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Most Doctors Don't Think Patients Need Full Access To Med Records
Lucas123 writes "While electronic medical records (EMR) may contain your health information, most physicians think you should only be able to add information to them, not get access to all of the contents. A survey released this week of 3,700 physicians in eight countries found that only 31% of them believe patients should have full access to their medical record; 65% believe patients should have only limited access. Four percent said patients should have no access at all. The findings were consistent among doctors surveyed in eight countries: Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany, Singapore, Spain and the United States."
I was surprised that in the article and in the linked survey article there was no mention of WHY a doc would want to restrict information.
The easy way around this is to treat a medical records system like an accounting system. You can't delete any record you can only add corrections. Anyone reading the record would be able to see the "erroneous" entries as well as the justification for correcting them.
Notes.
For example:
"Patient responds well to placebos"
"Patient is a looney hypochondriac, but has lots of money. Recommend all possible expensive tests."
"Patient is an addict, faking symptoms in order to get painkillers."
etc.
The problem with limited access and the record keepers determining what is/isn't available is that it creates a strong pressure to hide things that should normally be available for less-than-honest reasons. Just look at all the information our government classifies and the types of things we've seen declassified years later. It's as likely as not that information is being hidden not to protect the patient, but rather to protect the doctor.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Split the record into a "data" section and a private "remarks" section. Patients get unrestricted access to their own data sections, but require a court order to see the remarks. Establish clear rules for what can go in the remarks section: everything else must go into data, and inappropriate use of the remarks section itself counts as a minor form of malpractice.
This should strike an appropriate balance. Patients can still get at the significant stuff, and they have recourse to get the rest if it's truly necessary. Doctors can continue to comment frankly about patients-from-Hell, without having to worry about being embarrassed unless they already have much bigger problems.
Unfortunately, doctors are generally woefully unequipped to treat pain, particularly long-term pain. Plenty of addicts are made by the medical profession, something they don't like to admit.
Posting as AC for obvious reasons but... Yes I would agree that a lot of addicts get their drugs directly from a doctor. It just takes one injury that causes chronic pain and you're often left with two choices in the end: Try and live with the pain, or become an addict. I don't necessarily mean mental addiction, but there is no way to avoid the physical addiction. I was hurt, and was on narcotics for years. They finally were able to perform a procedure that didn't remove the pain, but got it down to the bearable level it was at when I was medicated. I was virtually pain free, even at the lowest dose of my medication. I asked the doctor to take me off completely and we spent months and months weening me off. Within 3 days of taking that last dose, I thought I was dying. It was the most miserable experience in the world. At least, I thought so at the time. It's been almost a year since I've touched the stuff, but the first few weeks were the only time in my life where I ever thought I needed a drug to live. I had to flush my stockpile of medication down the toilet for fear that I would, in my weakness, use it.
Unfortunately for me, the procedure was only a temporary fix. It will help me for 6-24 months. I've also discovered that I still have bad days. Days where I can't get out of bed in the morning due to pain. So, now I find that I am going to have to ask my doctor for a limited supply of meds anyway, just to deal with this occasional issue. I could have gone on long term disability years ago, but I prefer to work. I can't keep a job if I can't get out of bed, however. It's a terrible situation to be in, and I would never wish it upon my greatest enemy. I wouldn't even subject the man who did this to me to this kind of life.