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Are hospitals in Mayo Clinic network all connected with my data?
Visiting Mayo Clinic | Last Active: Mar 27 2:21am | Replies (15)Comment receiving replies
I’m a big fan of all the openness, it is a huge help to keeping patients aware and understanding. I’m curios though, does linking different institutions together in our private patient portal also give those institutions the permissions required for record access between each other? I ask because I’m confused as I’m starting to go to different doctors now because of relocation. In advance, I asked if I needed to sign a release form to get previous records, especially scans and labs, sent to them or if there was a fax I could transmit them to. They said they already had them. Two of my specialists for next week’s visit already have my previous records. A visit with a new doctor last week seemed to have a record of every prescription ever filled in the past 8 years, so we had to go through the list to knock off all previous antibiotics, dosage changes, & other 1 time events. I’m a HUGE proponent of simplication, saving trees, and the time we all spend collecting/saving/transmitting/storing medical records, but sometimes I’m not sure where the permissions were given. Maybe state laws are different regarding sharing of medical records, for safety and emergency reasons?
Replies to "I’m a big fan of all the openness, it is a huge help to keeping patients..."
With the implementation of "Obamacare" , medical facilities were required to start inputting patient data into database systems. Not only does this facilitate future tracking of critical patient information, but it allows for incredible data analysis of patient profiles and specific treatments like never before. It is possible to analyze effectiveness of medications easily and also to track patient clinical profiles against various diseases. It opens a whole new world for medicine. And how does any doctor really keep track of a patient when they see so many? They need programs that immediately profile critical information.
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1) I believe the first reason behind the obligation to post test results is to allow the patient to change doctors with greater ease
2) Not sure how the permission works. Obviously, a new doctor should know what your previous situation was and meds you are on - before we used to fill out forms for that - and still do in some places. I have the impression that one needs to be a "patient" of the doctor for the doctor to legally have access to your records. Last year I emailed a Mayo doctor about his paper on alternative Covid treatments, and he made the comment about not having access to my records even though I am a Mayo patient with Mayo doctors-but he was not "my"doctor. I did give him my patient ID and he set up an appointment for me. Mayo classified me as high risk for Covid complications and contacted me for alternative treatments also
3) Yes, I have also had them pull stuff from way back....problem is updating things in a clear way. I had a complicated medical situation last year and it is a real challenge to bring new doctors up to speed. They need to develop better program designs in these databases, and that requires a doctor who understands what is important in medical data working closely with a software programmer. Same problem exists in the business world. Programmer knows how to do it but doesn't understand what final product should be.
4) I suspect the real issue of confidentiality is with insurance companies and employers who do not want to hire employees that could drive up medical insurance costs. Larger employers self insure so they have an interest.