A study of risks of threats and violence toward hospital staff in relation to patient access to electronic medical records

Abstract: In 2012, the county of Uppland in Sweden launched a service granting patients online access to their electronic medical record (EMR), including the list of staff who have logged into the record (the “log list”). Patients seem predominantly positive to this service whereas many professionals, physicians specifically, have expressed concerns about, for example, increased risks of threats and violence towards healthcare staff. One year after launch the present study was conducted to examine whether staff whose patients had gained access to online EMRs experienced greater risks of threats and violence, and were exposed to more threats and violence, than those whose patients had not yet gained access. The extent to which professional role, gender, work experience and staff attitudes to the service were important factors was also examined. A total of 174 professionals at Uppsala University Hospital responded to a web survey (35% response rate). 83 represented the emergency department, whose patients had online EMR access, and 91 represented the psychiatric department, whose patients had not. 40% of all participating professionals, emergency physicians and psychiatric staff specifically, believed that risks of threats and violence increase after launch. The results did not, however, support a correlation between patient access to online EMRs and more incidents of threats and violence, and only one respondent reported that patient access had played any significant negative role in relation to an incident. These and other results may prove useful as the online EMR service is now being launched in other Swedish counties as well.