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keeping track of medical records - lazydays - 01-14-2013
We have discussed this many times on this forum. Many of us would like to keep track of our doctors appointments, and the results of, using software that is not proprietary. Well lately my doctors office has been handing me a printout on how to access my records via their portal. At the top of each document is a button to download the information in CCD format which stands for Continuity of Care Document. I've barely scratched the surface of researching this but it appears there are many applications that use this standard file format. I found a list here, http://ehr-software.technewsworld.com/d/c/Mac-OS-X .
Perhaps someone else has followed this path before me though. Anyone who can add to this information I would like to hear from you.
Re: keeping track of medical records - Grateful11 - 01-14-2013
Around here the majority of medical facilities seem to be using software called Epic.
I went to the Dr. last week and they gave a sheet on how to register and go online
to get my test results. They yet to be posted but I received a letter Friday of my results.
It appears to me that this contradicts the whole basis of setting up a system where
they're still sending out a paper trail and not posting it ASAP online. My sister works
at Baptist hospital in Winston-Salem, NC and they are now owned by Novant and
they have also switched to the Epic software.
Re: keeping track of medical records - Black - 01-14-2013
Grateful11 wrote:
Around here the majority of medical facilities seem to be using software called Epic.
I went to the Dr. last week and they gave a sheet on how to register and go online
to get my test results. They yet to be posted but I received a letter Friday of my results.
It appears to me that this contradicts the whole basis of setting up a system where
they're still sending out a paper trail and not posting it ASAP online. My sister works
at Baptist hospital in Winston-Salem, NC and they are now owned by Novant and
they have also switched to the Epic software.
One of the facilities I work at is switching to Epic in February. Buzzword "going paperless."
Another tried to go paperless about 2 years ago, but there was a whole slew of things that hadn't considered, so it seems to be stuck in a limbo of paper and electronic records mixed together with sort of random areas of overlap. I have a feeling the system that's switching in February may end up in this same limbo, but it's been aquired by a larger system that's presumably been through this already, so we'll see.
As to the test results mentioned above-- I don't know what kind of test we're talking about, but I can't see how being able to access your own results can be a good thing before your physician or specialist can review them with you. In the orthopedic world it's almost rare for the orthopod to agree with the radiologist's interpretation unless we're talking about an obvious fracture.
Re: keeping track of medical records - modelamac - 01-14-2013
Black-
I would not assume one can see them before the doctor has gone over them with you.
My records from a particular medical organization are online, accessible by me and my doctor's office and his account with the hospital. Each and every record/document available has been discussed with me prior to showing up in my account,
As to formats: Anything I see online gets printed to pdf or gets a screen shot. I don't try to download - no need. Formats have not been a problem for me.
Re: keeping track of medical records - cbelt3 - 01-14-2013
The largest issue I have with our family's medical records is when we get into specialists. Our primary care practice recently changed to a new medical records system. While they are not offering our records online yet, I hope this may happen soon.
But then you have specialists... my wife has.. doctor, rheumatologist, pain management, cardiologist. Everyone has a different system. And NONE of them give us their notes or anything.. just a brief series of verbal instructions that we need to jot down and remember. And my lovely wife is allergic to a number of medications with no common factor.
I keep everything in Evernote, and on thus my iPhone / iPad.
Until the day we can have access to all our medical records online and in a transportable form, I'll continue to do that.
Re: keeping track of medical records - DavidS - 01-14-2013
We have used Epic since 1995 and nationally, we are their largest customer. I'm using it right now, in fact (open in another window).
It's great software, truly the "Cadillac" of EMR suites. There is a fairly robust patient portal. They can access lab results (yes, even before the doctor reviews them), check on referrals, prescriptions, and even send a secure message to the doctor.
Our patient messages get triaged by a nurse first, who often will pend orders and referrals for us to sign. I typically get 15-30 of these per day. Patients can track their lab results and meds back to 1995 (when we rolled out Epic).
Since we are an integrated health system, most of our specialty care also uses the same EMR, which makes things much easier (don't have to decipher handwriting).
That being said, we are far from paperless. We still print out after visit summaries for the patient. We have some paper prescriptions (controlled substances). Some referrals must be printed as well.
Re: keeping track of medical records - Grateful11 - 01-14-2013
My problem is the nurse taking down information doesn't always get it right. I went to a new Primary Care
Dr. last week, I left a privately owned practice due to poor care, this was the first time I've encountered
Epic and when I got home I checked the info they had keyed in and lots of stuff was wrong like dates and
Med amounts and dosages. I guess it's only as good as the person inputting info. I can make changes like
surgery dates and such but I guess I can't do anything until I go back to the Dr. as far as Meds.
Re: keeping track of medical records - lazydays - 01-14-2013
I thought it over this morning and decided not to attempt using a program to read in the CCD information. There are too many providers that are not on board yet so there would be tremendous data entry to do. For now I'm keeping it simple. In my dropbox folder I created a medical folder with subfolders for particular categories such as:
MEDICAL
|_VISITS
|_IMAGING
|_PROCEDURES
|_SURGERIES
|_CORRESPONDENCE
It is easy enough for me to scan the check-out form from the doctor and save it to these folders. I would like to learn to add OCR to those scans though. I have an HP OfficeJet 6100 but I don't know anything about OCR.
Using this method it is easy enough for me to see when I had certain appointments, procedures and images taken. I can use it on any of my mac's or on my ios devices. I think it is very portable also as pdf is not going away anytime soon.
According to the dropbox website the data is encrypted on their end and cannot be viewed. When transmitted to me it is protected by ssl encryption. So I think there is a reasonable level of security in place and I'm not really putting anything sensitive there anyway. For now I think this is a good solution.
Re: keeping track of medical records - lazydays - 01-14-2013
Btw, during this process I started to notice certain trends. I saw what treatments I'm repeating over and over (and are apparently not working), I saw that my current problems started small years ago and grew over time as doctors ignored my complaints, and I saw my bloodwork results and noticed deterioration in certain areas over time. Many things that I think my doctor should have caught a long time ago but did not. I really wish there was a way to have a doctor go over my medical records in a comprehensive fashion, spending real time on it, and come up with a treatment plan. Instead I have four different doctors seeing me for 15 minutes at a time and trying to slap band aids on my symptoms instead of treating me for the underlying cause. Very frustrating. Maybe I am not wealthy enough to see the right kind of doctor!
Re: keeping track of medical records - Buzz - 01-14-2013
lazydays wrote:
Btw, during this process I started to notice certain trends. I saw what treatments I'm repeating over and over (and are apparently not working), I saw that my current problems started small years ago and grew over time as doctors ignored my complaints, and I saw my bloodwork results and noticed deterioration in certain areas over time. Many things that I think my doctor should have caught a long time ago but did not. I really wish there was a way to have a doctor go over my medical records in a comprehensive fashion, spending real time on it, and come up with a treatment plan. Instead I have four different doctors seeing me for 15 minutes at a time and trying to slap band aids on my symptoms instead of treating me for the underlying cause. Very frustrating. Maybe I am not wealthy enough to see the right kind of doctor!
And too [frustratingly] smart for your own good...
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