Medical records and changing surgeons

[GenJones]

I am going to change surgeons and, since I've been working on all of the requirements for my insurance for the past six months, I want to be able to take all the medical records I've been amassing to the meeting with my new surgeon. My question is: how do I go about getting a copy of all those tests from my former surgeon's office? It seems like telling them I'm switching surgeons and need a copy of everything in my file would not be taken well. Do I have a right to all the information in my file? Can they withhold all those tests from me? Does anyone know the "etiquette" (for lack of a better term) of changing surgeons? I know it's late in the game - my surgery is scheduled for 12/26 - but my last meeting with my surgeon was disturbing and I've decided that the new surgeon would be a better fit for me. I'm just kind of at a loss as to how to get all my records from one bariatric program to another.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[southernlady]

Have your new surgeon request all records for continuity of care.

You might want to include the medical facilities where any preop type testing was done. In the US, you have a right to transfer your care. And a right to your own records. There may be a copying fee if you get them but typically no copying fee if transferred to a medical professional.

 

[Larra]

It's ok. You aren't the first patient to change surgeons and you won't be the last, and they have a month to schedule someone else in your spot. Just be polite as usual and there should not be a problem.

 

[k9ophile]

Are patients entitled to their medical records?
HIPAA gives patients the right to get copies of all of their medical records. Patients also have the right to view -- usually at the medical provider's offices -- their original medical records. HIPAA does allow health care providers to withhold certain types of medical records, including: psychotherapy notes.

Sorry I don't have a reference. Try Southern Lady's and Larra's advice. If (and only if) you have problems, throw the acronym "HIPAA" around. Failure by a provider to release records is punishable by fines and/or jail. Records are usually provided to another provider at no cost as a professional courtesy.

 

[GenJones]

Thanks so much for all of your suggestions!

 

[hilary1617]

I request all records all the time, for continuity of care and for my files. After all, once it saved my life. It could save yours.

(Resident forgot to mention a pesky pancreatic tumor on a radiologist's report from a CT scan taken for another reason - found out I had cancer 6 months later by reading through my own records).

 

[GenJones]

(Resident forgot to mention a pesky pancreatic tumor on a radiologist's report from a CT scan taken for another reason - found out I had cancer 6 months later by reading through my own records).

Yikes! I'm so glad you read them. Ok, that gives me some ammunition.

 

[southernlady]

Doctors notes aren’t usually part of the medical records you, as a patient, can get. But those aren’t what you need anyway.

In all my transfers of records for continuity of care, I’ve only had one includes his notes in the file.

 

[JackieOnLine]

sounds like you mad a good decision!
I hope you can get all the info you need without a problem, go get em!

 

[DianaCox]

Why not ask specifically for all of the doctor's notes as well?

 

[bearmom]

I changed surgeons before my DS, and picked them up myself because I was going out of the country and wanted to make sure they made it. If you aren't pinched on time, have them transfer them directly, but like mentioned above, it's a good idea to have copies for yourself.

I expected some resistance, mainly because I'd had troubles getting records transferred in the past for little stuff like allergy tests, but it was no problem at all.

 

[southernlady]

Why not ask specifically for all of the doctor's notes as well?

You can but I'm not sure if their notes are part of a legal request for record.

 

[k9ophile]

You can but I'm not sure if their notes are part of a legal request for record.

From my 32 years in medical records, only *sensitive* documents like psychiatry, STDs, or HIV were withheld. Generally speaking you can get anything and/or everything. However, in my job of reading records and assigning ICD-9-CM codes, the last thing I read was progress notes. They are 98% useless. The H&P, discharge summary, operative reports, and diagnostics such as lab reports or diagnostic imaging were often enough to do my job. Progress notes are essentially *short hand* for the physician in that they remind him/her, but don't say much for a covering physician or a consultant. If I were paying for copies of my records, I would just want I've marked in red.

One could get the progress notes, but why spend the $$ for something practically meaningless?

 

[Spiky Bugger]

Here's a true story, feel free to use it:

In the late 1990s, Friendly Hills Medical Group in Whittier, California, filed for bankruptcy. (You can google it.) When they did, every asset they had, INCLUDING COMPUTERS, FILE CABINETS AND ALL INFO STORED INSIDE, was placed under lock and key pending discharge of the bankruptcy. Surgeries were cancelled, ER staff couldn't get info on patients, and people in the middle of something--like chemo or a pregnancy--had NO records.

(I was not a patient there, but I did/do know one of the plaintiffs that won a huge malpractice suit that might have aided their financial demise.) Anyway, at that time, one of my doctors told me to ALWAYS get a copy of everything at every visit...so (mostly) I do that.

You can, too. From every doctor.

 

[JackieOnLine]

lordy, who thinks stuff like that can happen?