Patients ranking E-health improvement initiatives in primary care centers

An increasing number of initiatives are being proposed to improve Primary Healthcare Centers. Many of these initiatives involved E-Health solutions including, but not limited to, the following: Electronic Health Records, online booking, Personal Health Records, and online prescriptions. Incorporating patient input into initiative planning is a key part of decision making. The goal of the study was to identify and rank the patient-centered initiatives in primary healthcare based on patient preferences. We conducted a cross-sectional survey for Primary Healthcare patients. The survey consists of three sections: patient demographics, a comprehensive list of 104 potential reform initiatives, and a section for rating the satisfaction of existing services. The reform initiatives identified were guided by the Primary Healthcare Performance Initiative conceptual framework. This framework covers a wide range of potential areas that could be improved including appointment making, clinical services, after visit services, and facilities and infrastructure. A total of 406 patients participated in the survey. This participation level comprised a response rate of 41.8%. The survey identified the top patient preferences for initiatives that could be addressed via E-Health solutions. The priority reforms selected by the majority of patients were related to appointment services and provider-patient communication. The appointment services included several areas such as the options available for appointments, online booking, and appointment making for urgent cases. The provider-patient communication included distributing more information to patients, giving additional information related to patient health status and treatments, and accounting for patient questions and requests.