Patients like being asked to share personal details they want physicians to know

Physicians may find success in building patient relationships by asking patients about themselves before they arrive for their appointments.

Electronic health records (EHRs) can help build a rapport even before patients show up for an examination, said researchers Samantha Barbour and Elizabeth A. Fleming of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

In the university’s Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, they used EHRs to message adult patients three to 14 days before an initial visit with a primary care physician. Messages included a greeting, an introduction to the project and the invitation to respond to: “What do you want your health care team to know about you as a person?” Physicians then used the responses to guide the introductory portion of the visit.

The doctors liked it, and generally so did patients.

“From the clinician perspective, we found that reading patient narratives fostered an immediate sense of connection, facilitated agenda setting, and improved the sense of efficiency of the visit,” the study said. “This innovative strategy to integrate patient-owned narrative into the EHR facilitates a better understanding of what is important to patients and could be easily implemented by an individual clinician or health system.”

As for patients, 79% reported having a positive experience, with 17% neutral and 4% negative, according to the study.

Their responses dealt with:

• Personal information, 73%. Topics included relationships, occupations, identity, hobbies, geography, defining life experiences and education.
• Health: 67%. Topics included current concerns, health history, health goals and previous health care experiences.
• Reactions to the message: 40%. Patients shared expectations of providers and visits. Two responses were unsure about what to say, while two offered positive feedback and one was negative.

Barbour and Fleming noted the question was taken from the U.S. Veterans Administration’s My Life, My Story project. Their study, “Using the Electronic Health Record to Facilitate Patient-Physician Relationship While Establishing Care,” was published in Annals of Family Medicine.