Portrait of a Special Needs Child
Between my father the retired m.d., and John, I have been having little conversations about healthcare reform. One of the topics we’ve discussed is patient records. From my experience, everything is very fragmented. John’s argument was that many hospitals have gone to digital filing systems. I argue, however, as great as that is there still exists a barrier between specialists at different locations, the patient, and the pharmacists. In my experience with a special needs child, I have witnessed the fragmentation of communication. There are records here at location “A”, records at location “B”, the doctor at location “C” wants to see the records from “A”, which means that I have to book an appointment for a “month from now” and in the meantime get ahold of the records from “A” to “C”‘s office.
Here’s my analogy: A cop can pull you over, with your little driver’s license number he can pull up your record lickety-split right there on the spot. Oh! Warrant in the record. You’re under arrest.
On the flip side, let’s say you’re on vacation and need to go to the emergency room. It’s Saturday evening, and the ER doctor needs to see your history. But, wait, he can’t pull your history up on a database system like the motorcop, he’s gotta wait till Monday morning at 9:00am when the gal who works in the records office at the hospital in your hometown gets in and goes through the HPPA hoops before faxing or mailing the records.
I’m not saying that it has to be completely 100% run by the government… or that the government, either state or federal is part of this particular argument. Private organization or public organization aside, I believe that there needs to be some centralization of the health care system.
I have an appointment to take my daughter to see the geneticist. She saw him years ago, and he tested her for a few things, but he saw her in an outreach clinic here in town, and the blood work was done at the main hospital here in town. He doesn’t come to the outreach clinic anymore, and in addition to that the records would have been with the clinic here, not with him. Therefore, I am going to go through her records that I’ve kept here at the house and pull up some prior genetic test reports, and other exam reports, just so I can take them with me when I drive to see him at the medical college.
Now, wouldn’t it be a hell of a lot easier if there simply were a database or centralized, regulated (and yes safe for privacy purposes) patient history that the geneticist could pull up and read. Everything there, every note, every MRI, or EEG, or bloodwork?
Instead, I’ve got to hope to hell I’ve got that chromosome test from three years ago, just in an effort to make the most out of my appointment with him tomorrow, instead of him asking to “get a copy of the record” and come back in a month.
Portrait of Olivia on Paper, and this is AFTER I purged unnecessary files
Records need to be part of a centralized database, no doubt about it. Government owned though perhaps not government run. It would be a nice start to universal health care.
yeah, I agree that it definitely doesn’t need to be run by the government… I’ve watched the state try to “handle” things and it’s a mess. I once went into the DHR/DCFS offices to initiate application for disability benefits for Olivia. There was some miscommunication regarding an appointment, and when I showed up for my appointment (for which they’d mailed me a confirmation), the person was not there. the ladies at the front told me that the state was making budgeting cuts and there were fewer staff and consequently turn around time was affected….
Wow, thanks for the insight. I would not have thought about how difficult the system can be. Glad I am getting hints on this before we experience it (a least to a smaller degree).
I hear you. While some hospitals and facilities are transitioning to digital formats, most doctors practices have not. AND, worse yet, the ones that have cannot always “communicate.” Ideally, there will be a format in which all facilities will be able to electronically “talk” to each other, and I will be able to share the information that I’ve created for my son in an online personal health record (thank you HealthVault) with the various physicians whom we see. I get the privacy needs; but I also agree that there is nothing more frustrating than to set aside a half a day to circle around collecting information from various doctors/facilities to take it to another doctor. Why can’t we all have one comprehensive health record? I just don’t know, but it’s a great idea.
oooh yeah, i think i recall hearing about the online service, maybe in the news? however, i think the blurb was targeted towards medicare patients/seniors… would explain why i kinda tuned out… i will look into that option!