The objective of this study was to explore inpatients’ opinions on their hospital paper medical records after they had incidental access to them. One hundred inpatients in the C.T. department at St. Michael's Hospital were surveyed: 65 patients who read their records and 35 who did not. Overall, 75.4% of readers found their records easy to understand, and most found their records correct, complete and did not find anything unexpected or distressing. Seventy-nine percent of all respondents would trust the hospital, approximately half would trust Google Health or Microsoft Healthvault and 5.6% would trust Facebook to provide online medical records. Being female, under 60 years and having a higher education predicted readership. Younger patients were also more likely to think that accessing their records would help decrease errors. Patients with higher education were more likely to find their records useful and trusted the hospital to provide online medical records.

The objective of this study was to explore inpatients’ opinions on their hospital paper medical records after they had incidental access to them. One hundred inpatients in the C.T. department at St. Michael's Hospital were surveyed: 65 patients who read their records and 35 who did not. Overall, 75.4% of readers found their records easy to understand, and most found their records correct, complete and did not find anything unexpected or distressing. Seventy-nine percent of all respondents would trust the hospital, approximately half would trust Google Health or Microsoft Healthvault and 5.6% would trust Facebook to provide online medical records. Being female, under 60 years and having a higher education predicted readership. Younger patients were also more likely to think that accessing their records would help decrease errors. Patients with higher education were more likely to find their records useful and trusted the hospital to provide online medical records.