Question of the Week: Can Electronic Medical Records Simplify Your Life?

Hi Raven, glad you could join us!!  I agree that the system, as it is, is in a mess in most cases.  I can't tell you how many times medical records didn't arrive to other Dr's before my next appt.  I usually get all my lab, and other tests picked up from the prescribing Dr. but some treat you like you are asking for the MOON!!  I've also had to pay for a years worth of lab test, which I don't mind, but these test our our personal property and we shouldn't have to deal with the "put upon" feeling you get from the Dr and nurses.  I constantly hear: "I sent all your records to your Osteo doc" and when I call or arrive they aren't ever there, so I've taken it upon my self to pick them all up personally so I can hand deliver them.

If I had one of these tracking programs I could take all the test I've had done, input it into the various programs and have it avaliable on my cell phone, flash/thumb drive which I can carry on my key chain and all they have to do is plug the removable device into the Drs computer and can literally get my entire file from many different Drs I have.

So I'm at the point of finding the easiest one to use and one with good features and hope our members have some excellent ideas.  You can also use these flash drives while being transported in an ambulance and it will copy all that you have on it, you just need to keep it updated.  Since we really need to cut cost of health care this would be a tremendous solution and great and accurate time-saver, that will provide all the info any one needs.

Let us know if you find any that you particularly like, and Good Luck...

Hi Priya, thanks for joining us once again and for your kind words.  Good news... you wouldn't need an Internet connection to use the flash drive I was talking about.  You can store medical info on it by uploading it from your computer to the drive.  Since the drive is portable you'd just take it to the Dr.'s office and plug it into their computer.

You may not be able to store all your info on it, depending on the memory size, but you still could get quite a bit of info on it.  If you are using on-line storage, then the Dr.'s office could get the remaining info from there which would require and Internet connection.

You'd be surprised how many Dr.'s still have dial-up so the speed of the connection wouldn't matter that much. 

I think the main thing to consider is it's ability to put all your info in multiple places in electronic form so you don't have to deal with hard copies.  I also like the idea of tracking results and being able to turn the results into charts, like they show at Health Tracker.

Take Care...

Dear Pam,

Many thanks for clarifying the situation! Now I know fully what you mean! However in India things are very different-- and the receptionists who receive patients are the ones who sit with computers on their desks. The doctors dont have time for this and never have computers in their consultation chambers.

And, knowing the receptionists in India as I do, if I ever so much as came close to their computers just to "touch" it they will throw a tantrum, and you can imagine what else they will throw, probably me, out of their office, if I tried to plug in a "device" into their computers. It may create such a row that security men will run back and forth to check whether I was there to "steal" vital data on their computer etc., etc.,with much pushing and pulling and harsh words, and a ban on entering the doctor's clinic again!! It would create a riot or a pandemonium if I tried this in a hospital!

The only time it would work would be if the receptionist were my personal friend or relative-- and even then he, or she, would be too scared to "tamper" with their computer by introducing someone else's drive, which could carry viruses etc!! I suppose the threat of contamination by viruses would deter most doctors here from allowing hard drives into their computers by others. And of course they wont have the time to scan out and remove viruses that may be present in the hard drive! I suppose that would be a problem in the US as well. Even if we scanned our drives with our anti virus software, others would still wish to scan it with their own anti-virus software, not trusting ours nor taking our word for it!

But all the same the idea and the suggestion are brilliant! Thanks a lot for the information!!

With every good wish,

Yours,

Priya

Hi Priya, I couldn't help it but your story sounded so funny when I pictured the trouble you'd have trying to place a flash drive into a Dr's or nurses computer.    Don't want you to get arrested!!

The flash drive I have came with antiviral software, so the data should be protected somewhat from viruses, plus I know my computer is clean since I scan it everyday.  But you're right, people are very protective of there possessions and this wouldn't work unless they agreed to it. I would never recommend trying to insert that drive yourself; you'd have to have the owner of the computer do it and they would have to agree.  I guess you'll have to stick to transferring files via the Internet if you ever need to get records from one Dr. to another, and can't get the Drs to do it sucessfully.  There's also the option of printing all you might save on that drive which might seem more safe to some.

I'm mainly interested in getting organized and having all my records in one place where I can access them or print them when I need to take old records from my home to a new Dr. or a current one who wants to see a particular test.  Some of these programs tell you that you can carry it around (the drive) and use it in emergency situations, like you'd run into at a hospital, but I've never tried it and don't know how it would work.

Anyway I'm so glad you could join us and it's good talking to you.  I hope all your obstacles go away some day, it sounds so maddening to me to deal with all that.

Take Care...

Hi Priya and Raven, I just wanted to mention that I'm going to take my flash drive to the Drs office and see what happens.  I'll have to give them notice and explain what I'm doing first, and will let you all know what happens.

In the past I've asked for all my labs, and test results for the last 2 years and they gave them to me, but they had to take the chart apart and run all those pages through a copier.  At least doing it with a flash drive the Drs office wouldn't be spending any money on ink or paper and it sure would be much faster, so we'll see what happens and I'll report back to all of you.

In the US we have a legal right to copies of our records, and the Dr. can charge a fee if they so choose, but doing it this way would surely simplifiy things.  Whenever I see a new Dr. they want a ton of records and usually call the Dr they are requesting them from, and sometimes they get them, but most times they don't and then I'm stuck at an appointment without the really necessary paperwork. However, the office is usually very far away from the originating source of records, so I can't just run across the street and get them in person, so I have to make another appointment after I get all the records in person.  Some Drs won't see you if you don't have these records, and x-rays and MRI's are another story altogether.  For those you have to go pick up the CD for the test and hand deliver it, but I'm used to doing that and don't mind it.

Dear Pam,

Thanks for your sympathetic reply. Yes, things are "awkward" here, to use a typical British understatement. Regardless of what we do--the doctors and nurses here are so contemptuous of the patients' needs that they wont even look at anything we send them by e mail -- but will be told curtly "Come down personally and show your records to the doctor! We dont reply to e mails!"

O Pam, you cannot even begin to imagine how bad things are medically in this country. In the premier medical institute here, which is supposed to cater free to the poor -- I have seen corpses covered in white sheets outside general wards where the staff has just thrown them so that their relatives can come and pick them up. What is astonishing is the staggering inhumanity of the medical profession, government or private to the patients. 

I believe this has something to do with the psychology that permeates the minds of tyrants. Anyone who has any power over another becomes bossy and tyrannical and rude and callous. Here the doctors feel that they have the power of life and death in their hands and their patients and their relatives cringe before them out of sheer fright.

It is only when someone dies due to this callous behaviour that there is an uproar, and at times hospitals and doctors clinics get stormed by the dead person's relatives, who even beat up the doctors -- resulting in a general hospital strike, where for days the hospital remains closed while the patients suffer endlessly in long queues, or lie outside on the ground or the street waiting for the hospital to open again.

But it is a sad commentary of what power of any kind can do to people -- be they tinpot dictators or doctors!

How different the situation is in the US with good souls like yourself simply helping people for the sake of the goodness it propagates. I suppose people in the US who ever complain of medical facilities there should just compare their own situation with what goes on here, and thank God for everything He has given them.

Thanks and Good luck with the G Drive!!

Yours,

Priya

Hi Priya, it breaks my heart to hear of such atrocities, within your medical system.  In the US, we keep hearing about the wonderfully inexpensive, top-notch medical care that can be had in India.  Is this disparity due to the type of treatment one can get at say a private facility for those with good insurance compared to other hospitals that treat those without insurance or poor insurance?  What I'm getting at is there an enormous difference between the quality of care, one can get at a private facility compared to a government hospital.

We're getting off topic, but I'm so upset by your description of health care that it makes me ill, then I run across an article like this, which says something completely different and wondered what makes these two entities so dissimilar? Maybe you could shed some light?

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/india/090724/medical-outsourcing-india?page=0,0

It seems like health care is in trouble everywhere.  Sometimes getting copies of your lab reports depends on the mood of the staff at your doc's office and nothing to do with policy of the doc.  One thing about getting your reports on a flash drive and then opening them on your computer would mean you have to have the right software installed in your computer.  This could really complicate things.  Not everyone has compatible software.  

Hi Raven, I agree totally!!  We are looking at major changes in insurance/health care and I hope for all our sakes a solution is reached by the current administration, especially for those without insurance.

I was looking at some of the records I have and it looks like the Dr. reports, and surgical reports are created in some word processing program.  The labs may be using something different since I can't really tell what type of program created it.  So this may be a problem, which I hope to resolve.

The CDs I pick up at hospital or imaging centers, in my area, now all have a program loaded on the CD that installs on your computer before you can open it.  Once it's installed you can view the MRIs, or CT scans in digital format, but it looks just like it would if you were looking at the actual films which most centers aren't using anymore.  Because it costs so much to store all these films, due to size etc., they now use a digital file instead (CD for convenience) and it's real easy to look at the CD before you give it to the Dr.  I just load it into the CD drive and the installation starts, then once it's complete--in a minute or two--you're able to view the images, radiologist notes, plus it has many other features I wouldn't use since I don't want to make markups of any kind on the CD.  I should have saved some of them to see if the installed program saves along with the imaging file.  I think I'll try that with the next one since I have to pick these up so often and then transport to another Dr. around 60 miles away.

Your right about how each Dr.'s office handles this, because I've run into some who are happy to comply and some who you have to haggle with to get it.  Once I mention my rights under the HIPPA act they usually just give it to me.

A tip for getting these records from those who don't want to take the time, is to handle all this in a very nice manner and never yell if you are dealing with someone who doesn't want to do it.  As long as they see you're not going away, until you get it, but maintaining a polite attitude through the entire process we shouldn't have a problem.  Throwing your weight around or yelling never works, or at least not for me, but that's my personality anyway I won't argue with someone, for something like this, but I will be persistent.

Remember to pick your battles carefully, and this type of request doesn't require a battle to get results.

I wonder how the on-line storage companies handle uploading various file types?  They must have a solution to this since part of the ad says you can get all files this way but you'd have to store on-line and then download to your computer when you want them to be accessible in two places or more.

The Government/Drs/Hospitals are moving in this direction anyway, to save time and money, so I'm sure they've thought through all these different issues.  I would just like to hear from those who've tried them (storage/tracking programs) along with all of you with your great ideas, so we can share our experiences, to make it a bit easier to choose the best most efficient option or program.

Thanks again Raven for you great insight and for continuing to join our discussion, your ideas and everyone elses are invaluable!!

Dear Pam,

You have raised a very good point. The fact is that these elite hospitals which you refer to are private hospitals which are money making machines and are built like five star hotels, complete with "tourist guides" who bring the passengers from the airport to them.There are ordinary rooms and luxury rooms but no general wards for the poor. The average Indian can scarce even enter these places. There is no such thing as health insurance in India, so most Indians can't afford these elitist hospitals-- and all are obliged to go to the Government Hospitals -- which are much cheaper -- where this negligence and these atrocities take place, and where the vast majority of the poor go, in the millions. India is still a country of contrasts -- where the poor are very poor and the rich very rich, although the poor far outnumber the rich as one can see on any street or road -- thousands of poor folk walking on the streets is a common sight.. and such hospitals cater to them.

The rich and influential can get better care even in the government hospitals if they pull strings with higher ups. And government ministers get treated like kings, with the entire hospital staff in a frenzy to rush the best aid to them. But by and large the stories in the newspapers speak of daily deaths and complaints arising from negligence and callousness. 

These elite hospitals cater to foreigners, government ministers, rich businessmen of India, and movie stars. Even to sneeze in these elite places would cost a fortune for the common man. Of course their charges are comparatively less (rupee compared to the dollar) than the charges for surgery in the US hospitals so you see foreigners coming there. I would not say the same, however for the expertise of the doctors there. I had gone to one such hospital after being diagnosed with a slipped disc and osteopenia -- and the chief orthopedist consultant there told me some exercises, which were completely wrong and with which I could have broken my back. This was further confirmed when two other private orthopedists told me that these exercises could injure my back and were contraindicated in slipped disc cases.

The government allows these elite hospitals because they are a like an industry that brings in a lot of foreign exchange like the tourist department. Sorry it sounds so dismal, but then I am merely speaking from whatever knowledge I have of the subject from my personal observation and the news media. But the one positive thing is --one has a choice of hospitals all over, good or bad. So if a person is sick he will definitely find a place to go anywhere, anytime--the only question is what kind of a place! Which is why the phrase "It is all in the hands of God" is common when folk enter hospitals of whatever kind!!

Yours,

Priya

This is a response to your discussion of the health care system in India and in the US as well as any country.  Americans who are uninsured or underinsured go to India to what you describe as luxury hospitals while Indians get awful health care.  In a way the US is at the moment trying to reform it's health care system which is broken.  47 million Americans have no health insurance and have to pay out of pocket for very expensive health care.  If you are over 65 you get Medicare which is a single payer system which means you select your doctor, but, you have to make a co-payment for every service you get.  You also have to pay for a private insurance premium to defer some of the cost.  I have health insurance through my job and I can pick my doctor within a network of Dr.s who accept what my insurance pays.  I still have to make co payments.  Some people have insurance with very high deductibles, which means that the insurance doesn't cover much.  It's really a big mess.  You never know how good or bad your insurance is until you get really sick.  Then you find out and it can be brutal.  Also, poor children get something called Medicaid until they are 19 years old.  I hope the reform bill passes.  It'll only be a beginning, but we all need to reform our health care systems.  It's terrible that when people are sick and vulnerable they can't get help.

Raven, Priya and community members,

It seems that this problem exists in many places and I just hope we can find a solution to it because too many people are dying, waiting for healthcare treatment approval-like those with terminal or expensive illnesses-and also among those who have no insurance at all. Death from lack of insurance or being underinsured has to be stopped by fixing the system.

I have a friend who loved his insurance until he had to have surgery and then found out how high the deductibles really are and the vast number of things that aren't covered. He thought it was a great insurance, because the monthly premium was really low, but he really didn't have to use it much; then when he had to have surgery and got tons of bills he now thinks the coverage is horrible. You know that saying, "It's great insurance if you never get sick."