Spiky Bugger
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2014
- Messages
- 6,214
(If you have online access to your labs, print a copy of everything and then ignore most of this.)
Right now, I want to drop kick my sister and my daughter. They both TRUST their doctors' offices to contact them if anything is wrong. Are they crazy? Yes.
The First Reason
The parable...well, here's one woman's inquiry from 15 years ago:
http://articles.latimes.com/2001/feb/24/local/me-29815
If you don't click on links, here's the deal: A medical practice, aka "a business," filed bankruptcy. (I wonder if a friend's $1m+ malpractice case contributed to that.) They had served 300,000 patients. Some of those people needed surgery and their records and lab results were part of that equation. But once the bankruptcy was filed....those items, which were "property" of the practice, were no longer available to the patients. A business they had never heard of OWNED their records and their lab results. They were as much under lock and key as the waiting room chairs. And they had value--they could be sold to the patients--to their new owners. Surgeries were cancelled. Pre-op testing had to be redone. It was a local disaster. At that point, one of my doctors started handing patients a hard copy of the record from each visit. You just never know.
The Second Reason
A real life possibility: You have your routine labs done 2-4 times a year. A few months after the last set, a routine test for a non-lethal situation also reveals a problem you never even considered...an incurable disease you have never thought much about. Oh, my. You're dying? Well then, you need to find a specialist to figure out what is happening...and wait for an appointment...and testing. While you wait, you hit the intewebz and read that people who have that particular incurable disease also have certain results on lab tests...such as, calcium, protein, BUN, creatinine, etc that are out of range.
At that point, would you rather hope that if any if those things had been out if range--or were even "heading" in that direction compared to, say, a year ago--someone at your PCP's office would have called you? Or would you rather have a hard copy of your last labs, in your hand, to check on those items right away?
The Third Reason
After my recent iron infusions, I asked my oncologist-hematolgist's assistant for a copy of the post-infusion labs while I waited for the doctor. Hmmm....no iron results...no ferritin....no TIBC. He arrived and readily admitted, and apologized for, not checking the right box. I needed a second blood draw. And...he knew that I knew that I needed a second blood draw. A "lesser man" might have gone with the CBC and CMP and shrugged off the most important testing until a future appointment, assuming that all that iron must have helped. But a week later, I knew for sure.
I'm just sayin'... All you have to do is say, "Will you please print out a copy of those labs while I'm in seeing Doctor? I need to take a copy home with me."
Right now, I want to drop kick my sister and my daughter. They both TRUST their doctors' offices to contact them if anything is wrong. Are they crazy? Yes.
The First Reason
The parable...well, here's one woman's inquiry from 15 years ago:
http://articles.latimes.com/2001/feb/24/local/me-29815
If you don't click on links, here's the deal: A medical practice, aka "a business," filed bankruptcy. (I wonder if a friend's $1m+ malpractice case contributed to that.) They had served 300,000 patients. Some of those people needed surgery and their records and lab results were part of that equation. But once the bankruptcy was filed....those items, which were "property" of the practice, were no longer available to the patients. A business they had never heard of OWNED their records and their lab results. They were as much under lock and key as the waiting room chairs. And they had value--they could be sold to the patients--to their new owners. Surgeries were cancelled. Pre-op testing had to be redone. It was a local disaster. At that point, one of my doctors started handing patients a hard copy of the record from each visit. You just never know.
The Second Reason
A real life possibility: You have your routine labs done 2-4 times a year. A few months after the last set, a routine test for a non-lethal situation also reveals a problem you never even considered...an incurable disease you have never thought much about. Oh, my. You're dying? Well then, you need to find a specialist to figure out what is happening...and wait for an appointment...and testing. While you wait, you hit the intewebz and read that people who have that particular incurable disease also have certain results on lab tests...such as, calcium, protein, BUN, creatinine, etc that are out of range.
At that point, would you rather hope that if any if those things had been out if range--or were even "heading" in that direction compared to, say, a year ago--someone at your PCP's office would have called you? Or would you rather have a hard copy of your last labs, in your hand, to check on those items right away?
The Third Reason
After my recent iron infusions, I asked my oncologist-hematolgist's assistant for a copy of the post-infusion labs while I waited for the doctor. Hmmm....no iron results...no ferritin....no TIBC. He arrived and readily admitted, and apologized for, not checking the right box. I needed a second blood draw. And...he knew that I knew that I needed a second blood draw. A "lesser man" might have gone with the CBC and CMP and shrugged off the most important testing until a future appointment, assuming that all that iron must have helped. But a week later, I knew for sure.
I'm just sayin'... All you have to do is say, "Will you please print out a copy of those labs while I'm in seeing Doctor? I need to take a copy home with me."
