In a change, patients can now read the clinical notes written by their physicians

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Health

In a change, patients can now read the clinical notes written by their physicians

By Corey Meador
April 10, 2021 at 9:30 a.m. EDT

Many people trying to gather their health-care data may be all too familiar with calling medical records departments, driving to a clinic to sign a release, and paying a fee for a pile of papers with loads of medical information they don’t understand. ... But this spring, new federal rules went into effect that will allow patients to see the clinic notes physicians write, which advocates say will improve patients’ knowledge of their own health.

{snip}

Catherine DesRoches, executive director of OpenNotes, a research group that promotes sharing clinical notes with patients, calls this a “new world” where shared notes are valuable tools to improve communication between patient and physician while strengthening their relationship.

{snip}

When DesRoches first heard of shared notes, she thought this was going to be useful for only patients who were highly educated and well resourced. But after years of research, her group observed that patients who are traditionally underserved by the health-care system are more likely to report benefits from reading their notes.

“Patients with lower levels of formal education, patients who have limited English proficiency, patients who self-identify as racial or ethnic minorities, they’re more likely to say that reading their doctors notes helps them feel in control of their care, helps them understand their medications, improves their trust in their provider,” she says.

{snip}

Corey Meador is a physician and a Health and Media Fellow at the Georgetown University Department of Family Medicine.

[FalloutShelter]

1. Elaine can finally see her chart.

[Diamond_Dog]

2. I remember once

I was in the hospital for treatment of endometriosis. At the time I was visited by an intern who got called away abruptly to deal with some emergency, and he left my chart right there on the bed, so I picked it up and looked at it. It listed me as 5’5” and 130 lbs. and this guy had written “obese” after that.

[Irish_Dem]

3. For me that would have been grounds to leave the hospital AMA.

[Crunchy Frog]

4. I obtained all of my records from my disastrous ER visit for a kidney stone. It was insane reading.

There were notes to the effect that I appeared to be mentally disabled and likely unable to understand discharge instructions, but that I was under the care of my mother, who would be able to handle them for me. I was apparently not at my best at 3-5 AM, after spending several hours there in agony, and with NO pain management. My mother was there had recently arrived to advocate for me, after I had been unable to get any pain management or any other care, and was being treated worse than an animal.

This judgement about me was made without questioning either myself or my mother.

They also put in my notes that I told them my sons were conceived through "immaculate conception" when I would actually have told them that it was IVF and frozen embryo transfer.

They also got the medications that I was on wrong, in particular an MAOI that had the potential for dangerous or deadly reactions with a number of common medication. Other medications, they got right, but made up the dosages.

Even the discharge instructions were off the wall. I was instructed to contact a particular nurse for some sort of followup, and given her name, phone, and location (hospital and floor). I dutifully called and got her charge nurse who couldn't understand why someone was trying to make an appointment with one of her ordinary floor nurses.

I personally strongly recommend obtaining this information because God only knows what kinds of things they're saying about you, and how completely batshit their overall info about you may be.

Needless to say, it did not improve my level of trust in the providers, and in fact left me with a profound mistrust in both their competence and in their basic human decency. It did not improve my knowledge of my own health.

After that experience, I'd say that I would be far less likely to go to an ER again if I could possibly avoid it.

Anyway, that's my experience.