Some doctors worry this will mean more phone calls from confused patients.
Dr. Marlene Millen of UC San Diego Health, which launched a pilot program for primary care patients in 2018, said that’s not her experience.
“I did not get a big bump in questions at all,” Millen said.
Many patients aren’t interested in their notes and never read them, she said. Others do, but save her time because they arrive for appointments “and already know what the next step in the plan is because they had read the prior note.”
UC San Diego Health is opening notes to another 130,000 patients Monday, as more specialists are added. Millen, who’s been highly involved in the transition, said it’s frustrating the federal deadline was extended just last Thursday.
“We spend all this time getting ready and we could have spent that time doing other things like working on the pandemic,” she said.
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