What patients believe is available via digital health records is quite different from reality, according to a new report. This means that a key factor for the delivery of quality care—access to patients’ own records and the ability for providers to easily share those records with other providers, or interoperability—is missing.

Transcend Insights, the population health management company that is a subsidiary of Humana, conducted the online survey in January of 2017. Survey findings include:

• Almost all (97%) of the survey respondents believe that full access to their medical records by all health institutions is necessary for the delivery of high-quality care.
• The two most important factors listed by the respondents for receiving personalized care were access to their own medical records and the ability of providers to easily share and communicate information about their medical history wherever treatment was needed.
• 64% of survey respondents use a digital device, including mobile apps, to manage their health and 71% believe their providers should have access to that information.
• Almost 40% of respondents said that they were more likely to trust care received from any healthcare provider when the provider had full access to their medical history.
• A majority of the respondents said that provider access to their full medical history was important for them to receive high-quality care.

Of particular note, 72% of survey respondents believed that their doctors are easily able to share and access their medical history. However, this type of access across separate healthcare organizations is actually rare.

“As an industry, the time has come to move beyond viewing interoperability as a philosophical challenge or a problem that we’ll eventually get our arms around,” says Transcend Insights Chief Medical Officer Thomas Van Gilder, MD. “This survey shows us that patients see strong information sharing as an essential element of high-quality care. It’s time that we live up to those expectations by giving care providers and health care systems the tools they need to stay connected around patient care.”