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The Patient Portal—Help or Hindrance?
Just Want to Talk | Last Active: Feb 17 12:10am | Replies (227)Comment receiving replies
I am glad we have patient portals with access to our records. My career was in the medical field, so I always requested copies of my labs, reports, surgical notes, & kept files. It is our responsibility to advocate for ourselves. I don’t however, think it is good that our reports drop before our physicians have a chance to review them. This leads to a lot of misinformation. The web does not always provide an accurate answer, as getting an accurate answer often requires more knowledge than we have. Also, it seems that the expectation is that your doctor is on call to you. No physicians will stay in the field if they have to be on call to each of their patients, that is an unrealistic expectation. As I read people’s questions about results they have read, (before they talk to their doctor), it’s clear that there are so many misunderstandings, & so much anxiety, due to medical terminology being it’s own language (just as terminology for other professions ~law, scientific, psychiatric~to name a few). The answer to “what does ______ mean” has been “bright, which is normal”… there will always be differential diagnosis in reports, because we live in a litigious country, the wording often tells the professional that it is highly unlikely. The patient never reads that as an option. While we do “pay for these tests” & are “entitled to the results” these egocentric attitudes negatively impact our care. There has to be something in between. I’m sure this will not be a popular opinion. I decided to share it, because it’s not really a discussion if everyone is saying only the popular opinion.
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You raise very valid points and I’ve always believed that patients have to have the respect and discipline to adhere to what the doctor told them their process of communicating results are, including timing. Some doctors now say “they’ll be on your portal, and you’ll hear from me only if anything’s out if the ordinary “. It’s tough if you have to wait 6 months until the next appointment in that case if confused at jargon or numbers, but hopefully the message system in a portal works for questions that gnaw on someone. If a person can’t respect the doctor’s process, perhaps the portal isn’t for them and they should insist up front to be contacted personally when the results come in, good or bad. I am a complicated patient with a lot of monitoring- doctors rarely leave me notes or interpretations of my frequent routine labs and scans. I’m on my own after reading them myself and waiting for next 6 month appointments with them when the repeat tests are due. I have to trust I’ll hear from them sooner if needed.
But things happen. I was in a university hospital, in 2019, had a bad reaction to a med they gave, and they did CT Scan on neck/head; while in there they joyfully reported to us that I did not have a stroke. It was 8 months later that I asked for a copy of that CT report as I was moving to a new state and was collecting medical records. The No-stroke report said there was an abnormal growth in my neck that needed correlation with ultrasound and biopsy. I had to accidentally find this 8 months later?
So mistakes and miscommunication or “well, our department was only looking for a stroke” happen. They didn’t even send that scan to my PCP back then. So at least I found it, followed up with those tests and of course it was cancer; I’ve been treated and now in the lifetime of monitoring, but hey, cancer is sooo much about early detection and that ball was dropped. The jargon in that scan was simple and didn’t need googling. I think these mistakes are rare, but what’s wrong now with the extra preventative measure of having patients read their reports, especially since they’re the major stockholder in them? It can only be a win-win in helping each other catch oversights. Most portal questions go through admins, not to the doctors directly until screened and deemed to need his response. I know the admins are busy too, but sometimes patients have very valid reasons to need understanding of the reports and can’t wait another 6 months for their 10 minute visit with them. But if the doctor up front said give him/her a week for results, then we must be forced to hold our reactions and questions of the results we receive in advance until then.