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.......

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 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...