Medical Records | Arthritis Information
The following is a copy and paste of a recent message I remembered on the RA board contributed by maryblooms- thought you may find it informative.
Hello all,
I am new here, diagnosed with RA last June. I have
read many of the posts and am appreciative of all the insight,
encouragement and help. I want to "give back" and share some of my
knowledge regarding your health information. I am college instructor
and have worked as a health data analyst and a director of Medical
Records in hospitals. I hope some of the basics (at least in the US)
can help you.
- You own any health information about yourself
- The facility or the physician owns the actual chart (or other storage media)
- Any information that is to be used for your treatment or to pay for your care is required to be sent on at no charge
- You
can be charged if you request copies for yourself (but if you ask at
the time of the visit, many offices and hospitals won't)
- I highly recommend you start your own health record that you keep with you or available via the web
- I
am posting a link from the American Health Information Management
Association (AHIMA) that give excellent advice on how to do it.
- There are even FREE internet tools you can use to begin
I
use a password protected web based medication list that I can access
from anywhere I can use the web. I can update my med list, add food
and drug allergies and more. Great for the numberous doctor, dentist
etc. visits we make.
Many medical decisions are based on the
information in your records. Doctors rarely call each other, just
review the notes. I hope this helps
Mary B. Registered Health Information Technician and Certified Coding Specialist
http://www.myphr.com/your_record/index.asp
Hope that's helpful for you. There are other forms also available on the net, that you can just fill in and print out & save to your own computer.
Thanks Jeanne, It's good to know that. I am very interested in taking advantage of that.
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