How does P3N help patients?
The P3N improves and coordinates your care by helping your health care provider to find your medical records—in real time—anywhere on the P3N network. For example, imagine you are being treated in an Allentown emergency room following an accident, but your family doctor is in Carlisle. If both providers are connected to the P3N through a certified regional network, called a health information organization, or HIO, the ER staff can request your medical records from your family doctor. This could prevent a dangerous drug interaction or the deadly administration of a drug to which you're allergic.
What if I don't want my information shared? Under the law that created the P3N, if your health care provider is connected to the P3N, your medical records are automatically available for exchange across the P3N to other providers who need it. However, if you do not want your medical information available for exchange across the network, you may opt out of the P3N by completing and submitting a patient opt-out form to the eHealth Partnership; if you change your mind, you may opt back in at any time. Note, however, that your medical information is not stored on the P3N; it remains within your providers' records, where it has been stored all along, and the P3N simply acts as the "information highway" between the provider who has it and the provider who needs it.