3. Lisa M. Kern MD, MPH
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Heather C. O’Donnell MD, MSc.

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Online Appendix

Appendix: Consumer Health Information Technology and Exchange Telephone Survey (DOC 73 kb)

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O’Donnell, H.C., Patel, V., Kern, L.M. et al. Healthcare Consumers’ Attitudes Towards Physician and Personal Use of Health Information Exchange. J GEN INTERN MED 26, 1019–1026 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-011-1733-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-011-1733-6

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