[2boyzmama]

Connor's medical records are of course a big jumbled complicated mess. I try to keep up with them, and I keep copies of the big reports and test results. Recently I realized that I'm losing track of some of it, so I decided to catch up. I called his Pediatrician and asked if I can come in and review his records. I wanted to just sit in a room with his records and read them, making notes (in my own notebook) about things I have questions on, or what specific reports are in there that I don't have, etc.<br><br>
For some reason this confused the Peds office. They at first said that I had to schedule an appt with the dr to go over his records. I said "his records are already two volumes thick, it might take me an hour or more to go over them, I don't want to tie up the dr for that long" (nor do I want to pay a copay!).<br><br>
So the nurse and office manager were going to talk to the dr, then get back to me. No one knew how to handle this apparently odd request. A few days go by and I called them back to find out what they had decided. Turns out they decided to just copy his entire medical record and give that to me so I could read it over myself. I said "What?? Who's going to pay for that? I'm not requesting a copy, I'm not going to pay for a copy. I just want to READ his records. If I need copies of anything, I'll ask specifically and I'll pay for those." The nurse said that they won't charge me *this time*. ??<br><br>
Evidently this is an odd question to ask? Does anyone want to do an experiment? Call up your dr or your child's dr and ask if you can review your records, see what they say. I truly didn't think this was an odd question.

 

[MotherWhimsey]

I believe it's fairly common for pediatricians to give copies of medical records free as long as you're not requesting them over and over. Our hospital would charge me for it, but as long as I get a note from our ped requesting his records they are free to him and he just copies them for me. My doctors office was actually the one that told me they'd get any records for me if I wanted them.<br><br>
I don't have full copies of his medical records and I refuse to carry around a sack full of books, so I take the most pertinant information and put it in his protocol folder. I have his protocol letter first, then anesthesia protocol, then full muscle biospsy report with pictures, then his mtDNA sequencing (this and the biopsy are so that no one has any questions of whether or not he has Mito), then I have an average of 6 months worth of lab results, then an up to date growth chart, and then just random test results or things I have questions about. I only request the record from an appointment if there is something that I have questions about for an out of hospital doctor or think is not right.<br><br>
This drastically cuts down on the amount of paper people have to sort through to find anything. I figure if I just walked in and threw down all his records it would be pointless because wading through all of it to find the pertinent information would be overwhelmingly time consuming.<br><br>
There is just so much pointless tedious information in complete medical records that it's a pain in the butt to go through. Maybe some day I'll get his complete records and read through them but for now I feel like my system is working perfectly well and I don't need to do anything else right now. If I were moving or switching hospitals for whatever reason I'd definitely get them to send a copy for myself to the ped when having them forwarded to whatever city or hospital we ended up going to.

 

[2boyzmama]

Well exactly, I don't really want his entire medical record!! I keep copies of the important stuff, and I can pick and choose what I want to bring with me to individual specialists. I just want to read through his records and see if I am missing anything important!

 

[Hopesmommy]

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<div>Originally Posted by <strong>MotherWhimsey</strong> <a href="/community/forum/post/15374085"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border:0px solid;"></a></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">I believe it's fairly common for pediatricians to give copies of medical records free as long as you're not requesting them over and over. Our hospital would charge me for it, but as long as I get a note from our ped requesting his records they are free to him and he just copies them for me. My doctors office was actually the one that told me they'd get any records for me if I wanted them.<br><br>
I don't have full copies of his medical records and I refuse to carry around a sack full of books, so I take the most pertinant information and put it in his protocol folder. I have his protocol letter first, then anesthesia protocol, then full muscle biospsy report with pictures, then his mtDNA sequencing (this and the biopsy are so that no one has any questions of whether or not he has Mito), then I have an average of 6 months worth of lab results, then an up to date growth chart, and then just random test results or things I have questions about. I only request the record from an appointment if there is something that I have questions about for an out of hospital doctor or think is not right.<br><br>
This drastically cuts down on the amount of paper people have to sort through to find anything. I figure if I just walked in and threw down all his records it would be pointless because wading through all of it to find the pertinent information would be overwhelmingly time consuming.<br><br>
There is just so much pointless tedious information in complete medical records that it's a pain in the butt to go through. Maybe some day I'll get his complete records and read through them but for now I feel like my system is working perfectly well and I don't need to do anything else right now. If I were moving or switching hospitals for whatever reason I'd definitely get them to send a copy for myself to the ped when having them forwarded to whatever city or hospital we ended up going to.</div>
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Wow, I am so doing this after we get our bx back if it's mito.<br><br>
ETA: OP, I think that most people don't have such complex health histories, so they don't even worry about their records.

 

[ASusan]

You are SO lucky they did it for free. My Fam Doc office had some confusion over when/if my son was administered a steriod injection. Some records were on paper; others were in the computer. The person on the phone said he had not received the injection at all, when I knew he had. (I was holding him!)<br><br>
So I asked for his complete record. They had a nurse sit down with me and review the whole file, which was helpful. (DS's medical record isn't as extensive as yours, but we do have allergies/asthma/eczema and 2 specialists.) They then gave me the entire printout and charged me $53.00, along with a HIPPA printout that proved they could charge me for the record. Arugh!<br><br>
At least the doc doesn't push vaxes.

 

[2boyzmama]

So the ped called today to tell me the records were ready. I went to pick them up, and it was a 1/4 inch thick manilla envelope. I said "where';s the rest?" The receptionist said that was everything. I knew it wasn't, I opened the folder and found that it was just copies of the hand-written office visits! I explained to her that I didn't even want copies anyway, I just wanted to sit and read his records. She said "oh, we have parents do that sometimes! Let me just get you a room!"<br><br>
Not 2 minutes later the door opened and the office manager came in and said "you can't be in here unsupervised", so then a nurse came in and sat with me and helped me through the records page by page. There were a few tests and reports that I hadn't read before, and I found a few errors (nothing big, just inconsistencies with dates mostly). I also found that all the records from his home nurse care when he had his PICC line aren't in his records, so I'll request those copies be sent to the ped. But overall, I read what I needed to.<br><br>
Oh, I did see that some of his drs were suspecting problems long before they told me about it, which is kind of frustrating, yet at the same time I guess I understand. Most of his drs have come to realize by now that I'm a very involved member of the team, and spend the time researching issues so I know what's going on, so they're letting me "in" on all the details most of the time. But that sure wasn't true in his first year or so! For example, his very first pediatrician noted several times on his chart "suspected unknown medical condition" even though verbally at the time he was saying to me that he felt that Connor just had some feeding issues. It wasn't until a bit later that he told me he thought something might be going on and started referring me. I also read the pulmonologist said early on "highly suspect chromosomal abnormality, going to consult with colleague off-site" which was after Connor had gone to genetics twice already and they found nothing (they found his deletion at his third visit).<br><br>
So anyway...success!

 

[lightheart]

We keep copies of all office notes from the doctors. Asking for a copy of a specialist office notes be sent to me is one of the first and last things I talk to the doctor about. Even if that doctor's office slips up and don't send their notes to you, as long as they have written on their notes "copy to parents" if you are ever at the primary doctor's and want a copy of that record the primary can make one for you - legally - since it says "copy sent to mom/dad" It's sorta skirting the HIPPA laws because doctor's offices are only allowed to provide copies of their reports, not reports sent to them from other doctor's office. That's probably the reason you were intially only given copies of the handwritten notes by that doctor.<br><br>
Be aware as you move forward in providing/not providing medical records to the school system. It is very difficult to get some things removed!