When a doctor sends a patient for an imaging test, it can take hours, days and sometimes weeks for the patient to hear the results from the doctor who ordered the test. That’s nerve-wracking. So why can’t patients get this information sooner, directly from the radiologist? That’s what Dr. Jennifer Kemp, herself a radiologist, wanted….
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Electronic Medical Records Can Frustrate Doctors and Threaten Patients
When it comes to medical malpractice, doctors are concerned about something the rest of us haven’t thought much about -the use of electronic medical records. Writing on Medscape.com, Neil Chesanow, senior editor of the site geared toward health care practitioners, explains how a doctor can be sued if his or her medical records compromise patient….
Continue ReadingWhy Emergency Treatment Can Be a Guessing Game
Emergency department physicians often are accused of ordering too many tests and admitting too many patients to the hospital. But even if medical overuse is a problem, sometimes the circumstances in the ER don’t leave a doctor much choice. One ER doc, Leana Wen, recently blogged on NPR.org about just such a situation, and her….
Continue ReadingGetting Your Own Lab Results Just Got Easier
Empowered patients know how important it is to obtain and read your own test results, which, disturbingly often, ordering doctors forget to pass on. But try to get them directly from the lab itself and you often would run into a roadblock; “No, your right to obtain your own records applies only to your own….
Continue ReadingE-Record Shortcuts Threaten Integrity of Medical Records
Medical records are supposed to be a truthful repository in real time of everything that happened to a patient. Their integrity is vital to high-quality patient care and to the ability of a patient to hold providers accountable in court if things go wrong. So word of widespread abuse of shortcuts allowed by electronic record….
Continue ReadingCopy and Paste Medical Records: A Tempting Shortcut with Perils for Patient Safety
Electronic medical records make it easy — too easy — to document that a doctor or nurse has performed a model examination of a patient. One click, and the empty slots fill in the results of a normal exam from head to toe. But was that thorough exam really done? Copy and paste is another….
Continue ReadingMedical Identity Theft Is a Health Risk
Last year we wrote about how the privacy and security of your medical records are vulnerable, and what happens when those records are stolen and used by someone else pretending to be you. A story earlier this month in the Los Angeles Times explains more about how the illegal use of your medical records threatens….
Continue ReadingMedical Providers Make You Look Sicker on Paper to Increase Profits
Anyone who has ever reviewed, inquired about or disputed an itemized medical charge has been introduced to the arcane world of bill coding. Every procedure, from the administration of an aspirin in the hospital, the use of a surgical sponge or the blood draw for a lab test, is assigned a code number. As reported….
Continue ReadingWe Know More About Medical Error and the Harm It Creates … But Not Enough
Twelve years ago, Helen Haskell’s son died because of a series of medical errors. That sad episode prompted her to found Mothers Against Medical Error (MAME), which offers support and advice for people who share such tragedy. Haskell’s ongoing effort to quantify medical errors and the harm they can cause are detailed in her story….
Continue ReadingLessons from a Trained Patient Advocate
Martha Deed is exactly the person anyone would want as his or her patient advocate. A psychologist and member of the Consumers Union network of patient advocates, she is trained in patient advocacy and has a profound understanding of patient safety issues. Yet when her own chronically ill daughter was subjected to a daunting cross-current….
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