Doctors in practice today only have time to deal with what you’ve come in for today. They don’t have time to organize your chart in the ideal fashion, so that they can check to see what tests you need for your chronic condition, or what blood tests to order so that your medication is taken safely, or what preventive measures you need to maintain good health.
And don’t think for a moment, “Well, the doctor has everything about me in my chart. I gave him the medical records from the other doctor I was seeing, and he has the lab tests, x-ray reports, and everything for the last ten years.”
Here’s the problem—he has everything, but no time to organize it. It’s just a pile of papers.
And even if your doctor is one of the few that keeps that record truly organized, if you’re seeing more than one doctor, it’s almost certain that you don’t have a complete record of your health information anywhere.
If you don’t take the initiative to organize your information, then no one else will.
But don’t just go typing out a list of things that you think are important about your health. What doctors need is for you to give them your medical information organized in the way that makes it valuable for them to use.
Go to the ”Personal Health Record” link on the sidebar for an online format that will easily help you organize your medical info in the way that doctors like to look at it. Your doctor will be so appreciative when you bring in your printed-out medical information in the exact way he likes to have it organized. And you’ll get a good start on better medical care.
“Missing clinical information has been implicated in injurious adverse events … Such harm could include otherwise avoidable drug interactions or duplications, missed or delayed diagnoses, missed immunizations, unnecessary testing and procedures, and the downstream effects of such events … Other studies have demonstrated that errors related to missing clinical information are common and can adversely affect patients.”a
“Physician groups, hospitals, and other health care organizations operate as silos, often providing care without the benefit of complete information about the patient’s condition, medical history, services provided in other settings, or medications prescribed by other clinicians.”b
This is absolutely true. I’ve actually never expected any one practice –whether it is my general doctor, or a specialist, to know anything about me besides the basics and the information I filled out a few minutes before seeing the doctor.
I understand that our healthcare record holds a tremendous amount of information that is hard to organize. But I also believe that software is solving this problem now, there are many companies out there trying to “connect it” all.
I think that we’ll eventually be able to sit at a Doctors office, and the doctor will be able to review ALL of our history (or the past 3 years or so) in less than 30 seconds. One screen, that tells them all that is relevant about us. Up to the minute information that will help them make better decisions. Its all about interconnectivity and proper communication between the parties involved. We have the technology to do this, we just need to have everyone using it.