I should note that my post refers to medical care within and outside of the Mayo.

@greatdayinmt67 Great observation!

It’s a tough one. I “discovered” my tumor in a report I happened across 8 months after a CT scan, in which a medical university erroneously failed to inform me or my PCP. By the time I found it, I was moving to a new state, so the further testing and biopsy to check for cancer was done by a different medical organization. Patient portals had improved more by then, and a patient could see that a report was complete, but couldn’t read it until the doctor had electronically reviewed it and released it to the patient. For 4 agonizing days I logged into my portal at least 20 times a day to see if the report had its status changed to “released for patient review”. I wasted a lot of time obsessed and waiting during those 4 days that finally ended with the phone call from the doctor, and I guess the results were what I had told myself the wait must have been about - Cancer. The result would have been the same if I had read it myself 4 days earlier, just a different frame of mind and mode I would have been in knowing versus wondering. But if it would have been NOT CANCER, I wouldn’t have been stressed with wonder those four days. Now with the new law, the results are directly available to me, so I jump right into the electronic reports the same afternoon and happily have read “no cancer” for 2 years now before the doctors make me wait until a follow up call or visit to hear it. The great news in all of this is that it’s a choice; no one is forced to enroll in the patient portals or click on reports. But because of that hospital error in omitting to share a vital result of a scan with me, I choose to be a better partner and advocate in my health to help their busy workloads so my results aren’t overlooked again.

That is strange. At Mayo I always have an appointment after a CT scan or MRI to go over the results. Typically it is the same day but occasionally it is the next day. The law says the results have to be available to the patient without delay and this is part of the problem that we have been talking about here. Most patients are not able to properly interpret results of radiology scans and can make bad assumptions. The law makes this possible. The health care providers want to give you a proper interpretation but it becomes a scheduling issue. I experienced this myself by reading a radiology report after my chemo and radiation therapy as soon as it was available and making a bad interpretation. I was very worried until I received a proper interpretation from my care team. Now I don't read those reports ahead of time even though it is very tempting. I just bring a printed copy to my appointment and we discuss it. This works great!