Now, this might look a bit like medical worry warting to the somewhat more complacent board members (says she, euphamistically) … but I suggest ignoring such “weighty” opinions until you can be confident this story of mine doesn’t apply to you.
For anyone in the dark about what a patient portal might contain, in addition to the track record of test results, medical and social history etc, there is a part where any clinically relevant diagnoses are listed together with the representative ICD codes. I’ve posted a few times over the past years (on this board and others) that it’s a good idea to check that those diagnoses listed actually do comport with what you believe…or know for a fact…pertains to you. Regardless of how much you trust your doctor… or how little you care about test results.
Reason being that inaccurate diagnoses can and do find their way onto a medical record (for a variety of reasons that I could…but won’t…bother with right now)
It happened to me and my husband and it was pure chance I spotted it. It took some time to fix but this example of worry warting had a potential for big financial as well a medical consequences…so it was an attention grabber for me in more ways than one.
Reason for mentioning it right now is that, in the process of checking up on one aspect of my past medical history (at my worry warting request) I got dh to check on the super duper doctor’s version of EPIC (the emr system used by most hospital networks in these parts) Imagine my surprise when in my social history an entry stating that I have been intermittently homeless and “at risk”. Manifestly, anyone I interact with isn’t likely to to accept that at face value, but I don’t find it too hard to believe that parsimonious insurance companies could glom onto this tidbit and use it to my disadvantage. If I hadn’t struggled to get the diagnosis of “multiple TIAs” removed from our rap sheet it would probably be costing both dh and me serious $$$$bucks by now.
P.S…I’m going to make a point of mentioning this at every single doctor’s visit coming up. Just to concentrate the mind on not taking the short cuts on data entry to keep EPIC moving along. I’ll be watching!
I found the dodgy stuff on my primary care patient portal. They don’t use EPIC so the layout is different on their system. Doesn’t actually even communicate with EPIC.
In My Chart, find the drop down menu then scroll down to my record and medical history is under that heading. This version corresponds with my primary care doc’s patient portal in content…now.
I’m nagging my husband to find out exactly how/why/when this nonsensical item appeared in my social history (can’t find that on my patient version) Most likely explanation is someone was taking the easy way out by “checking a box…any box” to move on to the next screen in a timely fashion.
When electronic medical records came to my hospital, it was a plus/minus situation. Plus, didn’t have to waste time trying to decipher some doctor’s hand writing. Minus, one fat finger keystroke and a 5 becomes 6 or inadvertent mouse click adds/substracts a diagnosis.
My personal peeve, scrolling through several sections/pages of checked “no boxes” instead of having a pertinent positive list.
One thing about these EMR systems is they seem to breed a cavalier attitude to accuracy of patient record keeping…along with a cut and paste thought process. Granted, dentistry escapes the worst…primarily because dental insurance is easy to navigate …one procedure code for one procedure and no modifiers, add ons, ifs ands or buts regarding complexity etc.
The next appointment after I discovered the alleged TIAs on our medical history, I asked the PA at what was a follow up visit if she could confirm that the inaccurate entries had been removed (they had) She made the mistake of saying “These things happen” (manifestly!!)…and then addressing my husband with a “You know how it is” ( the little wife obviously isn’t One Of Us) He might well have been about to agree with her but I put a stop to that malarkey PDQ…pointing out that a patient’s chart is a medico legal document and it protects both patient and provider so it’s a good idea to keep it accurate. I also went so far as to point out that, regardless of the reasons TIAs were added to our rap sheets by whichever party was responsible, the practical results for us would’ve been dramatically higher premiums for any insurance policy that required our medical history report…Medicare supplemental for but one example.
I am not a demanding person, but I was quite riled up, I can tell you. Srsly…dont pith on my leg and try to tell me it’s raining!. On the way home, dh started to suggest I didn’t need to rip her a new one. “DON’T GO THERE” sez I. He was wise enough to comply.