Experts: Use patients to reduce errors in electronic records
Well, here’s a revelation that makes it worthwhile to get up in the morning.
(Yes, I know. Sarcasm does not work well on the internet. But I cannot resist.)
It took a federal grant and a webinar to bring this to the health system’s attention? They could have asked any patient who has ever looked at these records. Only exception I’ve encountered is “My Chart” at Cleveland Clinic where the records are shown to patients as they (the records) are created.
Our experience there shows that careful record-keeping is possible.
But not usual in most places I have visited. Which is why I am still hand-carrying medical reports from one facility to another. And why I keep a paper file of medical records at home, obtaining them from each medical facility as I go, so I know they are correct.
Most recent experience involved a bone density test with a dumbed-down report “that our doctors asked for” which could be understood by a kindergartner and was of no use whatsoever.
Had I authorized transmittal of that report to a specialist without seeing what was in it, I would have been embarrassed for the facility that produced it and the doctor who supposedly asked for it in that form.
It took footwork, up and down stairs between two offices before I was able to extract the usual report.
No wonder patients get crabby and wear sneakers when dealing with health care.