Medical records - how to make changes...

Tefal said:
Why?

Its that to conceal any malpractice/accidents by the doctors in the surgeon?
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Oh course it is.... What other purpose could it serve.

Or maybe to protect insane patients from themselves. Occasionally it might be in the patients best interests not to know certain things about themselves.
 
Energize said:
It is not possible for someone to not understand what a medical record is, the name is self explanatory.

My point was that it is shocking that the data had not been entered into a computer in the first place requiring massive expenditure to do it now.
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How long do you think proper medical recording software has existed in a format that was widespread and easy for staff to use?
Every speciality tends to use its own specific custom sheets for recording notes specific to the queries that need to be made. This makes good sence, and has done so for decades, converting all of this into a system which allows it all to be integrated isn't an easy task.

People in the UK were computer illerate until windows 95, and beyond. I can't believe you find it shocking that notes were not all magically fed into a computer.
 
Energize said:
I'm not talking about 1950 I'm talking post 2000.
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I suppose it could be speed. Just seeing the size and frequency of my wife's notes recently during her pregnancy/childbirth, it takes them far less time to write them up. They can be done by the bed too.
 
Energize said:
I'm not talking about 1950 I'm talking post 2000.
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Okay so post-2000 and now, how much of a difference in cost of investment and upgrading of server farms, workstations, and input devices do you think there would have been?
It would have cost as much if not more then, for less ability than it would cost us now. Data storage, training, widespread usage and abilities, as well as speeds of hardware have improved so much that now storage of such data is a reasonable idea.
Before it would have been impractical gives then resources required to store the information.
 
Hikari Kisugi said:
Oh course it is.... What other purpose could it serve.

Or maybe to protect insane patients from themselves. Occasionally it might be in the patients best interests not to know certain things about themselves.
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I didn't know surgeons regularly worked with the mentally ill. :confused:
 
Energize said:
My point was that it is shocking that the data had not been entered into a computer in the first place requiring massive expenditure to do it now.
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I am dealing with at least 20 Clinical Negligence claims where the patients records go back to at least 1950 so do the maths.
Also staff haven't got the time to leave the bedside to start word processing.
You ought to see the amount of writing that staff do in a childrens ward because some records look like a novel.
Also I doubt there is OCR software that could read the fast poor writing.
I have heard that Doctors will eventually have a machine they speak into and the data will be converted when we eventually go paperless.
 
We request medical records for work all the time. They go into several lever arch files if the patient has a complicated medical history. Everything is recorded, even going in complaining about a sore back.
 
Just a question about something (kind of medical record related); if something is suspected, but never diagnosed, would you have to disclose suspected if asked?
 
dmpoole said:
I am dealing with at least 20 Clinical Negligence claims where the patients records go back to at least 1950 so do the maths.
Also staff haven't got the time to leave the bedside to start word processing.
You ought to see the amount of writing that staff do in a childrens ward because some records look like a novel.
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I am however not asking for records from 1950, nor hospital records, I just got standard GP records.
 
After talking to our Data Protection Manager (who's son is a member here) I can confirm that if the problem is FACT then you can't have it removed from your Medical Records.
You can however ask for the information to be put in a sealed envelope but Health Professionals can ask to see it but they need to go through the Data Protection Manager.
Obviously your new employer could also ask to see it with your permission so you're back at square one.
'Suspected' comments can be removed but the patient needs to go to a Solicitor and prove the comment is untrue.
If a patient has said something (eg My husband was hitting me) then it is fact but the patient can write over the notes saying that they didn't mean it and it was untrue and of course it could be put in a sealed envelope.
So basically the only time you can get something removed is if it is a suspected comment by a Health Professional but you need to go through the process of a Solicitor and maybe a court case.
 
dmpoole said:
After talking to our Data Protection Manager (who's son is a member here) I can confirm that if the problem is FACT then you can't have it removed from your Medical Records.
You can however ask for the information to be put in a sealed envelope but Health Professionals can ask to see it but they need to go through the Data Protection Manager.
Obviously your new employer could also ask to see it with your permission so you're back at square one.
'Suspected' comments can be removed but the patient needs to go to a Solicitor and prove the comment is untrue.
If a patient has said something (eg My husband was hitting me) then it is fact but the patient can write over the notes saying that they didn't mean it and it was untrue and of course it could be put in a sealed envelope.
So basically the only time you can get something removed is if it is a suspected comment by a Health Professional but you need to go through the process of a Solicitor and maybe a court case.
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It's a shame really because this results in people withholding medical information from their doctor, I'm just glad that I didn't mention certain things to my doctor.
 
If the government went in with Google for medical records, do you think I could view them in my gmail account? :)

Could be handy - maybe setup an rss feed to alert me to any changes, put appointments in my calendar.

I mean, what could be the downside?
 
It could be something fairly innocuous although the OP doesn't sound like it, my sisters fiance got rejected, during an application to emmigrate and join the police in Oz (he's a detective here), because of an injury sustained on the job, as far as he's concerned it's fully healed, and doesn't impede him in any way, but because there was a record of it they investigated further in his medical and found excess scar tissue or something. If he'd not had to disclose that injury then it could obviously have made a massive difference to his life.
 
Another thing.
When there is Legislation then it can't be hidden, so for instance if you were to have cancer but didn't want anybody else to know, that couldn't happen.
 
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