Use of Electronic Health Records by Older Adults, 85 Years and Older, and Their Caregivers

BACKGROUND Healthcare providers may not offer patient portal (PP) access to electronic health records (EHRs) to their patients older than 85 years, due to the false impression that they do not utilize technology. It is imperative that older adults be given equal opportunity to use technology in rega...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS) 2020-05, Vol.68 (5), p.1078-1082
Main Authors: Ramirez‐Zohfeld, Vanessa, Seltzer, Anne, Xiong, Linda, Morse, Lucy, Lindquist, Lee A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aged, 80 and over
caregivers
Caregivers - statistics & numerical data
electronic health records
Electronic Health Records - statistics & numerical data
Female
Humans
Male
older adults
Patient Portals - statistics & numerical data
Retrospective Studies
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Summary:BACKGROUND Healthcare providers may not offer patient portal (PP) access to electronic health records (EHRs) to their patients older than 85 years, due to the false impression that they do not utilize technology. It is imperative that older adults be given equal opportunity to use technology in regard to their healthcare. OBJECTIVE To characterize the content and frequency of use of PP messaging tethered to EHRs by older adults, aged 85 years and older, and their caregivers. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS User‐initiated communications from electronic PPs (MyChart) tethered to an EHR (Epic) for patients who were 85 years and older, receiving care at outpatient internal medicine and geriatric clinics at an academic health center from July 1, 2016, to December 31, 2016, were reviewed retrospectively and analyzed with mixed methods. RESULTS A total of 1254 user‐initiated messages, sent by 62 patients aged 85 years and older (mean age = 87.9 years; n = 576 messages; mean = 9.9 messages per person) and 82 caregivers (n = 678 messages; mean = 7.8 messages per person), were analyzed. Qualitative analysis revealed 12 main themes: clinical issues, medication/vaccine questions, medication refills, laboratory orders/results, therapy/durable medical equipment, care coordination, care transitions, scheduling, appreciation/thank you, administrative/billing, telephone requests, and death notification. Caregivers significantly initiated messages more for care transitions (P
ISSN:0002-8614
1532-5415
DOI:10.1111/jgs.16393