Online services, telehealth and digital health records may be available, but only a small proportion of patients know they exist. Sounds like it’s time for an ad campaign.
Only 8% of Australian patients said they had access to their medical records digitally, according to the latest Patient-Reported Indicated Survey, released today by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care.
The PaRIS survey is an international survey run by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in 19 countries. In Australia, it was implemented by the ACSQHC with ORIMA Research on behalf of the federal Department of Health, Disability and Ageing.
The survey was completed by 54 GP practices in Australia from 8 June to 20 December 2023. They recruited patients with chronic conditions aged 45 year and over who had attended the practice in the last six months; 2392 participants were included in the results.
The news for proponents of digital health and connected care will find plenty of room for improvement in the results, particularly when it comes to what patients believe they can find online to improve their health.
The survey also found that 16% of patients did not know what online services their GP provider offered. Only 40% of patients whose GP was one of the 60% who offer video consultations knew that the service was available.
Twenty-two percent of patients reported that their GP practice offered repeat prescriptions online.
Thirteen percent of patients had difficulty accessing information from their GP’s website and, subsequently, those patients recorded lower ratings for outcomes and experiences than those who found it easy to access information – in particular for measures of “quality of care”, “trust in their GP” and “coordination of care”.
The good news in the survey was that 96% of patients who accessed telehealth rated their quality of care positively – a similar rating to in-person care, which indicates telehealth is a valuable tool for patients.
Associate Professor Liz Marles, a GP and a clinical director for the ACSQHC, wrote in an exclusive opinion piece for The Medical Republic, that the PaRIS survey had “unearthed some opportunities for improvement”.
“Around one-quarter of Australian patients indicated they had to repeat information that should have been in their health records in the past 12 months,” wrote Professor Marles.
“These patients were less likely to say they experienced person-centred care, rate their last consultation positively, trust their doctor at their last visit, or trust the health system overall.
“Although most of us already try to be patient-centred in terms of care planning, the survey showed there was a disconnect between GPs reporting they had written a care plan and patients knowing of its existence,” she said.
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“This highlights again the importance of working with the patient, helping them identify their goals, and making sure that they understand the care plan when you give it to them.”
There was plenty of good news in the PaRIS survey when it came to other areas of the Australian healthcare sector.
Out of the 19 OECD countries involved, Australia ranked in the top five in four areas – quality of care, coordination of care, person-centred care and physical health.
A total of 94% of Australian patients reported positive experiences with their GP practice – above the OECD average of 87%; 74% with chronic conditions reported good physical health – above the OECD average of 70%; and 97% with a single GP for three to five years rated care positively (versus the 79% who did not see the same GP).
Read the full PaRIS report here.
