Medical Records - How they can affect you

[justathinker]

What is the name of your state? WI

Just an opinion & a question :-)

HIPAA offers protection to the patient and where their records go. This also allows patients to read over their own doctor reports and dispute inaccuracies in conversations with their doctors, to either be edited, removed, or submitted to the record as a dispute.

Most people are semi-aware of what their rights are under the HIPAA, many are only aware of this in a narrow sense. I always thought that it just protected me from having my records accessible to anyone without my written auth. I had no idea that there was room for review or ever questionable content that I should review.

In a legal case where a patient authorizes access of their medical records to an Attny on the opposing side without having ever seen these records themselves, not having any reason to believe there are any inaccuracies, or overstatements made by the doctor, or even a doctor reading into something that was said during a visit, gives this other party a wealth of information to build a case against you on, even when some of the information is incorrect.

Granted, not all of the incorrect information I have found in my papers even pertains to my case, and the inaccuracies are a bit petty, but there are some instances where the doctor made a note of something that was not expressed to the patient during the visit in the manner it was written in the records.

Doctors are very busy. Whose to say that all of their notes are recorded in full the very instant after they see the patient before going in and seeing another patient.

I have my own opinion on doctors records.

Many may disagree, but I think that this is very important as a doctors notes can be used to form a legal case against a person, regardless of inadvertantly missed information, or inaccurate information. They have the final words on that visit. This is not right.

I feel that a doctors notes on a patient, should, to an extent be like a contract. I think that when a doctor sees a patient, that patient should be sent documentation with a bill that they have to sign which states they have read the doctors information in their report, or even sign the doctors notes after the visit while at the office, taking care of any misunderstandings the doctor may have, or an inadvertant mistake- these things DO happen. Any ideas, opinions, or information that the doctor feels is unsafe for their patients to have knowledge of, should be written in a seperate report, this way showing that this information was either not discussed with the patient or was an opinion of the doctor.

I understand doctors are too busy to do this or that, or have too much stuff on their plate, but the patients are the ones who have to deal with any aftermath that may result from a misstatement or otherwise, whether it is in trying to obtain health insurance, or in a legal matter. Whatever the case, it is important.

We just trust that what goes into a doctor's notes is what should be there, and this is not to say that there is a devious nature behind why there is an inaccuracy in a medical report, doctors are very busy.

Because I was not aware of a couple of things on my report, I have lost this opportunity to go over my reports for accuracy before it had come to this matter I am dealing with.
This is my own problem, and something that I will just have to explain, but anyone who does read this, the importance of knowing what your doctor's write regarding your visit in your reports could possibly come to haunt you - if nothing else, I could have disputed the way this was written and it would have been documented as patient dispute in wording.

Please understand, I am not trying to say that you should try to get rid of the bad stuff, I know this may be how it sounds, and noone knows me, so as far as anyone is concerned, this could be a devious nature on my end.
I can only speak for myself when I said this visit did not happen in the nature stated, and in my situation I was enquiring about a sty on my eye. Noone else will ever know that, my doctor possibly wouldn't even remember that visit. It's all very petty to be quite honest, but nonetheless, something that is being pulled out on me.
None of this deals with anything in the psychiatric end, just physician records, so I had no reason to believe that anything more or less that what was gone over would be inaccurate.

I would never have known any of these things had they not been thrown in my face over this issue. I had never had any reason to request my records, I thought. I am healthy as a horse, and never thought a misstatement in my records would ever happen. Naivity on my part. It was simply stated incorrectly making it look as though I was distraught over something and my doctor stated more than was ever actually stated. This is how the records came across to me anyhow.

I guess I do have a question to tack along here-

Is anyone aware of any case files from the past that could help in this matter that would cover medical records and inaccuracies contained?

I would really appreciate any knowledge and help on this subject.

Thank you