Hi Hope,

This is in response to your very legitimate electronic records complaint. These parodies by ZDoggMD are hilarious and many are accurate IMHO.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB_tSFJsjsw

That is too funny! I hated dragging that stupid computer (we called ours COWS computers on wheels) just to have the batter die and going running to plug it in then search for a new one.

Lol!

The private practices are pushing the computer from exam room to exam room. The bigger teaching hospital has terminals installed in each room.

My records are so very erroneous. Worse than ever. They state I am taking meds I have never taken. It also looks like a computer program takes over to complete reports where a doctor has not finished commenting upon a part of an exam, because it was never done. The reports go on and on..."the patient denies a, b, c, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y and z." None of these were ever discussed and if they were, these reports would be the opposite of what is reported. It's shocking.

I had called my doctor's office to see why I had received a copy of a specific and a very erroneous office visit note, when I don't usually receive them in this manner. The answer? Oh, we have to show an annual physical and we had to do a few things to make your last visit fit the criteria for an annual physical. If you have concerns about misinformation in the note, bring it to the doctor's attention at your next visit, six months from now. What about the erroneous info being read by all the various specialists in the meantime?(The appointment was an ER follow-up chat. No physical, at all.)

These computer systems/programs are used, sometimes, to be sure everything is meeting a regulation or a requirement, when it's a misrepresentation of what did and did not occur in the appointment.

It's disappointing, to say the least.

One of my doctors had left the room for a moment, although the computer screen was on, not closed. He ran back into the room and shut down the screen, telling me that HIPPA law says the screen cannot be left open, even in my own record, unless I give written permission to see my own record.

I am shocked with how many people can now view my record at the hospital. It's odd. The former paper record could have never been seen by so many.

I have on private doctor who keeps a paper record in addition to the electronic record, as he does not trust the electronic records system. He is concerned all records will one day disappear.

Party On!

DejaVu

Oh my! In Canada its become something of a normal practice to have computers in all doctors officers (from the push ones to the installed in the room ones). It makes it easier to transfer doctor's offices and such. All the information is there if you are in an accident, etc.

Though, like Deja said, we too have to have written permission to see our record? Weird, but it can be done none-the-less. I'm lucky to have gotten doctors that read their appointment notes to me, and save them right then and there at the end of the appointment. I will correct the doctor on errors right then, and also remind them of the suggestions they've made, should they forget.

My records are full of errors. I have been listed as a he, having a cardiovascular disease.

Doctors have written that they took the pulses in my feet when they NEVER did. I thought I was crazy to not remember something so significant, but my husband who was with me told me the doctors did not do this.

Long expired prescriptions are listed giving the appearance that I am on tons of meds. I thought I had this fixed, but no-when I had my endo/colonoscopy I was grilled about all the prescriptions.

I am afraid to say much, because what I have said has been taken out of context and IMO makes me sound like a fruitcake.

Hi NurseKris,

Thanks for your post. It is nice to get to see things from the other side of the coin. I, too, worked in the medical field but before a lot of the changes that have recently developed. (And before electronic medical records.) I worked in an acute unit in a hospital, also ICU and CCU.

I totally agree that having test results, labs, imaging, etc. available in an electronic record is beneficial. A list of prior surgical procedures, medications, etc. is also great to have available if accurate and updated.

And being able to read a typed note, instead of the scribble of many doctors is a definite plus, but what I have found is that is NOT always the case. Some docs are now scanning IN their handwritten notes instead of typing them. That loses one of the Biggest Advantages.

Let me expound a little on what perplexes me about the electronic medical record.

Two of my eight physicians have offered their patients "access to their medical record" online. However, the amount of access is very limited. I have access to my annual exam ONLY and nothing else from one physician. The other physician uses a program that gives the patient access to medication list, dates of office visits with the physician's notes. When I accessed this information, the note for each and every visit was word for word the same paragraph. It sounded like a "canned" paragraph that was picked from a group of possible paragraphs they use that best fits the visit but still very generic in manner. There was a great deal of missing information that is either not available to the patient to see, OR, the charting is VERY incomplete.

The canned paragraph includes information that is different than my experience during the visits. Tests that were performed in the office were not listed nor the results. The physician told me that my condition had worsened at each visit from the prior visit yet that was NOT included in the notes in the paragraph of which I mentioned.

If this is my "complete" medical record, it is VERY misleading and missing vital information. If it is not, then why are parts of the medical record being hidden from the patient? What parts will be shared with other medical personnel if necessary? The part I can view or the entire record?

To bring in a 3rd situation, a third doctor just moved his office practice into the local hospital. He uses an electronic medical record but does not offer access to patients. I have been seeing this physician for several years and have a procedure performed by him several times a year. I got a call from the hospital the day before my scheduled procedure asking for my insurance information. Where is the advantage of the electronic medical record in that? My doctor has that information in my record. The hospital obviously knew of the upcoming procedure, and all my other information, so why did I have to provide my insurance information separately?

From the information I have "SEEN" in my so-called medical record, it is not only erroneous but incomplete and I would sincerely hope that another physician would not rely upon it.

I do agree with some of the points you have made but the flip side is not a positive in my opinion.

Dear DejaVu,

Thanks so much for your post. I have known my PCP for 35 years. Since he started using an electronic medical record, I feel like I am ignored. I sit on the exam table and he interacts with the computer, NOT me. He is so busy going through all the different screens, just checking off this and that, that I might as well not even be there. Oh, eventually, he finally leaves the computer and does an exam, but he appears to be much more interested in whatever is on that darn computer than what is wrong with ME.

This is so out of character for this physician. I have known him way too long. This has changed him so much and how he practices medicine. Even if he is the same in his head, the perception is that I am being ignored. I don't appreciate sitting there looking at his back while he is busy looking at a computer screen.

Even the demographics change when they hit the wrong box on the screen. Females become males and vice versa by the slip of the mouse. Widows become divorced.

The only thing that they seem to enter correctly is my weight and I wish they would hit a lower number for the middle digit. Why can't they make a mistake where I would appreciate it?

Dear BioBased,

I know exactly what you mean about things being charted as done that were NOT done.

We are there and we are not forgetting what has been done, or NOT done.

Types & Erases... Types again and Erases... Types again.. and ahhhh errrr ERASES... *GULP.... (RUNS And Hides) Just looks at the ending question and stares from a galaxy far far away!