What Healthcare Technologies Do Patients Want?

Let me start this column by saying I’m beginning to lose confidence in the health IT polls produced by Harris Interactive. A few weeks ago, I authored an opinion column titled Why Are Patients Anti-EHR? This article provided analysis of a study released by Harris Interactive and Xerox Healthcare that showed that only 26% of 2,147 U.S. adults surveyed stated they wanted their medical information recorded electronically. Needless to say, I was surprised by these results, but my article was an attempt to rationalize why so many patients might have negative feelings about EHRs.

Fast-forward one month, and Harris has released another patient-focused poll that completely contradicts the data relayed in its joint study with Xerox Healthcare. Harris’ latest poll asked more than 2,300 U.S. adults about the technologies they desire from their physician offices. Low and behold, nearly two-thirds of respondents considered online access to their medical records important or very important, yet only one in six currently receives this capability from their healthcare providers. How is it possible that only 26% of Americans want EHRs, but 65% want online access to them? I understand that the audience samples for each survey were likely different, but I wouldn’t expect these two samples to produce such wildly different results.

Putting this rather large discrepancy aside, the poll did point out some other interesting technology capabilities patients deem as important. For example, 62% of respondents said they wanted their doctors to provide an online cost estimator that would allow them to compare costs between providers, yet only 6% currently have access to one. This capability can be difficult for physicians to provide because complex payer/provider relationships, reimbursements, and processes can often make it difficult for doctors to accurately estimate what the final cost of a service or treatment will be. Email and text reminders about upcoming appointments or preventative care were also deemed important or very important by 57% of respondents, yet only 12% of patients currently have access to these mobile reminders.

Other key findings from the Harris survey include:

• Email communication with doctors was deemed as important or very important by 53% of respondents
• Online appointment setting was important or very important to 51% of respondents
• Online billing and payment was important to 50% of respondents

Respondents also reported that a doctor’s overall knowledge, training and expertise, ability to access their medical histories, and the time they spent with patients were most important to determining their satisfaction. All interesting stuff.  I just wonder how much stock I can place in this data.