8 Ophthalmology Business • July 2017
by Liz Hillman, Staff Writer
When what a patient reports
is different from what's on
symptom questionnaire.
1
The results
from these questionnaires were then
compared to what was documented
in the EMR. Exact agreement be-
tween the patient's reported symp-
toms and what was recorded on the
medical record only occurred in 38
cases.
Discordant reporting between
the patient and the EMR was seen in
91% of patients who complained of
glare, 80% who noted redness, and
74.4% who said they had pain. Con-
versely, blurry vision was included
more often in medical records than it
was reported in the questionnaires.
"Issues with doctor-patient com-
munication are age-old, and some of
measurements and observations
obtained in the exam. But recent
studies show how what the patient
reports could potentially be skewed
by other factors, such as what is re-
corded on the chart or by a caregiv-
er's perspective.
According to a paper published
in JAMA Ophthalmology, what a
patient describes of his or her symp-
toms and what a physician records
on an electronic medical record
(EMR) do not always match up
entirely. The research included
162 patients (324 eyes) at the Uni-
versity of Michigan's Kellogg Eye
Center from Oct. 1, 2015, to Jan. 31,
2016, who took a self-reported eye
Recent studies show
discordance between
symptoms reported by
patients and medical
records, between pediatric
patients' viewpoints and
those of their parents
H
ow a patient de-
scribes his or her
symptoms and
visual quality might
seem like some of
the most important pieces of infor-
mation that can be collected in an
assessment along with the objective
