Ultimately the MOST important thing is for the patient to get the information — good or bad— in a timely way. The reason many EMRs send the information directly to the patient within a certain window is that for any number of reasons, physicians have not always communicated results timely with their patients. Clarity about which results MUST be communicated via MD versus results that SHOULD be communicated via MD versus results which would be nice to have communicated via MD is still a work in progress. But in the interim, make sure patients get their results in a timely way. The worst situation is when a result that requires prompt action from a patient sits idly in the EME waiting for to communicate if.
Ultimately the MOST important thing is for the patient to get the information — good or bad— in a timely way. The reason many EMRs send the information directly to the patient within a certain window is that for any number of reasons, physicians have not always communicated results timely with their patients. Clarity about which results MUST be communicated via MD versus results that SHOULD be communicated via MD versus results which would be nice to have communicated via MD is still a work in progress. But in the interim, make sure patients get their results in a timely way. The worst situation is when a result that requires prompt action from a patient sits idly in the EME waiting for to communicate if.