title: Access to Radiology Reports via an Online Patient Portal: Experiences of Referring Physicians and Patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Few organizations have reported providing radiology reports to patients via an electronic health record patient portal. The authors describe the process of manual release of reports made by referring physicians, and patients' and referring physicians' experiences during the first year that release through the portal was available.
  
  
  METHODS
  A survey of 508 patients assessed perceived accessibility and importance of portal-released radiology reports, and communications with referring physicians before and after the release. A survey of 48 referring physicians and a group interview assessed the utility of releasing reports, preferences regarding automatic release, and workload impact. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and qualitative methods.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 74% (377) of patients found reports easy to access, and 88% (446) reported that the ability to do so was important. In all, 49% (250) of patients were contacted by their referring physician before report release, and 25% (156) contacted their physician for more information after viewing a report. Of the referring physicians, 88% (42) found that releasing reports to patients was useful. Auto-release of x-ray reports, with a 1-week delay, was preferred by 58% (28), but they were more reluctant to auto-release CT and MRI reports. A total of 86% (41) of referring physicians reported that follow-up emails, telephone calls, and office visits were unchanged or had decreased.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Referring-physician release of radiology reports via the online portal is important to patients, useful to referring physicians, and does not affect referring-physician workloads. A delay between reporting results to referring physicians and releasing them to patients allows time for needed physician-patient communication.
authors.affiliation: Hawaii Permanente Medical Group, Honolulu, Hawaii.
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Henshaw
authors.affiliation: Hawaii Permanente Medical Group, Honolulu, Hawaii.
authors.forename: Grant
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Okawa
authors.affiliation: Hawaii Permanente Medical Group, Honolulu, Hawaii.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ching
authors.affiliation: Health Information Technology & Transformation Analytics, Kaiser Permanente, Oakland, California.
authors.forename: Terhilda
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Garrido
authors.affiliation: Health Information Technology & Transformation Analytics, Kaiser Permanente, Oakland, California. Electronic address: Heather.H.Qian@kp.org.
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.affiliation: Health Information Technology & Transformation Analytics, Kaiser Permanente, Oakland, California.
authors.forename: Joanne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tsai
mesh_terms: D022126:Access to Information; D003142:Communication; D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006254:Hawaii; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D028701:Patient Rights; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011873:Radiology Information Systems / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016526:Workload
keywords: Radiology; electronic health record; patient-centered care; qualitative research