'View my chart' on line? Anyone have it
 

As I was reading over the huge stack of discharge teaching my husband was given yesterday one thing it said was that they participate in the View my chart and gave me his number. So I got on the site, put his number in and signed him up. Now I doubt he will ever use it himself but it is very interesting to see the majority of his test results, trends of B/P, weight, all diagnosis and everything. They specifically say up front that not all test results will be available for viewing so I didn't get his cardiac catheterizations. Monday I am going to call my doctors ad see if they participate in the program. It didn't look like this was a local thing.

Our drs office has a sign up /website where we can log in and see our labs, tests, appt info and such, nice and handy, don't have to go looking thru all our papers LOL..

Call me paranoid, but who else has access to those records...intentionally or otherwise?

With love, Erika

I thought the same thing but it's really no different than all the employees in the office having access to your file. They can get all your personal info easily from your file. And there have been a few office workers that I had my doubts about......:rolleyes:.

Seems like everytime I go in there they want me to fill out yet another form with all my personal info on it. I finally told them I wouldn't do it unless something had changed and nothing had. I don't like all those papers flying around the office with my personal info on them.

Well yes, but medical information when it is "on-line" can all too easily get into the wrong hands. It could affect one's insurance, employment, child custody, parental fitness battles in court etc if someone got access to one's records who hadn't been given permission to access them.

For example: What if someone sought help for mental stress/anger management from their doc and that doc entered a comment that indicated a concern that the patient may be suicidal/violent? How would that reflect on that person's child custody rights if their X-spouse or social services got hold of that info...perhaps years later?

We are now required to keep medical records for 16 years by law. I keep my patient's files on paper, although I do have access to their other medical records that are on-line. It is quite interesting to read how much information that is recorded in comments for patients that I know quite well, is questionable or outright incorrect. Yet, that information becomes part of that person's permanent record; and may be taken as fact. Even some of what appears in my own records is incorrect.

What if down the road, the law makers decide that insurance companies, employers, researchers or others have a right to access one's medical records? Would you want your employer and potentially your co-workers, to have access to your entire medical record?

In my province, it came to light last year that a university had been given access to some patient records by our Medical Services Plan as part of a research study without patient's consent. That information, which included the medical records of several thousand patients was stored on discs. Those discs were subsequently stolen from the vehicle of one of the researchers, and were never recovered.

I may be old fashioned, but I still believe that what one discusses with their docs or other medical practitioners should remain confidential, and that confidentiality should be fiercely guarded until it is released by the patient to named individuals.

There is the issue of potential hacking as well.
The whole business of on-line information of this nature being so accessible makes me uneasy.

With love, Erika

My hmo has some of my records on line -- mainly blood work and prescriptions. You can also request a refill or an appointment on line.

I'm usually a bit paranoid about privacy & info being stolen or such from drs or dentist offices..:o

My dentist doesn't even use a computer for basic things the office.:eek:
But many offices don't have much security for the paper files either..
SSI#, birth date, phone, address etc are my main concern..
everything an ID thief would love to have..

My drs website doesn't have notes or personal comments showing, just the basic what the appt was for, treatment any rx, any testing etc.
then the labs & appt time, billing.
You can message them or set up appts..
I think they don't allow the drs confidential comments to be added into the system..if so whoever is typing them up would see those comments also..:(

As far as site hacking, I suppose it would be a similar risk as an actual office break in.. doesn't seem to happen much.

Let's face it, our privacy is shot in this computer age.:eek::eek:

Medical practitioners and hospitals are on a "Health Practitioner's Network" up here, so patients don't have access to the specific patient info. The storage of data is on a "Cloud"...which is a misnomer for a huge data base somewhere.

I think that the "View my chart on line" is a separate service, specifically for patients.

Either way, it seems that a lot of our personal info is "out there". For example, when you go to a retailer and they ask for your postal code, if you provide that and use your credit card or a reward card, a hacker can figure out that you are the Jane Doe from Chicago rather than the Jane doe from Seattle.
From there, they can get your address by using the phone book and that is all they may need to track your purchases, your activities, hack into your wireless, steal your mail, obtain your banking info and/or use that info to obtain credit in your name or steal your identity.

Personally, I don't use reward cards, usually pay by cash or by Pay-pal (from a separate account at a bank that is different from my main one), or by credit card with a low credit limit when purchasing on-line. I also don't participate in social media like Facebook, Twitter and the like.

Super paranoid? Yup :D.
I think that it is very important to guard all of your personal info. :winky:

With love, Erika

My credit card has a very high limit on it. Can I have it reduced? I pay my
cr cd off monthly, when I'm able, so never use my limit. I'd be happy with
a limit of about 3500.00.

Sally , I know my bank (USbank) and the credit union I use have alerts you can set up online on their website.

I have most of my accounts & credit card set @ 40.00 -anything over then it sends me an email.
probably can set it for a text also if you use smart phones or such..

But I'm sure you can call the card issuer and ask about other options if not thru a bank.

I used to use US Bank. My DD worked there. She works at Wells Fargo now,
so I just use my old ck acct at 5th 3rd bank. I will call them, thanks.:hug:

Sally,
You can call the number on the back of your card and they will tell you how to go about reducing your limit.
The security alert for charges over a certain amount is a great thing to have on there as well.

Sorry for hi-jacking the thread with this security stuff.
With love, Erika

I use MyChart, it is nice to send msgs to my Dr & get updates on test results too.

Erika I understand your concerns. As far as I could see there were no identifying hings like insurance or social security numbers on his chart on line. They issued me an identification number that expired in 2 weeks if I didn't use it and then would have to get a new number. There were also a very limited amount of labs on it. His EKGs were not nor were the cardiac caths. No history and physical or progress notes. There was a medicine list, i don't know if he had had any controlled substance medicine if they would be allowed there or not. It did offer the ability to request refills on line and to send messages. I have not done that nor do I think I will. I prefer to hear a persons voice although I hate phone menus and voice mails. I am hoping that if my neuro's office offers it I can have access to my MRIs.

A few months ago I received a letter from a hospital in a city nearby where I had gone for care over a decade ago. Apparently, my medical and personal information, along with several thousand others, which was on microfiche, had been found dumped in a public park! The medical record disposal company had dumped it rather than shredding as they were supposed to do. http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2013/07/12/r...n-dallas-park/

I received a year's subscription to a privacy protection service. So far, so good. I am also very careful to not put my social security number on things.

I think I will take Kitty's advice about not filling out new paperwork each year unless something has changed. If they don't want my $$ money for the appt if I won't fill out the things, then that's fine, too. I think it's time to start "drawing lines in the sand!"

My Chart is a decent feature for me, but I still annoyed that one hospital chain in my region has their portal for "thier" version of My Chart and the other hospital chain in my region has a completely different portal/version -> why can't I have simply have one MyChart account/user ID that shows everything? Proprietary contracts sometimes are more trouble than they are worth...

My family doctor does not use my chart but I have found that if I have our lab work drawn at the hospital we go to that the lab work is on there. So I just need to figure out now how to get my own chart reference number.

Super paranoid? Maybe
Super smart- for sure!

I've been using MyChart for my primary care doctor for some years now. I agree with Sally--privacy is pretty much a thing of the past nowadays, and let's just hope that the wrong people don't get hold of our data.


No personal information is on there for me other than the test results and scheduled appointments that the doctor's office sends me.

I looked at it--it has a photo of me, plus my name, address, and phone number--and that's all it has other than my medical information. There's a link where I can "See who's accessed my medical record." I'm the only one who has been looking into it.

I don't even see a place to put my husbands picture. I wish I could figure out a way to get my own chart. There is an area ro sign up but you have to give you account number or something and I have no idea what that would be. I need to put on my investigative hat on, my pipe and start going!!!! But both of us had our labs done on Friday and his are disgustingly normal. Every one of them except the prostate one

MyChart might work differently for different health care providers but for me, the doctor's office took the photo and put it on there. I was surprised to see it there--and I'd never really seen it before.

Sorry I can't remember how I signed up but it was easy--or I wouldn't have done it.:D

most account sign up sare handled one of two ways:
ask your MD to give you a link and account access (usually a temp password and login name - which you change once you are "live") or

call/email MyChart and ask for a user nae login and password to be emailed to you (look under the "contact us/questions/help" tab/link on the MyChart page)

I called my doctors office today, I have had that on my list to do for days upon days and just forgot. They will assign me a number and I have to go pick it up. But it's right over by where we are eating tomorrow so it will work out fine. I had my lab work done about 3 weeks ago and no one has called me so I assume no news is good news. I am interested to see what my A1c, blood sugar and lipid profile are though. He has taken me off my cholesterol medicine completely and cut my diabetes medicine in half so I would like to check on it. It will just be nice to have that access and be able to print out my own record.
I know my husbands CT scans were on his I hope my MRIs are on it. I know it all depends on what your doctor wants to have on it. I sure would like to have my history, physical and progress notes on it along with each doctors visit note. But those were things that were not on husbands.

don't get your hopes up re: MRI results or scan film - these are rarely available online to patients (yet sometimes the reults are posted)

*I think that most MDs think patients can't interpret the films or would freak out at the report findings LOL