Case Study: MU Health Care achieves secure OpenNotes access and boosted patient engagement with Cerner

MU Health Care opens notes, patient engagement through secure online portal

MU Health Care, a 550‑bed health system in Columbia, Mo., wanted to boost patient engagement and transparency by making clinician notes and other records easier to access. Previously, patients had to request notes via paperwork, which discouraged many from seeing their records and limited patients’ ability to revisit treatment plans and follow-up instructions.

In January 2015 MU Health Care enabled OpenNotes through its MUHealthe portal, making physician notes (back to Dec. 1, 2014) available alongside scheduling and secure messaging. Since launch patients have viewed or downloaded notes more than 1,100 times; nationally, access to notes is linked to better medication adherence (60%+) and greater sense of control (77%+), and locally the portal has increased patient engagement, retention and word‑of‑mouth referrals.

MU Health Care

Tom Selva

MD, Chief medical information officer